JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers are forcing Palestinian farmers from land their families have cultivated for generations. Since the start of the war in Gaza, Israel's government has approved new settlements at a record rate and has also armed Israeli settlers, who are often protected by the Israeli military. The United Nations documents a record number of attacks by settlers, mainly focused on taking agricultural fields from Palestinians. NPR's Ruth Sherlock tells the story of one Palestinian pushed from land around an important spring and an Israeli settler who now swims in these waters.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOOR SHUTTING)
RUTH SHERLOCK, BYLINE: (Speaking Arabic).
HAMAYEL: (Speaking Arabic).
SHERLOCK: We meet Palestinian farmer Hamayel (ph) as he tends to his bee hives on a small patch of land sandwiched between a mall and high-rise buildings on the outskirts of Ramallah City. He has them here, he says, to keep them safe from Israeli settlers.
HAMAYEL: We put our boxes between the houses because if we put it in the mountains, they will steal it.
SHERLOCK: Hamayel asks NPR only to use his last name because he fears further settler attacks.
(SOUNDBITE OF BEES BUZZING)
SHERLOCK: He checks the health of the queen in each hive as the bees fly around him. They are all Hamayel has left. He used to own a farm near his home village of Kafr Malik in the occupied West Bank. He had six employees until, he says, he was forced off the land by settlers.
HAMAYEL: Now they damage our life completely.
SHERLOCK: Even before, he says, settlers would bring sheep to destroy his crops.
HAMAYEL: They eat our plants. They damage our irrigation system.
SHERLOCK: He says his family farmed that land for generations. It was fed by water from a nearby spring, Ein Samiya, where he learned to swim as a child.
HAMAYEL: All of our memories - our stories, our fathers' stories, grandfathers' stories - it's around the water, the sheeps, the agriculture. So it's our soul.
SHERLOCK: During the war in Gaza, with so many soldiers deployed to the front, Israel loosened its gun license laws for Israelis and gave settlers automatic rifles. Now, Hamayel says, accessing his land has become simply too dangerous.
HAMAYEL: If you go there, you are not safe. Maybe you will be killed. Many people killed when they go to their fields.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOOR THUDDING)
SHERLOCK: We say goodbye to Hamayel and drive through the occupied West Bank towards his land. Everywhere here, Israeli flags, settlement after settlement after settlement. This road is pretty empty except for police vehicles, military vehicles, security vehicles, the odd car. It does not feel normal here. We reach Hamayel's fields and NPR's West Bank producer, Nuha Musleh, points to a handful of prefabricated buildings on a hilltop.
NUHA MUSLEH, BYLINE: See the outpost?
SHERLOCK: This is where the settlers that Hamayel says attacked him live. A canvas shade, decorated with bunting and Hebrew writing, stands beside the spring where Hamayel would swim. Today, it's Israeli settlers enjoying the waters.
Shalom. How are you? I'm Ruth.
We approach a woman as she's leaving.
NOA: But do you understand Hebrew? Because my English is not so good.
SHERLOCK: She's called Noa (ph), a settler who looks in her mid-30s who refuses to give her family name. She says she finds the spring to be a beautiful place.
NOA: I like it very much because it's - first of all, it's a great water. It's very nice to be inside and to have this nice coffee. And I just needed a break from life.
SHERLOCK: She points to the Israeli settler outpost that Hamayel says he was attacked from.
NOA: And we have amazing people that live over there and over there over there, every single hill. And they watching us. And they helping us to be here.
SHERLOCK: I tell her about Palestinian Hamayel's situation.
This land in front of us was his. They came and they forced him from the land.
NOA: I don't like anyone in the world to be - how do you say (non-English language spoken)? - that he won't be able to feed his family, OK? But I think that if we are here, so you should study the history of this place. I think that this belong to us, to the Jewish people. God is with us. And He wants us to be here.
SHERLOCK: When we leave the area, a large white SUV starts following us bumper to bumper.
MUSLEH: He is a settlement guard.
SHERLOCK: He drives behind us like this for miles on an empty road before apparently deciding we are not a threat. We ask Palestinian Hamayel about the settler claims that this land rightfully belongs to Jews. The problem, he answers, is that when they make this argument, they are also holding a gun. So, he says, there's no discussion.
Ruth Sherlock, NPR News, Ein Samiya in the occupied West Bank. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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