Destruction of Land

Nabi Saleh: During the weekly protest at Nabi Saleh on Friday 18th March, against the wall and settlements, the Israeli Occupation Forces fired tear gas, rubber bullets and skunk water at protestors, injuring two Palestinians, Wa'ad Tamimi (15 years), and Walid al-Tamimi (16 years) and one international activist. A choir from Scotland attended the protest and sang songs of solidarity at the front of the procession.

Attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank continue apace, while the occupational forces provide the aggressors' with protection. The attacks, ranging from destruction of fruit trees to seizure of land, demonstrate Israel's continued commitment to policies of terrorism and ethnic cleansing as they continue to expand and build on stolen land.

 

Bil'in:  Around 100 protesters gathered to protest the colonial apartheid Wall in Bil’in and show support for the ongoing hunger strike in Israeli jails. In response dozens of tear gas canisters and flash-bang grenades were launched into the crowd, setting fire to many acres of land and more than 20 olive trees.

 

Sunday, April 29, a group of settlers bulldozed agricultural lands belonging to the village of Qusra, in Nablus district. In the morning hours, the settlers went to the piece of land, which is even located far from the settlements surrounding the village but had been targeted before by the settlers. Many times, the area was a location of clashes between the people from Qusra that were out there to protect their lands against the settlers’ usurpation.

On Thursday April 27, the occupation forces handed notices to some farmers in Wadi Qana [Valley of Qana] that informed them the military would cut more than 1000 trees.

Wadi Qana is located close to Deir Istiya in Salfit district and one of the spots of the West Bank that is first ethnically cleansed from its Palestinian population and then its nature devasted by the Israeli settlement project.

 

Settlers attacks on the Palestinian people and their land and property have lately become daily violations of Palestinian rights. Settlers are protected by the occupation forces and the international community’s silence in their efforts to undercut Palestinian livelihoods and create conditions aimed to push the farmers to leave their homes and land. Only on March 8 and 9 three of such attacks occurred.

The occupation forces destroyed  this early morning an agricultural shed in Zabda village in Jenin district.

The owner of the shed is the farmer Mahmoud Jalal Hamdan, who used this space to store agricultural equipments.

The villagers confirm that this shed is located close to the apartheid wall.

Demolitions by the Israeli occupation authorities, in particular in area C, have been at the rise during 2011 and continue at accelerated speed in 2012 with almost 100 structures demolished since the beginning of this year.

 

A group of Israeli settlers yesterday cut and stole dozens of olive trees in Turmusaia village in Ramallah district, while other settler groups destroyed dozens more in Madama village in Nablus district.

The villagers said that the settlers used bulldozers with protection from the occupation forces to cut dozens of olive trees belonging to Mohammad Asaad Rabie Abu Hanon.

Bilin

Dozens were suffocated and cased serve vomiting in the weekly protest in Bilin due to the suppression by the occupation forces who shot the protesters with tear gas bombs and metal bullets covered with rubber. They also sprayed them with sewage water mixed with chemicals.

The popular committee called to expand the popular resistance to open the checkpoints, open closed streets, and tear down the Apartheid Wall and settlements. It also highlighted the importance of Palestinian unity to end the occupation.

The so-called “district committee” in the municipality of occupation, will discuss today a plan to build 204 settler units in the “al Tallah al Faransiya” area, east of the Holy City.
This comes within the context of the settlement plan scheme in the occupied city of Jerusalem, which aims to isolate Palestinian citizens and to prevent a natural expansion to continue into judaized Jerusalem.

The occupation forces demolished this morning housing and agriculture facilities in the Jordan Valley area east of the West Bank after dozens of demolition campaigns in the same area last year. The population of the bats of Alhamra area said that the military bulldozers surrounded one of the bats and started demolishing four barracks and a family housing.

The occupation forces washed away a number of water wells, throne room and agricultural land in the area known as “Thahr al Suboh” in Kufur al Deik village in Salfit. The occupation has done this several times before within the same area, which is an agricultural relief operation project funded by the Dutch government.
A group of settlers also uprooted 30 olive trees belong to Osama Alsamamra and wrote hostile slogans to the Arabs, in al-Samou’ village in the Hebron district.

The head of Bardala village council in the north valleys, Jamal Matahen, said that the Israeli water company Makrot reduced the water pumping to Bardala village to 35 cups per hour, which portends disaster to the village crops if this reducing continues.

The first time I went to Turkalem, in the northeast of the West Bank, I did not know much about the situation there. I basically knew that it was mainly an agricultural region.

In Turkalem I met Faize Taneeb, an organic farmer, which already makes his story intresting, but the conditions he has to wrok his land, are the ones that make his case a special one.

After the displacement of almost 30,000 Arabs from their unrecognized villages in the Negev, many facts are coming out of the lands that they are being given to special Jewish farms which have spread in al-Negev. These facts were revealed after the Israeli farmer “Shai Dromi” put a siege around 4,000 acres which related to “his farm”.

Probably the oldest olive tree of the world is in Al Walaja village of Bethlehem district.

Two diferent groups of Japanese and European experts dated Al Badawi (The Big One), as the Palestinians calls it, between 4,000 and 5,000 years old, making it the oldest olive tree in the world.

Al Badawi currently is in danger, as the Israeli government is building the Wall arround this village, which once the Wall is finished will be completely surrounded by it.

Occupation forces accompanied with bulldozers attacked Beit Ulla village in the Hebron district and cut more than 300 olive and almond trees, destroyed the land, and confiscated it, one member of Stop the Wall campaign member said.

This attack came under the series of vicious attacks by the occupation forces and settlers, now occurring daily in the occupied land of the West Bank.

The Israeli occupation forces mark where they intend to construct the Apartheid Wall. This X marks a path that includes old houses.

Al-Walajah village is located to the southwest of the city of Jerusalem, with a population of about 2,500. In 1948, the al-Walajah people were displaced. Today, the village is threatened with total destruction as Israel continues to construct the Apartheid Wall directly through al-Walajah. On August 13, 2011, nearby villagers along with volunteers gathered at the old al-Walajah village to rebuild the abandoned houses after the 1948 Nakba and to honor the old land, on which ancient olive trees still grow.

 

Since the Palestinian Authority was established in 1995, several projects have been launched to build the institutional framework of the Palestinian economy, so as to provide the economic basis of an independent Palestinian state. Fourteen years later, a Palestinian state with the ’67 borders has become a mirage; the economy in the West Bank is completely strangled by the apartheid infrastructure imposed by Israel, while Gaza lies in ruins as a result of over 18 months of siege and bombardments.

x

Select (Ctrl+A) and Copy (Ctrl+C)