Sheik Saeed Al-Amour, 61, is a community leader, and a prominent land rights activist. On August 28, Israeli colonial settlers, all illegal under international law, stormed onto his land near his home in the village of Al-Rakeez, Masafer Yatta, in the Southern occupied West Bank.
They released sheep onto it to destroy his olive trees. Video footage taken at the time, show the settlers brutally pushing Saeed, who is disabled, to the ground:
According to Saeed’s son, Issa Al-Amour, who we spoke with yesterday, the family suffers from almost daily attacks on their land.
He said:
Today, at seven in the morning, a settler came with sheep and brought them into our land and assaulted my father. We called the police but, unfortunately, the settler claimed that my father had beaten him, and the police took my father into investigation. The settler is called Amichai, and is the owner of the sheep, but he usually brings children to bring the sheep onto Palestinian lands.
Saeed was released this afternoon, after being made to pay a fine of 1,500 Shekels – equivalent to more than £330, even though it was him who was attacked, and he has official papers and documentation proving he is the owner of the land.
Israeli settlers running amok
In April, a settler shot Saeed at close range, and because of the delay caused by the occupation’s soldiers preventing the ambulance from reaching him, and also the severity of the injury, doctors ended up amputating his leg- while he was handcuffed to the hospital bed, according to Al Jazeera.
Saeed and his son ended up in court, blamed with attacking the settlers, and had to pay bail money- this time the equivalent of more than £1100- while the violent settler walked free.
These settlers, who carry out systematic assaults on Palestinian farmers, civilians and peace activists, and terror attacks on Palestinian towns and villages, are heavily funded and supported by the occupation’s regime, and their actions are intended not only to intimidate, but to erase Palestinian history and culture, while also destroying livelihoods, and ethnically cleansing the territory.
These intentions have been made loud and clear with Netanyahu, earlier this month, telling Israeli i24NEWS channel that he feels “very much” connected to the “Greater Israel” vision. This encompasses the occupied Palestinian territories, plus significant parts of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
Uprooting trees
For decades, settlers have uprooted, burned, and destroyed Palestinian trees, especially olives, many of which are hundreds of years old. A report by the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem states that in 2024 there were more than 150 attacks destroying trees in the occupied West Bank, resulting in the uprooting of more than 21,000, mainly olive trees.
It is now often impossible to tell the difference between settlers and soldiers, who are all armed, often wear the same clothing, and not only provoke the Palestinian population, but also participate in the attacks on them.
The occupation permits these settlers, who are all illegal under international law, to live in illegal settlements and outposts on land belonging to Palestinians, in the West Bank. They can be from any country in the world, the only stipulation being they must be Jewish.
The attacks continue unabated. Saeed again ended up hospitalised, when settlers assaulted him earlier this month. They broke his crutch during the attack, which occurred when they released livestock onto his land. But Saeed and his family are determined to defend their home.
‘We’re afraid’
Issa says:
Of course we are afraid, because the settlers are armed but we will not leave. We will stay here on our land, until our last breath.
In July 2024, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territory as illegal, leading human rights experts to say this reaffirmed that ‘freedom from foreign military occupation, racial segregation and apartheid is absolutely non-negotiable”.
By Charlie Jaay
This post was originally published on Canary.