For many years, my village has been suffering. Nilin has been surrounded on four sides by illegal Israeli settlements and the Israeli apartheid wall built on our land.
The original inhabitants of Nilin have been forcibly displaced to other parts of the West Bank and outside of Palestine.
Israeli crimes against my village include arrest, shooting, killing, terrorising us day and night. They want to cut us off from all means of life and existence. We are unable to farm the land, the main source of income for so many families.
When the war started on the 7th October, the Israeli soldiers began a different strategy of revenge in the West Bank. They introduced a new level of brutality and violence which we have never before experienced.
They blocked the entrance of Nilin, isolating it completely from other Palestinian villages and cities. They started a huge campaign of arrests and shootings. They invaded day and night to make our lives hell. We have no medical care and people can’t attend hospitals or go to work.
Farmers can’t farm their lands or harvest our olive groves. If anyone approaches the fields, they are shot dead or arrested and placed in administrative detention. What happens in Israeli prisons has been widely documented.
Worst of all is the strategy of starvation they are practicing against us. Since the 7th of October until today, the people of Nilin have no work or any means of income. The price of food has skyrocketed due to the war.
Our people are helping each other by sharing what they have. Shops have been lending food to those in need, in the hope they can repay them when the war is over.
Now, our people have nothing left to offer. The shop owners are in huge difficulty because they cannot be repaid as the war continues.
I, with my friends, have been doing all we can to organise food parcels and buy what is necessary for the families most in need. We have been campaigning as much as we can for help from people who could donate and help us to survive this war.
Today the village is not only suffering from starvation and the absence of security, but also from daily attacks by Israeli settlers. They continue to provoke us and cut off water to the village. We sometimes spend many days without water.
Some in the village who are capable of constructing a water well have started to dig to prepare for the worst happening. We fear a regional war will break out and Israel will cut off our access to water permanently. They continue to provide us with deadlines for when they will attack us.
We don’t feel this war is ending any time soon and we must prepare for what’s coming.
During this difficult time, my family and village cannot afford to construct this well to provide water, which is the most vital element on this earth for existence! We need water to drink, cook, clean and avoid many diseases.
This is a plea to our friends and all people of the world who believe in our freedom. Please donate what you can to help us to construct a water well in Nilin and help us to avoid starvation. Please help us overcome this huge challenge for existence that we are facing, as fast as possible, before it’s too late.
The water well will be designed to gather the rain water. It will be filled manually and filtered. If any further donations are given, they will go directly to food parcels for the families most in need.
Please share this message. Thank you so much and God bless you all.
Saeed Amireh