In Rome yesterday, May 27, 2024, we met with Yasmeen El-Hasan, international advocacy manager of the Union of Palestinian Agricultural Labor Committees (UACW). The organization, which represents small-scale food producers in Palestine, is part of Via Campesina. Yasmeen is on an international tour to raise awareness among social movements and institutions about the ongoing genocide in her land. Crossroads welcomed her in Rome, organizing institutional meetings in the FAO and a moment of discussion with the italian trade union organization Unione Sindacale di Base and the student movement Cambiare Rotta, engaged in the occupation of La Sapienza University precisely in protest against Israel’s war against the Palestinian people. From the hours of conversation we spent together, we report an excerpt from Yasmeen’s account of the condition of farmers and fishermen under attack by Israeli occupation forces.
The report from Yasmeen El-Hasan
The Gaza community is close to the sea and is built around fishing. But the structure that holds up this system has been totally destroyed. They destroyed the fishing ports, they destroyed all the fishing boats, the nets, all the gear. They target fishermen if they try to venture out to sea. When they try to find resources where possible, they become a target. We don’t know how many fishermen have been murdered.
Similarly, in the Gaza Strip, most of the land is off limits. They call it a “restricted area,” or a “buffer zone,” but they are all agricultural areas. They massively applied chemical pesticides, destroyed soil fertility and seedlings so that farmers would no longer try to cultivate that land.
They started shooting farmers, putting them under fire if they try to go near the land. The shelling has been targeting food systems and infrastructure for some time. At the beginning of this genocide, on the third day, October 10, UAWC launched a statement anticipating what was to come: an attempt to starve Palestinians, the use of hunger as a weapon of war. No one listened to us. But as soon as they started attacking the infrastructure, the farmers, our comrades who are closer to the land, told us: we will not die from bombs, we will starve. If the bombs don’t kill us, starvation will kill us.
The attack on the food system is not accidental, it is a clear design, because food sovereignty makes communities able to sustain themselves, to survive. That is what the occupation is focusing on, it is trying to break the connection we have with our land. The way to do that is to destroy food systems and support mechanisms, infrastructure. That’s why we say, let’s not talk about food security, let’s talk about food sovereignty. Because if we have sovereignty over our land and natural resources, we will also have food security. But for that to happen, we have to have national sovereignty.
In the West Bank, in parallel with the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation has intensified its aggression through colonial settlements. If in Gaza they destroyed all the infrastructure, here they adopt a different tactic, although the goal is the same. The settler attack has become really violent, it has reached a level of violence that we have never seen before. About a month ago, we suffered an unprecedented wave of settler attacks. Thousands of them, all over the West Bank, organized raids and attacked Palestinian communities. They set fire to agricultural lands, to houses with children inside. And all this is happening with the protection and support of the occupation forces. These attacks mainly target agricultural areas, which are the food basket, the most resource-rich area. So it is no accident that they attacked these areas, which are the foundation of a community. And that is why they attack peasants and farmers, because they are the custodians of those lands.
In the West Bank, there is also little freedom of movement, there are 850 checkpoints, barriers, mountains of garbage, all kinds of obstacles that can complicate the movement of palestinians. This impacts farmers and herders because they cannot access their land. Not only that, they cannot access markets, educational and sanitation facilities. You can’t even get to the village next to you. It took me seven hours to get from Jenin to Ramallah.
On top of all this, there are Israeli occupation forces attacking rural communities, towns, refugee camps. And they protect the settlers. The settlers are armed, and they have no limits. The level of land grabbing is tremendous and very strategic. They take all the fertile areas, but mostly they start at the top of the hills. Palestine is a very hilly area and they take the top of the hills. The vertical geography also expresses power dynamics. They aim for the top.
The attempt is to fragment Palestinian communities into small urban bubbles and drive out food producers. If you look at a map of the West Bank in areas A, B and C, it looks like it’s made up of little islands, connected by these super-controlled roads. What they are trying to do is connect all these settlements together. Instead of having Palestinian communities with colonial settlements here and there, the plan is to create a network of settlements with, on the sidelines, Palestinian communities.
The situation is truly horrible. Families have no food, no work and are being attacked with unprecedented frequency. Even the children. Last year, most of the olives were not harvested because people cannot access the land. And many farmers were killed by settlers while harvesting olives. The situation of peasants, farmers and fishermen is absolutely devastating. Having said that, every single member of the communities I spoke to responded in the same way: we are not leaving. We know it will get worse, but we will not leave. We know we might die, but we will not leave. It is our land: we will not leave. Every single person told me that. They will not leave. This perseverance is really a reflection of the Palestinians’ relationship with the land. It is very material. They are physically, intimately interconnected with the ecosystem. Our community is built within the ecosystem. It is not copied like the settlers’ settlements. Palestinian villages work with the ecosystem, settlements destroy the ecosystem. They are not natural. You could tell that just by looking at them. The relationship of the Palestinians with the land is symbiotic. It is truly extraordinary. It’s not just about what we take from the land, but what we give to the land.
We know that we will not free ourselves by asking permission. No one will come and free us. Your oppressor will not free you and you will not be free by playing by the rules. But as custodians of the land and indigenous people, we know we will succeed. People from the generation before mine say they believe it will happen in their lifetime. All they ask is that we support their resolve. They use the term sumud, which means steadfastness, perseverance. As I said, I am responsible for advocacy at the international level, so when I visit communities I always ask: do you have specific requests for the international community? They answer me: support our perseverance.
