Why do we take the trouble to report in Corona times as well?

Because democracy’s watchdogs have fallen asleep on their own watch, so Israeli citizens have no idea what is actually happening in the Occupied Territories, especially now.

Day and night, Israeli soldiers (as the State’s emissaries) help extreme settler-colonists take the law into their own hands, unhampered. They do not stop even in days of a raging pandemic and do not hesitate to harm Palestinians – their bodies, property, and sources of livelihood.

Unceasing harassment of the weakened Palestinian population inflicts psychological harm as well. All – from babies through and including the elderly and the ill – are open prey to Jewish violence and terrorism which the settler-colonists are only too eager to exert.

We of MachsomWatch will not cease to report, certainly not now during these Corona times and under the threat of annexation, about the settlers’ increased rampages, those who hurry to set facts on the ground helped by the Israeli army.

Israel rules the West Bank, and by force of the Geneva Convention, article no. 27, it is committed to enforcing law and order there. The inhabitants of these Occupied Territories have the legal right “to decent treatment of their body and dignity, and should be especially protected against any act of violence”.

Ironically, this is not at all upheld.

Nor shall we cooperate with the commonplace ignoring of the Palestinian people’s suffering, and with the Israeli public’s indifference to it. We shall continue to follow up closely and report the goings-on in the West Bank, in its villages and encampments.

No one should be able to say ‘We knew nothing, we heard nothing’

Location Description

Sawiya

See all reports for this place

Located about 18 km south of Nablus.

The population of the village was 2,904 in 2016. In 1983, about 400 dunams, on a hill about a kilometer south of the village, were declared "state lands" and the settlement of Ali was established on them. Over the years, the settlement has expanded to additional lands privately owned by the villagers, and nearby villages in an area of about 1,000 dunams. Only in 2013 was an outline plan prepared for Ali, in which hundreds of illegal structures were approved in its territory. In 2017, a synagogue was built in the Ali settlement, in violation of the law without permits, outside the legal territory of the settlement and on private Palestinian land of a-Sawiya residents.

Over the years, the settlement has expanded to additional lands privately owned by the villagers, and nearby villages in an area of about 1,000 dunams. Only in 2013 was an outline plan prepared for Ali, in which hundreds of illegal structures were approved in its territory. , Outside the legal territory of the settlement and on private Palestinian land of the residents of a-Sawiyah.

Checkpoint Watch companies have been in contact with the village since 2007. They document the checkpoints, the settlers' violence, the sewage problems flowing from the nearby settlements and outposts, and even held knitting and English lessons with women in the village. Even during the Corona we were in telephone contact to help the plight of the residents.

A REQUEST TO HELP hungry A-Sawiya villagers