Colonists Ravage Trees in Beit Ummar

‘I have spent the last 12 years conflicting with colonists of surrounding colonies‘. Mohammad Sleibi (65) commenting on the latest aggression.

 

On March 12, 2012, colonists of Beit Ein attacked Mohammad and his brother fields and cut down a number of trees. Mohammad said that he was supposed to meet with officers of the Israeli Occupation Civil Administration to show them the damage caused by sewage leaking from the nearby Beit Ein. He said: ‘when I got there, I was shocked to see that trees were cut down and I could see offensive slogans written all around the plot; I told the officers to see for themselves‘!

 

He said that the officers called the Israeli Police who showed up and brought with them trackers to track down the assailants. Mohammed filed a complaint on site and the police told him to inform his brother that he should file another complaint in the Police Station in Ezyon. However, Mohammad said that they filed numerous complaints, but in vain. He said: ‘I took a sample of the sewage coming from the colony and analyzed it in the MoA labs in Nablus; the result indicated the existence of bacterial and biological pollutants‘.

 

The colonists attacked the trees by cutting them down or cutting their branches. Table 1: damaged trees

 

No.	Tree	Number	Age (year)
1	Olive	40	30-40
2	Grape	30	25-30
3	quince	2	30
4	pear	2	25

 

 

 

 

It is worthy to mention that Mohammad and his brothers own a total area of 88 dunums located in Wadi abu al Rish area, 400 meters away from the colony. He accused the colonists of trying to push him away of his lands.  He demanded from the humanitarian and legal bodies to provide him with protection and to provide him with fences and barbered wires to be able to preserve their lands.