2022-11-14

The Israeli Occupation Viciously Uproot 1350 Olive trees in Qarawat Bani Hassan/ Salfit governorate

Violation: olive trees uprooted.

Location: Qrawat Bani Hassan / Salfit governorate

Date: November 14th 2022.

Perpetrators:  Natural Authority inspector at the Israeli Civil Administration.

Victims: 6 families “’Assi , Mer’I , Salom”.

Description:

The Palestinian Olive Tree is a symbol of land Arabism , and an evidence of the Palestinian identity , which the occupation always tried to take over,  and impose restrictions on  to deny Palestinians from accessing and using their own lands.

Monday morning at about 5:00 am , November 14th 2022 , Natural Authority inspector accompanied by a large number of machineries raided Be’er ‘Ammar, An-Najajra , and Al-‘Awareed area north Qarawat Bani Hassan , the occupation forces closed off the area , and prohibited Palestinian farmers from approaching the location, after carrying on cutting trees and ravaging farmlands to vandalize the area ; what happened was similar to a massacre to the olive trees, noting that the forces sprayed a poisonous substance at the bottom of the trees to make sure they won’t be planted again.

The following table shows more information about the violation :

Affected farmer

Family members

The targeted trees (dunums

Number of affected trees

notes

males

Females

children

Sameh ‘Assi

4

2

1

24

419

Cut and poisoned with chemicals

Mohammed ‘Assi

5

4

2

30

399

Cut and poisoned with chemicals

Izzat Mare’i

3

7

4

17

217

Ravaging + cutting

Ahmed Mare’i

5

5

4

10

156

Cut and poisoned with chemicals

Mohammed Saloum

4

3

1

4

59

Cut and poisoned with chemicals

Bassam Mare’i

5

6

2

7

100

Cut and poisoned with chemicals

total

26

27

14

92

1350

Affected farmer ‘Izzat Mare’I told LRC:

“Most of the targeted trees were planted in 2002 and 2006 , on lands belong to farmers in Qarawat Bani Hassan , and in 2009 farmers received notices , a lot of them are eviction of plots on the pretext of violating natural reserves , we filed an objection to the Israeli Supreme court , and after long court session , the court ruled against Palestinian farmers , so we applied to renew the ownership deeds in 2020 and we did not get an answer until this day, but the occupation’s bulldozers carried on ravaging the plot.”

The targeted location is 400 m away from Havat Yaer colony , the area is a target of systematic Israeli Violations, but the field observation team documented the uprooting of a vast areas of land at the same location.  

About Qarawat Bani Husan:[1]

The village is located 12 km northwest Salfit. Qarawat Bani Hasan is edged by Biddya village from the west, Sutra from the south ,Deir Istiya from the north and Haris from the east. Qarawat Bani Hussan has a total population of 5513 people (2017 PCBS census).

The village has a total area of 9,443 dunums , of which 565 dunums are a built up area.

Israeli settlements devoured (324) dunums for the following settlements:

Settlement name

Establishment year

Area of confiscated lands

Number of settlers

Barkan

1981

144

1981*

Kiryat Netafim

1982

180

891*

* Source: The Israeli Ministry of Interior – 3 January 2019

Bypass 505 devoured 129 dunums.

Oslo accords divided the land as the following:

  • B area: (849) dunums.
  • C area : (8,594) dunums.

[1] GIS-LRC

حماية الحقوق البيئية في مناطق "ج"

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

إخلاء المسؤولية: الآراء ووجهات النظر الواردة في هذا التقرير هي آراء ووجهات نظر مركز أبحاث الأراضي ولا تعكس بالضرورة وجهات نظر أو مواقف الجهة المانحة للمشروع؛ المجلس النرويجي. للاجئين