Look Who it Was Random video

Remebering Hashem al-Azzeh

848 views · Published 23 October 2015 · 2:12 · Indexed 4 November 2026

Channel: ISM Palestine · 2015 · Nonprofits & Activism

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Hashem al-Azzeh gave this interview to ISM in October 2014. Transcript follows. 

See our report: http://palsolidarity.org/2014/10/palestinian-man-successfully-harvests-olives-for-the-first-time-in-14-years/

Transcript:
Actually my family, our roots are refugees, and we came here in the year 1950... And my grandparents, my parents and then us here, so three generations are in this area here.
ISM: How many trees, olive trees, do you have?
This area I have six olive trees... One of them died from there and was removed totally... and from out, I have another fifty olive trees.
ISM: When did you last get a permit to pick your own olives on your own land?
Actually, the settlers and the Israeli army prevented us picking our olives since 2000, and I filed applications to take my olives, but they gave us a permit in the year 2007.
In 2007, in that time, I said to myself, "Even though I have this permit, why are the settlers coming and attacking us?” So I invited international activists.  ISM was part of those activists, CPT too. They came here and we started to pick the olives but the settlers came and attacked us, and the Israeli soldiers didn't do anything for that and they took all of our olives.
Last year, 2013, they gave us a permit on the 8th of October to harvest our olives...
But what the settlers did, they came on the 3rd of October and harvested all of our olives and destroyed it.  All of it. So we didn't manage to take anything from our olives since the year 2000.  This year, I'm so happy. This year, we have the permit to take, 20th of October 
and, with the coordination of ISM, we managed to harvest the olives. I am so happy that I managed the first time, to take my olives now! And I'm really grateful for ISM, grateful for CPT, who came to help us.  Otherwise I can't harvest my olives by myself because they gave us only one day for the harvesting in this area.

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