Last week was Eid al Adha, a muslim holiday. Activities stop for 2 or 4 days for the muslim, depending on their work. And then, for that reason, assuming that nobody will work, Israel don't open the gates during the first and the second day. What nobody ever considered is that some farmers need to work everyday in order to water their crops, and that includes Eid... And that's where our story begins:
Farmers from Deir al Ghusun asked the DCO (the Central Office which regulates the permits for the farmers) if the Attil Gate could be open at the usual time (5:30-6:15) on the 2nd day of Eid. And indeed the gate was open without problems. But, In the early morning of the 3rd day of Eid, Jalal, our local contact there, called many times and said there was nobody there to open it. Which was weird, because all the gates were supposed to back to their normal schedule on the 3d and 4th day of Eid.
Anyway, I made some phone calls and were told by Israelis that there was a new schedule (they changed the schedule for olive harvest 3 times already!), and, according to this new schedule, the gate was only supposed to be open at 7:00 (1:30 later!). There was around 150 farmers waiting since 5:00am to cross the gate and no one informed anything to them. Later, after we update them about that new schedule, some farmers got tired or pissed of waiting and went back home, others, waited until 7:00 to start their work.
After that incident, Jalal decided to organize a meeting with the Israeli-DCO, and for that reason, he organized a strike at 2 Gates (Attil and Deir al Ghusun; because both gates leads to lands from Deir al Ghusun people) at the 20th October.
One day before, he invited EAPPI to join the strike and contacted Local TV Channel; he explained that all the farmers would be at the gate, but when (if) the soldiers came to open it, nobody would cross it and then they would ask for a meeting with an officer from the Israeli DCO. Their goal is to show to the Israeli side that there is still nonviolence resistance and that they (Israelis) cannot restrict so much the access for palestinians to their own lands.
At the day, when we arrived on Deir al Ghusun AG, there were around 100 farmers waiting for the Israeli officer to come. As soon as we arrived, we got phone calls from Jalal, who was in Attil AG. He said when the soldiers opened the gate (at 7:45), only 5 farmers crossed it (Jalal crossed in order to make pressure from the inside and talk face to face with the DCO officer) and after that, clashes started, soldiers thrown 5 teargas canister and 2 soundbombs on the farmers. 2 farmers suffocated by the teargas and an ambulance came to take them. Then, soldiers informed the officer from the Israeli-DCO would come to meet them, and closed the gate. Also, the soldier responsible told the farmers if someone was caught next to the gate, the person would be arrested at the same moment.
Then, we went to Attil AG, to check the situation. Farmers explained their strike is way of nonviolent resistance and that the bombs came from the soldiers without a real reason, their main complaint was about the new schedule of the gate. After a couple minutes, farmers started to leave Attil Gate and go to Deir al Ghusun Gate, and we did the same.
Just after a while back in Deir al Ghusun Gate, the officer arrived, his name was Ave, and he is known by the locals. Farmers organized a small group (around 7) to talk to him and I went together next to the gate. The conversation was in Arabic-Hebrew, and the soldiers refused to translate it, but one of the farmers, Hosni, very polite, translated a good part with his basic english.
Farmer’s complained about 4 things:
Changing of time; they had 3 new schedules in a one month period and non of these had good time for the farmers, it was either too late or to early to start working.
Kids being refused because they have no permit; during the olive harvest, some families bring their kids in order to help and finish it quickly, but if they have no permits sometimes they are not successful crossing it.
New clothes being refused; according to some soldiers, you are not allowed to take new clothes to the field. if you are going to harvest, you don't need clean clothes to change later.
Crops being refused; according to some soldiers, farmers cannot take new crops to the field because they contain special substances that can create bombs or cause explosions.
There was a general answer about everything, but about the time, Ave promised it would be changed again, but said this was not only up to him; he called Beit El Central Office and ask for the change.
Later on, the result was: the time was actually changed, they have a fourth new time. People in Deir al Ghusun are satisfied with the new time, but Attil Gate now opens only 20 minutes before (6:40) which is still very late for the farmers who cross the gate to start working.
See, while some people get presents on Christmas, that's what palestinians get from Eid.
