The suffering of farmers in West Bank cities continues to intensify in the olive harvest, a series of attacks by settlers, the PLO´s National Office for Land Defense and Settlement said on Friday.
The National Office in its weekly report, on Saturday, that these are taking settlements in general, and outposts in particular, a safe haven amid the protection of the occupation forces and the collusion of its official arms.
According to the report, the annual olive harvest is a major event for citizens, through which they live a tradition inherited from ancestors to fathers and children, titled Love of the Earth as it is in their struggle with the occupation, one of the headlines of their national identity, and their cultural and historical heritage.
"In the West Bank, there are more than 10 million olive trees planted on 47% of the total cultivated land and constitute one of the sources of income for 100,000 families."
He added that this sector provides employment opportunities for a large number of workers and women workers, and the value of production of the olive sector, including oil, table olives, pickled olives, soap, an average of $ 200 million in good years of production.
The report stressed that the existence of settlements imposes restrictions on citizens who want to access their land for cultivation, from about 90 Palestinian communities who own land within the borders of 56 settlements, and dozens of or near the outpost, and they can access it only through special permits, or Crossing from deployed military gates or roadblocks.
He said that the construction of the separation wall and the expansion of the racist settlement is a key factor in the increasing separation of Palestinian communities from their olive cultivated lands. , Constitutes a loss for our national economy, estimated at $ 45 million annually.
The report continued, "despite the expectations of abundant production of olive oil this year, but the aggression of the Israeli occupation forces and settlers on olive trees, which started early raises the concerns of farmers. In the northern Jordan Valley, uprooting the occupation of hundreds of fruit trees in the areas of Bardala and Umm al-Kabish In the last two years, about 1,090 olive trees have been uprooted in the Jordan Valley.
A total of 5,582 trees were damaged in 2017 compared to the previous year, with 1,652 trees damaged and about 9,200 olive trees in various West Bank governorates in 2018.
He pointed out that the settlers´ attacks were concentrated in the villages of Nablus, Qalqilya, Salfit and Ramallah, where settlers stole olive fruits in the lands of Deir Sharaf village, west of Nablus, in the Rus area of ​​the village. Their lands are near the settlement of Shavei Shomron to facilitate the theft of olive trees.
He pointed out that in the village of Burin, south of Nablus, settlers stole olive fruits in the area "Khalat Qat" and settlers "Yitzhar" cut down dozens of perennial olive trees in the village, in the area called "Khalat al-Ghoul", on the southern side belonging to Nasser Qadous, and Ahmad Najjar .
The report pointed out that the administration of Burin mixed secondary school evacuated its ranks of students, after the guard of the settlement mentioned the weapon against them, while Issa Hamed Saleh Ramadan (55 years) as a result of assault by settlers during the harvesting olives in the village of Tel southwest of Nablus, where A group of Israeli settlers from Gilad Zohar attacked the citizens´ lands in the villages of Tal and Sarra while they were in their lands to harvest olives. As a result, Ramadan broke his right hand.
"Later, settlers set fire to olive fields in the lands between the towns of Burin and Huwwara, setting fire to about 70 olive trees," the report said.
He also spoke of other attacks, including the injury of Sayel Darwish in the head while he was working in his agricultural fields in the village of Burqa, east of Ramallah, and a number of settlers "Rahalim" to steal the fruits of dozens of olive trees near the town of Yasuf, east of Salfit, in addition to the destruction of many of them After picking and filling a number of stone chains.
The Israeli occupation forces prevented farmers from harvesting olives in the village of Kafr Qaddum, east of Qalqilya, and expelled farmers from their land adjacent to the settlement of "Kedumim" built on the grounds of the village as a "closed military zone". In the southwest of Salfit, 210 grapes and almonds were uprooted from the area called al-Batin, owned by Hassan Abdullah Hajjaj, Khaled Hassan Hajjaj and Amer Salim.
The report also recorded that Israeli soldiers and settlers, farmers in the village of Nabi Elias east of Qalqilya, while harvesting olives in their land next to the new bypass road, and attacked the vehicles of citizens with stones near the town of Jinsafut, on the road between the governorates of Qalqilya and Nablus, causing damage in some of them.
Regarding the ongoing settlement plans, the report said that, in line with the September 15 decision of the Israeli government to settle the settlement of Mivot Jericho in the Jordan Valley, the Israeli authorities approved a plan to build 182 new housing units in the Jordan Valley.
He added that the Israeli High Court held a few days ago a deliberation session on two petitions submitted by the Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din on behalf of the Palestinian landowners from the villages of al-Mughayer, Turmus´ayya, Jalud and Qaryut after the settlers in the outpost of Adi Aad seized and built their lands. This is the same outpost from which the settlers came out last year and shot at the villagers, killing one of its sons.
According to the report, the Israeli army promised to expand the so-called "state land" in the area as part of the plan to legitimize the outpost built on the lands of the citizens in the mentioned villages, while army officials are working to expand the borders of the settlement of "Amichai" created Months ago in the same area to also include the outpost "Adi returned" in order to seize more land of citizens in that strategic area, and create a new settlement finger linking the settlements "Shilo, Eli, and Shivot Rachel" to the central Jordan Valley.
He confirmed that the occupation bulldozed about thirty dunums of citizens´ lands in the area of ​​"Wa´ar Abu al-Mufilal" near the settlement of "Kharsina", in preparation for the establishment of a new outpost near the area of ​​the spot east of Hebron, where bulldozers brushed land seized by "Piscors", and removed electricity poles belonging The Hebron municipality cut electricity to a number of members of the Jaber family, and earlier built a settlement road in this land to connect it with nearby settlements adjacent to bypass road 60.
He stated that the occupation intends to set up a huge landfill in the Khan al-Ahmar area between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, in addition to building a factory to recycle part of this waste, which will negatively affect the area, population and environment, in addition to seizing hundreds of dunums of land and expelling residents from that area. .
The Israeli Ministry of Finance and Environmental Protection published the first phase of a tender for the construction of this complex near the settlement of Ma´aleh Adumim, and the publication of this tender. As a first stage before the publication of an international tender for the planning, financing and establishment of the facility, and despite the criticism of the occupation on the exploitation of West Bank land for waste treatment in violation of international law, the Israeli government continues to pay such schemes in the region, where the cost of establishing this facility b Ho billion shekels.
"Settlers in the northern Jordan Valley started work on the road leading to the settlement outpost they erected last June, west of the settlement" Maskiot ", in the" Abu Qandoul ", Wadi al-Maleh, and the rehabilitation of the road through paving, and pour concrete to facilitate They arrived at the settlement outpost and laid a fence in the area on which it was built, an extension of the "Marmalah" area to which a settlement road was recently constructed, after they had set up caravans there.
The report said that the Israeli occupation forces built a settlement road about two months ago to encourage settlers to live there and raise livestock there, which threatens to close large areas of land to their rightful owners, who have been denied access to them.
"In a serious development that reveals the collusion of the occupation army with the settlers, the terrorist who participated in the killing of members of the Dawabsheh family in the village of Douma was uncovered. Bard, who is in a preparatory institution for military service, was not identified at the time of his arrest, claiming that when the terrorist attack occurred he was 16 years old.
The National Office for the Defense of Land documented the violations of the occupation and its settlers as follows:
In Jerusalem, the Israeli municipality forced Mufid Alqam to demolish his house in Beit Hanina, north of Jerusalem, after 7 years of persecution.
The Israeli occupation forces also raided a gas station under construction located at the northeast entrance of ´Anata town. They also seized a 100-cubic-meter water tank owned by the Israeli citizen Mazen Diab. Al-Muntar, east of Jerusalem, has been erected by activists in the town to confront the outpost on the territory.
A new ultra-Orthodox Jewish organization called the Har-Il Youth Movement, which is based on a group of settlers in the West Bank, called for a massive storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the day after the Jewish holidays.
In Hebron, hundreds of settlers performed Talmudic rituals inside the Ibrahimi Mosque, in celebration of Jewish holidays, while the Israeli occupation demolished tin houses and Berksat for housing purposes in Shaab al-Harathin area, and seized solar cells, used for lighting purposes, east of Yatta, south of Hebron, in an attempt to displace the residents of the area.
In Bethlehem, Israeli occupying forces razed 22 donums of agricultural land planted with grapes, olives and almonds belonging to Nasser ´Abed Rabbo in the northwest of Beit Jala, and demolished a 150-square-meter house owned by Ayman Ya´qub Ghazal. Another 120-square-meter house under construction in the village of Kisan, east of Bethlehem, is under construction under the pretext of non-licensing.
In Nablus, settlers attacked Palestinian vehicles with stones on the Ramallah-Nablus road near the eastern village of al-Laban, causing damage to several of them.
As for Salfit, settlers assaulted the village of Qira, north of Salfit, from the village of Kifl Haris, damaged citizens´ vehicles, damaged 13 tires, and racist phrases on the walls and entrances of houses.
In the Jordan Valley, Israeli occupying forces prevented the restoration of a water collection well in Khirbet Samra in the northern Jordan Valley. They also seized a bulldozer while they were working in ´Atouf area in the southeast of Tubas. Khirbet Homsa, owned by Mohammed Ibrahim ´Eissa Abu al-Kabash. The settlers seized the spring of´ Ein al-Hilweh and started restoring it, preventing the residents from irrigating their crops.
