Violations during the olive picking season are continuing

Location: area of Odlah in Kufur Kadoom and Al-Hota in Amatin in Qalqilya district

Violators: Kadomim settlers

Victims: Palestinian Farmers living in the villages of Kufur Kadoom and Amatin.

Date: 10 October, 2009

 

In the evening of 10/10/2009, a large group of Kadomim settlement settlers scorched 290 fully grown olive trees in the lands of Palestinians in the villages of Kufur Kadoom and Amatin. The attack took place at the beginning of the olive picking season which the farmers were waiting anxiously for.

 

 

 

It must be pointed out that villagers tried hard to control the flames. Nevertheless, and as usually happens, the occupation army protected the settlers and their actions as they’ve tried to push the landlords away from the site using no coordination as justification for their act. It must be reported that it is not the first time that such violations happen in Odlah in Kufur Kadoom and Hota in Amatin. That is  not to mention that Palestinian citizens were banned from entering their farms in those areas since the year 2000 except in olive picking season of each year and that after getting the relevant district coordination office since the area is near the border of Kadomim settlement. In the end, and after many attempts and interference of a number of humanitarian organizations, a small number of farmers and accompanied by a Civil Defense fire truck were able to get through after two hours delay. The results of the fire were catastrophic as 290 olive trees were burnt along side cattle in the said area.

 

No	Farmer Name	Location	Village	No. of torched trees
1	Fo’ad Abdallah Abdul Kader Abdul Kader	Odlah	Kufur Kadoom	48
2	Sadeq Hamed Abdallah Eshtewi	Odlah	Kufur Kadoom	35
3	Omar yousof Ismail Eshtewi	Odlah	Kufur Kadoom	27
4	Saleh Yousof Ismail Eshtewi	Odlah	Kufur Kadoom	36
5	Sayel Ibrahim Ghanem	Al-Hotah	Amatin	40
6	Ahmad Othman Ghanem	Al-Hotah	Amatin	34
7	Mohammad Sroor Ghanem	Al-Absat	Amatin	28
8	Abdul Raheem Mohammad Ghanem	Al-Absat	Amatin	18
9	Basel Qadri Ghanem	Al-Absat	Amatin	24
Total torched trees				290

It must be pointed that blistering of agricultural yield has become normal thing to happen in villages of east Qalqilya Governorate; during the last three years tens of abuses including burning, destruction, and theft of crops by settlers from Kadomim and other outposts in the area were recorded. The most violent outposts are Hafat Gel’ad which is built on Amatin lands and Gel’ad Zohar built on Tal village. Settlers of these settlements play the role of mobsters when attacking villagers, abusing them, and stealing their produce especially in the olive picking season and the wheat harvest season.