Stress with a capital "S"

KafrQaddim

The residents of the Palestinian village of Kafr Qaddum, a 35-minute drive south of Tulkarm, experience stress with a capital "S." It's all because of the illegal Israeli settlement of Quedumim that has grown up beside them.

Typical street in Kafr Qaddim

Former mayor Abu Musad

In the municipal offices, in a building financed by USAID, former mayor Abu Musad told us the village has a population of about 3,800. 85% of the economy is based on olive cultivation, but Abu Musad says Israeli settlers have burned and cut 600 of the olive trees, and come every week to try to take over land from the village. He says Israel does not want NGOs to help the farmers.

Abu Musad says that a decade ago the neighboring Israeli settlement of Quedumim felt insecure because two or three houses were near a road used  by the villagers, so settlement security guards started gradually blocking it. Talks with Palestinian and Israeli authorities went nowhere. Kafr Qaddum proposed they just build a fence around the houses that felt at risk, but Israel told the village to build another road instead. Since 2004 the road blockage has been total, so the Palestinians have to travel almost 8 miles to the main road instead of less than one mile.

At the demonstration site, where the road is black from burning
tires, Abu Musad points to settlement of North Qedumim

Every Friday since July 2011 there has been a demonstration in Kafr Qaddum to protest the roadblock. Israeli soldiers forcibly represses them. EAPPI used to observe the protests, but stopped last August after three EAs were arrested. Abu Musad says that at yesterday's demonstration two young men from the village and a coordinator from the International Solidarity Movement were beaten with sticks and arrested, and another resident is still hospitalized from injuries.

We walked down the road to the unmarked boundary between Palestinian and Israeli control. Abu Musad said, "Be careful, they are taking picures of you." As we returned to the taxi, a military personnel carrier came down from the settlement and three soldiers with machine guns jumped out and came toward us. "What were you doing crossing the line," one asked. Abu Musad replied in Hebrew that we had not crossed the line. They called their superior, apparently to relay our response, and told us we could go. Then they checked out an unfinished house nearby and left.

Soldiers checking a house after confronting us

Soldiers retreating

We then spent two hours visiting the Abu Ihab family at their home right beside the site of the weekly demonstrations. Emme Ihab, the mother of 10, told us that when the demonstrations started in 2011 soldiers used their roof, broke their TV dish and water system, and left 30 used tear gas canisters. Every Friday the family has to endure tear gas and the nasty-smelling "skunk water" used to repress the demonstration, even though they stay indoors. She says last weekend the demonstration and violence lasted for three days.

Emme Ibad

Emme Ihab says tear gas killed 2,500 ready-for-market chickens that her two oldest sons had borrowed money to raise. Since they couldn't repay the debt, they are now in a Palestinian jail.

She says they cannot walk behind the house for more than 50 yards without permits from Israeli authorities, even though the land is theirs, and planted with olive trees. "It's a real prison," she says. "We are suffering a lot from the settlers and the army."

You might think Emme Ihab is anxious to move to a safer location, but that is not the case. She calls the house her paradise and says, "We will stay here. We will die here. We will not move."

As we left the house, we saw boys blocking the road with stones and rolling in tires to be set afire. We knew the soldiers would be down soon, but did not wait to see them. As we drove back to Tulkarm, the black smoke was clearly visible. What a life!

Boys rolling in tires for new demonstration

Smoke from burning tires