May 2, 2007 5:44

Hunger in Eden

Posted by Andrew Lee Butters | Comments (16) | Permalink | Trackbacks (0) | Email This

Rashid, a West Bank villager, explains that an Israeli settler took over his olive grove. "I said to him, 'This tree is fifty years old. Did your grandfather plant it, or did mine?'"

The most surprising part of the West Bank -- to me anyway -- is how beautiful it is. For some reason I though the whole place would be as dry and bleak as the Judean desert between Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley. But the suburbs north of the capital quickly give way to panoramic countryside that seems southern Italian, with terraced olive groves, red hills, and flowering fruit trees.

Of course, not all is idyllic in this rural idyll. The first clue that something was amiss in Yanoun -- a Palestinian farming village near Nablus that I visited yesterday with an official from the World Food Program -- was the skittish behavior of the local children. They ran and hid from us, or cried when we tired to say hello. The watchtower on the ridge overlooking the village was another giveaway that this place is a conflict zone. Yanoun is surrounded by three Israeli settlements, the inhabitants of which which have made clear that they want their Palestinian neighbors to clear out. The settlers make armed patrols through Yanoun -- by car or horseback -- destroy farming equipment, and last month they kidnapped, tortured and killed a local shepherd, according to residents. The scared children thought we were settlers.

But that's not all that's happening. Though it's hard to believe that food could be scarce in this land of milk and honey, the 24 families who live in Yanoun are being slowly starved. The settlements now control access to about 96 percent of the village's land making commercial agriculture nearly impossible. And though Yanoun could possibly support itself with some kind of highly cultivated garden in the bowl shaped valley beneath, they don't have enough water to do so because the settlements have taken over their rain catching ground cisterns. And even if they could grow produce, the villagers would have trouble getting it to market. The reliable roads to the region are for Israelis only. The rest are clogged with checkpoints. So the people of Yanoun -- like some 400,000 other people in the West Bank -- scrape by with the help from the WFP.

The WFP brought me here to see an example of what they called "food insecurity" -- a condition not of outright starvation but of scarcity that occurs when people don't have reliable access to enough food to have productive lives. At first I was suspicious of the term -- sounds like a way of justifying NGO operations in places where there isn't famine. And in fact, the inhabitants of Yanoun don't look hungry. But the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has so dislocated the rural West Bank's population that they have become dependent on foreign aid. And several years of living on the five basic food stuffs given by aid organizations -- wheat, salt, sugar, chickpeas and oil -- has taken a toll on public health, which you can see by the rotting teeth on the kids of Yanoun. Of course, international donors could end this culture of dependence in a second by cutting aid. In which case, Israeli settlers could have these pretty hills pretty much to themselves.

Kirstie Campbell of WFP comforts a scared village girl.

--Andrew Lee Butters/Jerusalem

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Reader Comments (16)

Avvorio:

This is shameful. The Israelis are wrong to do this to these people and the other Palestians. The US and the rest of the nations are wrong to allow it. I hate the pious attitude that the Israelis take over their actions and the stupid remarks made by American politicians of both parties about Israeli actions.

We ask why people all over the world hate us and hold us in low esteem, I say how can they not. When the world allows and promotes the death of a people by starvation and calls it behavior modification, then isn't that just a form of legal terrorism?

Posted by Avvorio | May 2, 2007 6:10 PM

steve:

Divestment worked to end the racist apartheid state of South Africa and it can work to end the racist apartheid state of Israel as well.

The University of California and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu endorse a campaign to stop investment in Israel including US aid as an action to pressure Israel to respect the human rights of the Palestinian people.

http://ucdivest.org/

Posted by steve | May 2, 2007 7:14 PM

KP:

Billions of our hard earned taxed American dollar is poured annually into this tiny nation to secure the prosperity of the Israeli people....(never mine 1 of 6 American children live below poverty!). So what is the big deal about slowly starving the Palestinian people, isolating them, suffocating them, cut of their water supply, make their commercial agriculture nearly impossible, chop their olive trees, assure their daily lives is as miserably as can be, in hopes that some day they will PUFF!!!...evaporate from their ancestral land...Be real, how else can the newly arrived Brooklyn settlers have their beautiful homes with the beautiful views?...And then, one a peaceful sunny day, a Palestinian suicide bomber goes to an Israeli town and hell break loose... American media goes on a 24 hour news frenzy hosting a variety of pompous Israelis personals telling us, "see told you so, these people (Palestinians) are CRAZY! They HATE US, They hate us because we are a free democratic society".

Posted by KP | May 2, 2007 8:56 PM

Ervin:

Well, it is a holly Jewish land, isn't it? Palestinians have no right to be there, so they should be kicked out.

Posted by Ervin | May 2, 2007 10:38 PM

Philippe A:

I would caution readers against taking the claims made in this post at face value. There is no doubt that the Palestinian population of Samaria/Northern West Bank does suffer as a result of the conflict. Arguments against the legitimacy of settlements are also fair game. However, emotional responses and knee-jerk sympathy in the context of a very complex situation are not helpful and, quite frankly, unprofessional on the part of the blogger. IS a journalist not required to verify his/her assertions. That Palestinians claim that "settlers" (as if this was a homogeneous group) abducted, tortured and killed a farmer does not make it so. Stating that this assertion is a just a Palestinian "claim" does not remove the damage it does. Only a very small percentage of Israeli settlers are there for ideological reasons. Most live in the territories for economic reasons. Moreover, there have been very few cases of settler violence against Palestinians in the last seven years, as opposed to thousands of attacks by Palestinians on settlers' cars, houses and other civilian targets. In fact, this is the only reason that Israelis have separate roads; because they got shot at on shared roads. It is fear that drives the separation not racism or dominance. Remember that there are over 1 million Arab citizens of Israel dispersed throughout the country. There are no separate roads there. As for food shortages, I doubt the settlements are to blame. While there is no doubt that agricultural settlements compete for land, one should consider that settlements do provide much employment (and often medical care) to their neighbors. While one may disagree with the idea of settlements (i.e. Jewish villages on disputed land), and find their impact reprehensible, demonization of "settlers" is unjust, childish and ill-placed. And the question should be asked: do settlements pose a problem because of their impact on neighboring populations or simply because they are a reminder to the locals of the presence of Jews in that land? In other words, do we really believe that these people would pose less of a problem (or face less of a risk) under Palestinian rule? History gives us no reason to believe that the problem is anything but intolerance of Jews. All other problems can be solved (where are all the settlements of Gaza?)

Posted by Philippe A | May 2, 2007 10:52 PM

Sherif:

Philippe:"History gives us no reason to believe that the problem is anything but intolerance of Jews"
Well since you bring back history, why would they not hate every israeli? They took their land by force, and when they mention an incident that you did not hear in your local news, you call them haters? These people don't have right to plan for the future and you call them jewish haters!!

"While there is no doubt that agricultural settlements compete for land, one should consider that settlements do provide much employment (and often medical care) to their neighbors."
Ya it's ok to take their land, but give them food and medicare? Land for food!Sound like a deal to me.

Posted by Sherif | May 3, 2007 2:21 AM

AJ:

Any one person, regardless of descent or origin, who owns land should not have it taken over by another.
These land owners should be protected.
Theft is against the law in any country.

Posted by AJ | May 3, 2007 4:07 AM

fadfadation:

This is extremely shamful and is a disgrace to humanity!

Israel is humiliating and starving the palestinians for decades now.

What does the World do about it? nothing!

The arabs\muslims are so weak to do antyhing about it with their corrupt rulers, the US as always Vetos anything against Israel, and Israel is free to do anything!

Shame on them all!

Posted by fadfadation | May 3, 2007 10:10 AM

Artwin:

Hi, Philippe A
You are totally confused, and you missed the main, "The settlers theft the palestinian's land and built there homes"

Posted by Artwin | May 3, 2007 10:35 AM

aj1575:

Philippe A:"Only a very small percentage of Israeli settlers are there for ideological reasons. Most live in the territories for economic reasons."
Which translates:" Only a small percentage of Israeli settlers are there because they think they are choosen by god to live there. Most are just thieves who stole the land from palestinians"
Philip A:"Moreover, there have been very few cases of settler violence against Palestinians in the last seven years, as opposed to thousands of attacks by Palestinians on settlers' cars, houses and other civilian targets."
There is an Israeli statistic which counts the casualties on both sides. Israel is killing more Palestinians, and the percentage of civilians killed is higher, than the other way round. The problem is, that you don't read about every Palestinian killed by an Israeli, but you hear of about every single Israeli killed by a Palestinian.

This is one of the main problems. The way the media tells us the story from the middle east. As long as we can't see the whole story in the news, our politicians have no reason to put pressure on Israel to stop the occupation.

Posted by aj1575 | May 3, 2007 12:01 PM

Erlinda:

This story reminds me of how the better educated Filipinos from Luzon and the Visayas tried to take over the properties of ethnic minorities (non-Muslims) in Mindanao. An old man showed to me the great big tree his forefathers planted as an evidence of the ownership of the land.

Posted by Erlinda | May 3, 2007 1:42 PM

T. "Chimpy" Greer:

According to the the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, lowering the standards of life for one population is genocide. I must wonder at how bad situations in the Middle East have to be before people start citing such conventions

Posted by T. "Chimpy" Greer | May 4, 2007 1:41 AM

brg8:

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Posted by brg8 | May 20, 2008 7:12 PM

barmajan:

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Posted by barmajan | June 22, 2008 5:11 PM

toome:

Posted by toome | July 24, 2008 2:29 PM

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Posted by asr1r.com | August 7, 2008 1:39 AM

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May 2, 2007 5:44

Hunger in Eden

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