Devils on horseback

Sarrah (pronounced Sar- rah) is a village to the west of Nablus that houses around 3,000 people. It is perched on the ridge of a hill overlooking 2 valleys. The one to the east has rolling land with hundreds maybe thousands of olive trees owned by and farmed by the locals, this area is relatively stable. To the west is an entirely different story, there is a track from Sarrah leading to the olive trees is strewn with tear gas canisters and bears the signs of fire as settlers have tried sometimes successfully and sometimes not to destroy the trees of the Palestinians. The olive fields here is divided by a road leading to nearby settlements. Picking on the Sarrah is dangerous for Palestinians as there is a nearby settler outpost, built illegally but there nonetheless. Picking on the opposite side of the road is almost impossible as the settlers continuously harrass the farmers whose land this legally is. Today me and D1 had to go to monitor, de escalate (where possible) and to give some protection to the local Palestinians. The IOF had given permission by the DCO for picking on both sides of the road. As we arrived there was a heavy IOF prescence by the crossing point to contain the 15 or so settlers who were hurling abuse and trying unsuccessfully to get to the Palestinians. D1 and me watched from a close distance and they werent happy at all at this, its a good job my delicate ears could not understand Hebrew as I am sure it wasnt complimentary.

As we were watching two settlers on horseback came down the track from the outpost, we couldnt tell from the distance we were at is they were armed or not but is was likely that they were but this could not be confirmed. The IOF had, army, border police and police in attendance and they did offer some protection to the farmers but this is only because they had permission from the DCO. This permission can be granted or refused at the will of the Fat Controller. As I write this about 10 villages have just had their DCO changed and the number of villages now picking tomorrow has risen from2 to about 12. The impact on these communities is huge, any plans they may have had for tomorrow will now have to be changed to allow them to pick THEIR olives off THEIR lands at hte whim of the IOF Fat Controller. Of course they can pick olives on non DCO days but they will not have any protection and be at the mercy of the Devils on Horseback. The IOF are also wary of internationals here, they have designated Closed Military Zones which means that Internationals are not allowed to enter or film, again increasing the risk to Palestinians.

We had previously agreed to split our group here in Nablus to allow 2 people to attend a demo in support of 3 Palestinians in jail who have been refused treatment for cancer! This will now be changes as it is all hands to the fields so to speak as we are to get to as many villages as we can along with other inernational groups.

I know this isnt the cheeriest post on here, but things are a tad tense round here as we try to cover all these villages with a handful of ISMers.

I am sure we will manage it but tomorrow looks like being a mad day all round. So I am off to pack my day sack and try and work out where the hell we are all going tomorrow.

Have fun and thanks for spreading the blog around!

PS. I am now looking for donkey and a pea shooter! Any ideas?