250 olive seedlings uprooted in Jenin

May 1, 2014

Violation: sabotaging and uprooting 250 seedlings in Araba

Date: May 01, 2014

Perpetrators: the army of the Israeli occupation

Victims: al-Dhaidi family

Details:

For the second time in row and in a period of a year, on May01, 2014, a massive force of the Israeli army accompanied by a bulldozer of the Planning Committee of the Civil Administration raided the area of al-Qrinat, east of Arraba town; more specifically 7km away from the built-up area . Noteworthy, the area is located nearby Mivo Dotan colony; it is claimed as “State land”.

It is marked that the occupation forces uprooted not less than 20 olive seedlings aging around 2 years. The trees were planted on 46dunums of that area in November 2013 within “Towards Green Palestine” program that is funded by the Arab Society for Nature Preservation and implemented by the Agriculture Relief.

Not only the occupation army uprooted the trees from the village but they moved them to Mivo Dotan colony.

Photos 1-3: the targeted trees in Arraba

Photos 4-5: the targeting operations in Arraba

The uprooting acts came in less than a year from similar acts in the exact same location. On April25, 2013, colonists uprooted and stole 900 olive trees aging 10 years from the area of al-Qrinat and moved them to Mivo Dotan colony.

It should be marked that the stolen trees belong to five families from al-Dhaidi clan of Arraba town. The following table shows the affected families after the previous targeting:

The victim	Family	No. of uprooted trees
Subhi Dhaidi	7	60
Mohammad Dhaidi	8	45
Ali Dhaidi	5	30
Nasri Dhaidi	5	60
Nathmi Dhadi	9	55
Total	34	250

According to Ahmad Fathi the mayor of Arraba, who was at the time of the uprooting with the residents trying to stop soldiers from cutting off the trees, said that: “the occupation has been targeting the town, specially the lands rented by the Jordanian Department of Land Treasury and then Israel land authority”.

Fathi asserted that activities undertaken by the occupation were for the favor of Mivo Dotan expansion at the expense of Palestinian lands which are villagers’ living source.

As for al-Dhaidi, a land owner in the area, he said: “We were here before the occupation even existed, my father lived her, my grandfather did as well, and we had our houses demolished by the occupation that has been trying to expel us out of the lands to empower colonists at our expense”.

He also added: “during the past year, hundreds of trees were uprooted aging more than 7 year. We submitted complaints to different bodies and re-planted the lands to have the occupation cut them off and move them to the colony again”.

It should be mentioned that Arraba has been a subject to colonial expanding plans and that more than 19 facilities and structures have been served stop work orders under the pretext of unlicensed construction in the town. In addition, since early 80s, the occupation confiscated more than 600 dunums of the town and the nearby town of Ya’bed for the favor of Miva Dotan colony expansion.

About Arraba:

Arraba is located 12km from the southern west of Jenin city. It is surrounded by both colonies; al-Manshiyya and Kufeirat (north), Fahma, al- Hafira, and Al Damayra towns (west south) and Fahma and Al Jadida towns (south).

It has a population of 12,792 people until 2014 and has a total area of 33,436 dunums , 1195 of which are built-up area. 1514 dunums were confiscated by the occupation as follows:

Mevo Dotan colony; established in 1987 and inhabited by 289 colonists, took over 696 dunums of the village's lands. There is also an army camp for the occupation in the southern part of thw town founded on 129 dunums of the village's lands. The colonial roads also confiscated 370 dunums for the favor of the bypass road no.585.

According to Oslo Accords, the village lands are classified as: