Violation: cutting olive trees.

Location: Burqa- Nablus governorate.

Date: May 14 / 2018.

Perpetrators: Fanatic settlers.

Victims: Farmer Mohammad Hajji.

Monday, settlers of “Homesh” raided a land in Burqa village to cut and sabotage 8 olive trees aging 50 years old and belong to farmer Mohammad Hajji.

Affected farmer Mohammad Hajji told LRC observer:

“about 11:00 am I saw a group of settlers entering my land , I called members from the rural council , my sons and neighboring farmers. We went to the land and found Israeli settlers cutting and sabotaging my olive trees. Once they saw us, they ran away leaving behind 8 damaged trees.”

About Homesh:

The colony was established in 1980 on the boundary between the Nablus and Jenin governorates on the expense of the village of Burqa. It was built atop Parcel 6 of Jabal Al Dohoor on land pieces number 1 through 22. Until 2005, the colony had confiscated 1050 dunums of which 157 were its built-up area. Upon its eviction, there were 181 colonists living in the colony’s houses and 10 mobile caravans. In addition, there were around 4,000 dunums surrounding the colony that were considered to be a buffer zone to which Palestinians were prevented from entering or using for any purposes.

About Burqa[1]:

12 km north Nablus city, Burqa is surrounded by the Israeli illegal colony  “Homesh” (north), Ramin and Al-Masa’adeyeh villages (west) , Beit Amrin (east) and Sabastiya (south).

Burqa has a population of (4152) people in 2017.

Burqa has a total space of 18174 dunums, 506 of them are the town’s built-up area.

The Israeli occupation confiscated (1047) dunums from Burqa’s lands to establish “Homesh” settlement in 1980, the Israeli government claim that “Homesh” is evicted but that is not the truth,the settlement is inhabited by radical settlers who implemented several attacks against villagers of Burqa.

Oslo conventions divided Burqa into:

• A area: (4796) dunums.
• B area: (5131) dunums.
• C area : (8247) dunums.

[1] GIS-LRC

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