Violation: Assault on Olive Trees.

Location: Sinjil town / Ramallah and Al-Bireh Governorate.

Date: January 26^th 2023.

Perpetrators: Colonists gangs.

Victims: Farmer ‘Awad Shabanah.

Description:

Thursday, January 26^th 2023 , a group of colonist raide “Ar-Rafeed” area north Sinjil town , and targeted a plot that belongs to citizen ‘Awad Shabanah (39 years Old).

Illegal Colonists raided the plot and cut and Sabotaged 20 Olive Saplings aging three years old , the targeted plot belongs to Shabana and has a total area of 3 dunums. Noting that the saplings were recently planted, the owner was already a victim of several assaults that aimed to prohibit him from cultivating his plot.

The Affected citizen Ahmed Shabaneh told LRC:

“I own a plot that I inherited from my grandfather which I take care of and plant regularly . A month ago,  I planted a dunum of the plot  with 40 Olive Saplings , and I started visiting to take care of the saplings almost  everyday . Every time I visited my plot , i had to face colonists violent harassments  , until the day I fear came and they completely destroyed the saplings.”

Ar-Rafeed area is heavily targeted by the occupation forces and settlers’ violations, many of the assaults resulted in the destruction of a number of saplings , farmers were also prohibited from cultivating their farmlands several times , the occupation’s obvious intention is to take over the area for future colonial activities.

 About Sinjil:

20 kilometer north of Ramallah, Sinjil is surrounded by Al Labn Ash Sharqia (north), ‘Abween and Jaljilia (west), Qaryut and Turmus’ayya (east), and Al Mazr’a Ash sharqia (south).

Sinjil has a total population of 5742 people according to statistics conducted in 2017. It has a total area of 14028of which 888 are a built-up area of the village.

The Israeli occupation devoured 551 dunums of the lands of the village for two colonies. The first one is Maale Levona which was built in 1983 and confiscated 298 dunums of the village, and inhabited by 497 colonists. The second is Eli which was built in 1984 and devoured 253 dunums, and inhabited by 2058 colonists.

Moreover, bypass number ’60 took over 246 dunums of the village lands.

According to Oslo Accords, 14% of Sinjil is under Area A (PA has full civil and security control) while 30% is under Area B (PA is in charge of civil matters with Israel responsible for security). However, most of the village lands (56%) is under Area C (Israel maintains full security and administrative control). Here are the area in dunums:

• Area A (1980) dunums
• Area B (4140) dunums
• Area C (7908) dunums

Protecting Palestinian Enviromental Rights in area "C" 

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of Land Research Center and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the project donor; the Norwegian Refugee Council.