Violation: torching olive trees.

Location: Madama village/ Nablus governorate

Date : 19/06/2019.

Perpetrator: Settlers of “Yitzhar”.

Victims: Farmers in the village.

Description:

About 10 :00 am, a group of settlers set fire on tens of trees in Madama village , in a location known of Be’ar Ash-Sha’ara south the village, as Madama village council head Hazim Nassar testified.

Nassar asserted, when the town’s people rushed to the location to stop the fire , the occupation troops prohibited them from approaching the area, and dropped tear bombs to make them run away.

People of Madama managed to stop the fire after it ate up about 80 olive trees, of which 30 trees age more than 20 years, and another 50 saplings (3 years old) . In the same context , the fanatic settlers also torched a dunum plot planted with zucchini belongs to Fayez Nassar, according to the village council his lost is estimated to reach 2500 NIS.

The trees belong to :

• Omar Qat , 10 trees.
• Nasha’at Ziadeh , 10 trees.
• Mazin Ziadeh , 8 trees.
• Sa’adeh Sa’adh, 2 olive trees, an Allmond tree, Figs tree and grape tree.
• Rezq Nassar, 50 olive trees on a 3 dunums plot.

Village council head told LRC reporter: “settlers attacks are increasing, and we file complaints to the Israeli police each time but nothing was done to stop such attacks from occurring.

The village council estimates farmers’ loss to reach 20,000 NIS.”

Madama:[1]

Madama is 12km to the southeast of Nablus and is surrounded by Iraq Burin and Till (north), Asira al Qibliya (west), Burin (east), and Urif (south).

According to 2017 population projections , Madama is inhabited by 2,092 people.

It has a total area of 3824 dunums, 190 of which are built-up area of the village.

The Israeli occupation confiscated 118 dunums for Yitzhar colony which was built on Madama lands in 1983. The colony is inhabited by 400 colonists.

The Israeli occupation is not only taking over land and water resources of the village, but they are also targeting Palestinians residing there through attacking them on almost a daily basis.

Yizhar:

The colony of Yizhar was established in 1983 on Palestinian lands belonging to the villages of Burin and Asira Al Qiblia south west of the city of Nablus. The colony has expanded multiple times ever since as additional tens of dunums were confiscated for that purpose. The additional dunums were taken from the villages of Burin, Asira Al Qiblia, Oreef, Madama and Huwwara. The built-up area of the colony was 158 dunums as of 2005 while the area of land under its jurisdiction is about 1,800 dunums located in Parcel .

[1] GIS-LRC

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