Tens of Olive Trees Uprooted in Burin Village

Violation: cutting down 40 olive trees using saws.

Location: Albreis area, parcel 8 – Burin Village to the south of Nablus.

 

 

Date: February 23, 2010.

Violators: Yizhar colonists.

Victims: Burin residents.

 

The Israeli colonists’ aggressions against the Palestinian village of Burin are unstoppable and unpredictable.On February 23, 2010, the victim was an olive field. Olives are a symbol of Palestinians struggle and defying the Israeli intentions of changing facts on the groundby building random ororganized colonies within Palestinian areas.

 

 This makes it a main target for Israeli colonists’ attacks that have nothing in mind but taking control of as much Palestinian lands as possible.

 

 

 

 

 

On the dawn of February 23, 2010, the Israeli Occupation Army imposed a curfew on Palestinians living in Burin saying that it was looking for ‘Palestinian rebels’.

 

The Israeli colonists took advantage of the curfew and attacked Albreis area (as named by Palestinians) which is 100 meters away from Yizhar colony and cut down 40 olive trees (more than 60 years old) using saws and axes. They also tried to uncover the trees stems by removing the phloem in order to do as much damage as possible.

 

No.	Victim	Number of damaged trees	Location
1	Montaha al Najjar	4	Albreis area
2	Raha al Najjar	3	Albreis area
3	Suhail al Najjar	25	Albreis area
4	Ma’roof al Najjar	5	Albreis area
5	Fatima al Najjar	3	Albreis area
Total		40

 

Suhail al Najjar (62) stated to an LRC observer the following: ‘It is not the first time that these colonists attack this particular area. During the last olive picking season, they torched more than 3 dunums of olive fields. Also, 4 years ago, they cut down more than 50 trees. We are facing a dilemma; we cannot exploit our lands for no apparent reason. Since the establishment of the colony and we have been repeatedly facing organized attacks that turned the area into a deserted land. The lands were a major source of income for many families. In addition, it was the main source of cereals and vegetables that people used to plant in the area. Moreover, the colonists took over hundreds of dunums of our lands for the sake of colonial expansions and milling colonial by-pass roads. In addition, the colonists formed gangs specialized in attacking Palestinians under the protection of the Israeli Occupation Forces. Such groups’ brutality and viciousness resulted in the death of many young men. These gangs also tend to steal cattle and the farmers crop besides burning hundreds of olive trees. We placed tens of complaints to the Israeli Occupation Police but they were useless’.

 

On the other hand, Mr. Ali ‘Eid assures that the Israeli Occupation repeated aggressions have terribly affected the Palestinian olive crop in the area. ‘Eid said:’ every year the situation is becoming worse, 3500 were cut down or uprooted during 2008 and another 1750 throughout last year’.

 

‘Eid added: ‘Since the Israeli Occupation of the west bank and the village has been suffering from continuous aggressions against its lands, trees, and most importantly, people. 14-17 trees were lost since the beginning of the first Intifada, 9000, since the year 2000, which marked the beginning of the second Intifada’.

 

The Israeli aggressions are not only aimed against trees and houses, the Israeli colonists are constantly and desperately trying to drive the Palestinians out of their lands and out of the houses they are living in. they also try to prohibit the Palestinians from building any type of structure on their soil.

 

Um Ayman Sofan residence is considered a living witness of the inhuman Israeli aggressions since the beginning of the second Intifada. The aforementioned house is the closest to Yizhar colony; it is only 25 meters away from the road leading to the colony in Burin village.

 

A group of Israeli colonists accompanied by tens of hounds assaulted the house back in 2002; they devastated the contents of the house and then burned it. During the brutal attack, the head of the family died because of a severe stroke. It seems that he was not able to stand the sight of his sons being tormented by the ferocious colonists.

 

 

Since that day, the colonists’ violence became unstoppable. On January 7, 2010, tens of colonists spread in the area around the house and cut down 18 olive trees. The trees, described as ‘Romano'(Romano refers to Rome and Palestinians name their olives like this because they are too old trees) used to produce 30 kg of olive oil a year each.  This is considered a huge loss since it became the only source of income to the family who lost its head.

 

 

 

All the Israeli Occupation measures in the Palestinian territories indicate that their policies lead to a sole objective which is making Palestinians leave in order to facilitate colonial expansions. The Israelis never hesitate to do as much damage as possible to the Palestinians lives and economy.