By: Anne-Siri, EA in Yanoun

Nahla Mahmoud and her family live near the top of a hill overlooking Asira Al Qibliyya, a Palestinian village in the West Bank. From their garden, they can see houses and farms spreading out across the valley below. On a clear day, they can see the waters of the Mediterranean to the West and the Jordan Valley to the East.

But the views up here in the Nablus hills come at a high price: the family lives on the front line of attacks by armed Israeli settlers. The hilltop above them is dominated by the illegal settlement of Yitzhar. Its residents regularly attack Nahla’s family and damage their property. Autumn is a peak time for clashes between Israeli settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank, as it is when Palestinian farmers harvest their olives. Many have trees in areas near the settlements, but cannot reach them for fear of violence.

This year has been no exception. The poor yield of olives – only around a tenth the crop of a peak season - meant the 2009 harvest took less time than normal, finishing by early November. But farmers are also calculating the cost of almost daily attacks by settlers, who are often armed with machine guns.

During just one week in October, settlers denied Palestinians access to their land, threw rocks at harvesters, cut down trees and intimidated farmers, according to a report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).

The walls of Nahla’s house bear the scars of many months of harassment. In several places, settlers have spray-painted the Star of David. Elsewhere, burns and bullet marks graze the brickwork.

“They shout bad words at us in Hebrew and throw stones at us. They cut down palm trees outside the house and cut our water pipe,” says Nahla.

Early one morning last year, she had a phone call from the Israeli human rights group Rabbis for Human Rights, alerting her to the presence of settlers in the area. They told her to close her windows. Minutes later, a hundred or so settlers surrounded the house. Nahla was trapped inside with her four children.

“They threw gas bombs into the house, and my youngest daughter fainted. For a moment I thought she was dead,” says Nahla.

The Israeli authorities say they take measures to protect Palestinians in the Occupied Territories – as is their duty under international law. But recently B’tselem, an Israeli human rights group, accused the military of failing to do so, citing 15 incidents last year during which soldiers stood back and let settlers attack Palestinians.

“In five of these cases, soldiers were also suspected of taking part in the violence,” says the report.

Palestinian officials hint that the violence is linked to the growth of the settlements, which continues apace in spite of international pressure on the Israeli government to curb it. This is a continual worry for the Palestinian communities within shooting distance of Yitzhar.

“Both US and Israeli politicians have mentioned a settlement freeze, but facts on the ground tell us that there are a lot of expansions,” says Ghassan Douglas, an official at the Nablus office of the Palestinian Authority.

“Not only are they constructing more, there are also a lot of serious attacks on Palestinian civilians from settlers. Change can only come if the political situation changes. What we need is a full stop in settlement constructions,” Daghlas says.

The growth of Yitzhar is certainly worrying to Nahla. When the family moved into the house five years ago there was no outpost in the neighbourhood. Now, the hilltop is full of activity.

From the roof of her house, she points out two settlers working. I can’t see them, but she has a trained eye. Later, she watches from the window as her children walk up the hill from school.

“When we listen to Israeli politicians like [Benyamin] Netanyahu and [Avigdor] Lieberman, a future peace seems further away than ever,” she says. “This situation is almost unbearable, but we will stay in this house.”

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