Hundreds of olive trees burned by Israeli settlers in Jinsafut Village

October 1, 2007

Israeli settlers from the colony of Karne Shomron and its nearby colonial post set fire to about 300 dunums cultivated with olive trees and located in basin number 5 of Jinsafut land in Qalqiliya governorate. At the initial stages of the fire the Israeli army blocked all the attempts made by local people and Palestinian fire squads to reach the scene so as to extinguish the fire. They only succeeded to do so after many contacts with the International Committee of the Red Cross and only after the fire had destroyed about 300 dunums of their lands.

( Photo 1 and 2: two scenes from the burned olive trees in Jinsafut land)

The scene of the fire is only 300 meters away from a new colonial post affiliated to Karne Shomron colony.

(Photo 3: In the background is the colonial post of Karne Shomron and
in the foreground are some burned olive trees)

The burned land belongs to 18 families from Jinsafut village. This arson is not the first of its kind against the land of the village as a similar one took place three years ago when the occupation army carried out military exercises around the colony of Karne Shormon setting fire to almost 500 dunums of olive – cultivated land.

Other violations

The Israeli settlers in the near by colonies along with the occupation authorities continue to commit more violations against the local indigenous population in Jinsafut, including the following:

1. Polluting the lands of Palestinians by setting up a pickles factory three years ago near the colony of Emmanuel in the south of the village. Waste water rich of acids and salts are still pouring in the lands of 20 farmers from the village causing the death of at least 300 fruitful olive trees. Many complaints were presented against the continuing pollution, some of which through Israeli human rights organization, but to no avail.

2. Limiting farmers' access into about 3000 dunums of agricultural lands under the pretext of being located in the vicinity of the colonies of Karne Shomron and Emmanuel to the west and south of the village, which means, in the long run, that all this land will be annexed to the two colonies.

3. Stealing large amounts of olive yields during the annual olive harvesting seasons.

4. Distributing, within the course of the last year, 9 notifications to halt construction of houses, businesses and water cisterns in the village under the pretext of un-licensing.

Location, Population and Area:

The village of Jinsafut, Qalqilia Governorate, is located 15 kilometers to the east of the city of Qalqilia. Its population is about 2700 Palestinians. About 78% of the population used to depend on working in Israel and in the agricultural sector. After the construction of the Segregation Wall, a large percentage of the population became unemployed. There are a number of families in the village including Al Ayoub, Al Sukar, Al Saber, Al Allan, Al Nassar and Al Basheer. The total area of the village is 8658 dunums of which 1248 is used for building purposes. See Map 1

Table 1: Israeli colonies in the area by name, date of establishment, # of settlers and area

Colony name	Date of establishment	# of colonists 2005	Municipal area dunum	Built up area
Karne Shomron	1978	6280	7339	1351
Emmanuel	1982	2583	1909	328
Total		8863	9248	1679