Land Research Center

Violation: setting olive trees on fire

Location:  Tell town- Nablus governorate

Date:  June 24, 2018

Perpetrators: Settlers of Hafad Gilad

Victims:  Farmers from Tell and Fara'ta

Details:

Around 1pm on Sunday, June 24, 2018, a group of Hafa Gilad colonists sneaked into Karam Shuqair area, west Tell town and set fire to the direction of olive groves. The affected area is 1500 meters away from the residential area in the village and 500 meters south of the settlement.  

The farmer, Mohammed Saqir Asida from Tell and aged 32, reported to LRC that he came to know about the fire that Sunday afternoon through another farmer named Karim Ramadan. The latter happened to be present in his land when he saw a group of settlers driving a car, then setting fire to the olive trees and leaving the area quickly. Ramadan told another person from Tal village, Khalid al-Sheikh, who in turn told Asida that the fire reached his land.

Farmer Mohammed Asida and a large group of young people from Tal and Fara'ta villages then rushed to the area on fire and helped extinguish the fire. The process of putting the fire out lasted more than two hours due to the difficulty of access for fire engines to the damaged site.

Farmer Mohammed Asida stated that his job is to work in the field, to plow 35 dunums planted with olive trees that are over 50 years of age. The land is owned by farmer Fathi Hassan Hindi whose loss is huge. Around 200 olive trees were on fire, where 100 trees got fully damaged and the rest were partially burnt.

Asida also mentioned that another 100 perennial olive trees were also affected by the fire and they are (were) owned by:

• Mousa Hindi Shartouk (100 olive trees, including 50 trees that got completely damaged.)
• From the village of Fara'ta:
• Fayez Saadah (60 olive trees)
•  Faris Abdul Khaleq Taweel (20 olive trees)
• Yasser Asaad Taweel (60 olive trees)

•  .

Pictures 1-4: The trees the settlers set fire to

The settlement of Hafad Gilad was established in 2002 on confiscated lands from Surra and Fara'ta towns. The settlement has had a prominent role in spreading fear and wreaking havoc in the western countryside of Nablus, where dozens of attacks and violations against Palestinian farmers, land and trees have been committed and resulted in significant losses for farmers in the villages of Tell, Surra and Far'ata.

About Tell[1]:

3 kilometers south Nablus, At-Tell is surrounded by Sura and Nablus city (north), Fara’ata , Jit and Imatin (west), Burin and Nablus city (east) , Assira Al-Qibaliya, Zita, Jamaen and Madma (south).

At-Tell has a population of (5,162) people in 2017 census.

Bypass 60 devoured 380 dunums.

Oslo convention classified the land into:

• A area (6,886) dunums.
• B area (6,683) dunums.
• C area (3,119) dunums.

At-Tell consists of 4 main clans: Asida, Hamed , Ramadan and Shteyeh.

[1] GIS-LRC

The contents of this document is the sole responsibility of LRC and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union