As Swine Flu Fear Spreads, Israeli Colonists Let Loose More Pigs into Palestinian Lands
Introduction
While the fear of the inception and the spread of swine flu cases dominate the local and international arenas, the colonists in the West Bank have released a number of wild pigs on Palestinians near their lands and houses in Salfeet Governorate. Such an act raised serious fears of the spread of the killer disease among the Palestinian population especially that 8480 cases have been registered worldwide including 7 in Israel.
The presence of wild pigs in the Governorate of Salfeet has been a source of constant troubles and concerns for the Palestinian farmers there. The large geographical spread in which these pigs are present in is, in effect, threatening the agricultural sector in the Governorate. That is in addition to the risk these pigs form on the lives of the Palestinians living in nearby towns and villages as Israeli colonists are using wild pigs as an additional weapon to force Palestinians out of their lands.
Israeli colonists in Salfeet, and in the West Bank in general, have been spreading wild pigs using their own trucks in order to destroy Palestinian agricultural fields. The phenomenon has only increased after the discovery of the swine flu disease. Moreover, and despite the international calls to spare the civilian population from being hit by this diseases, Israeli occupation authorities still refuse to allow the entry of poisons used in fighting the spread of the wild pigs. Field observation in the Salfeet indicates that barely none of the Palestinian agricultural fields were spared damages inflected by the wild pigs deliberately spread by the colonists.
It is worth pointing out that the wild pigs multiply at a fast rate as they look for a humid environment during the summer months to get water. They usually move at nights over long distances looking for water and their preferred foods such as tomatoes and potatoes. The pigs have become a real nuisance and a threat to Palestinian lives especially in the villages of Marda and Kafl Haris north of the Governorate of Salfeet. Palestinians in those villages stopped going out at night for fear of being attacked by the herds of pigs that roam freely around the street of the villages.
In terms of the large increase in the number of the wild pigs, Mr. Mohammad Hassan of the City of Salfeet has indicated to the Land Research Cenetr (LRC)’s field researcher that he personally saw Israeli colonists unload wild pigs in the area of Al Ashara located between the city of Salfeet and the village of Iskaka. Moreover, it is a known fact that the Israeli “Nature Authority” collects the wild pigs from inside the Green Line and dumps them into the mountains of the West Bank where they can roam freely away from Israeli population centers. Israeli colonies are, of course, protected against any infiltration by the pigs because they are surrounded by walls, barbwires and fences.
As for the regular Palestinians seeing their livelihoods damaged and destroyed by the straying pigs, they find themselves defenseless as they cannot use firearms against these wild animals in fear of occupation persecution. Moreover, they cannot use poisons as they cannot even find them in the markets. Even if they find such poisons and used them, they would find themselves vulnerable of being arrested due to “causing harm to wild and protected animals.”!!!! At the same time, Israeli occupation forces and authorities are adamantly refusing to stem the phenomenon or to deal with its effects despite repeated international calls in light of the possible spread of the swine flu.
It is important to state that there are a large number of localities in Salfeet governorate (including the area of Al Matwi located west the city of Salfeet) and other nearby governorates have become infested with a large number of wild pigs that attack Palestinian homes and farms. Mr. Abu A’amer from the village of Rafat, north of Salfeet, has his house located close to one of the settlements and he and his family has been repeatedly attacks by the uncontrolled herds of wild pigs.
Prepared by:
The Land Research Center
LRC
