Destroying more than 270 Olive Trees in Duma and Qusra

Violation: destroying more than 270 olive trees.

Date: February 20, 2011.

Perpetrators: Shilo’s extension named Yash Adam.

Victims: farmers of Duma and Qusra

 

Olive trees have always been considered as a symbol of goodness and peace. This was obvious in the artworks originated from the region throughout time. In addition, olives are considered one of the most important source of income for Palestinians which is apparent in more than 10 million olive trees covering and area of 900,000 dunums in Palestine.

 

Areas planted with olive form 80% of the areas planted with trees in Palestine; it mainly covers the mountain areas. At the same time, it seems that the Israelis consider the olive trees as their enemy! The Israelis has become aware of the importance of olive trees to the Palestinians since the first days of the conquest of Palestine.

 

The colonists have been trying to destroy as much trees as possible in addition to attacking the farmers in an attempt to prevent them from working in their fields. Every year, the olive picking seasons forms the peak of the Israeli colonists and Army aggressions against the Palestinians.

 

On February 20, 2011, the southern part of Nablus country side witnessed a new catastrophe. Colonists residing in the colonial nucleus of Yash Adam, which the Israelis claim to be eveacuated, and which is considered an extension for Shilo colony, attacked Palestinian fields uprooting and cutting more than 270 olive trees of which two hundred were one-year-old seedlings and the rest was more than 30 years old.

 

The damaged trees were the property of Abdul Razeq Dawabsha (100 trees), Mohammad and Shihada Dawabsha (70 trees), and Saber Dawabsha (the rest).

 

  

 

 

 

It must be pointed that Al-Lahef, Al Wadat, and Khallit Issa areas which cover a total area of more than 200 dunums of Duma and Qusra and which suffered from the most recent attack have been a target of systematic Israeli attacks throughout the past ten years. The attacks were mostly committed by colonists residing in Shilo colony; the Palestinians living in the area consider Shilo to be a source of agony and destruction.

 

 In 2008, the Israelis claimed that they evacuated Yash Adam; however, visiting the area shows the contrary. Israeli colonists are still residing in the colony and still confiscating more Palestinian lands in addition to launching attacks against the Palestinians and their properties every once and a while.

 

The recent attack shows part of the Palestinians suffering in the area and shows the Israeli official bodies collaboration with the colonists by providing protection to the colonists during the attacks. Shilo was established in the late seventies in Silon ruins, southern Qaryut. The colonists took over the ruins and built the colony around the ruins while taking over the most fertile lands in the village.

Soon afterwards, the colony started expanding in extraordinary rate, capturing huge areas of Palestinian lands in Jalud, Qaryut, and Qusra in the process.

 

The colonists took advantage of the Palestinian uprising and the support of the radical right-wing government to do so. The colonists started spreading colonial nucleuses on the hilltops randomly, one of these nucleuses was Yash Adam. Such colonial nucleuses were spreading terror and destruction all around the Palestinian villages while gaining full support of the various Israeli Occupation Governments.