- Violation: ravaging 240 olive trees.
- Location: Al-Lubban Al-Gharbi north Ramallah city.
- Date: 05/05/2019.
- Perpetrator: The planning department in the Israeli occupation civil administration.
- Victims: Heirs of Ahmad Abu-Salim.
Description:
In Al-Lubban Al-Gharbi village close to “Beit Arye” illegal settlement, Shafiq Abu Salim (57 years) is lamenting his fate after revealing a new Israeli scheme, that will cut and sabotage 240 olive trees (aging 40 years old) from a plot belongs to his family.
Abu Salim told LRC reporter:
“We own a 21 dunums plot in “Khallet Nassar” area in natural block 2 of Al-Lubban Al-Gharbi lands, I cultivated the land with olive trees in 1978 , before the establishment of Beit Arye settlement, and we own legal documents prove that we own the land.
In 2005, an officer from the civil administration showed up and told us that our land will be confiscated, under claims that it is a state’s property. Later on, with our efforts with Colonization and Wall Resistance commission , the scheme was stopped. In March 23- 2019 , an officer from the civil administration showed up and told us that the occupation’s government laid their hands on our land in order to open a new bypass road for settlers.
It turned out that there is a military order and an attached map showing details about the confiscation, in 29 April a court session was held in the Israeli Supreme Court attended by officers from the civil administration who insisted to open the road. In the 1st of May, the court’s resolution was to open the road and pay money to the owners, the owners refused. In 5th May, the occupation’s bulldozers carried on ravaging and uprooting 240 olive trees , that used to produce about a Tonne of olive oil , and we completely lost the right of accessing our land.”
Photos 1-8: The trees after the ravaging
Photo 9: “Beit Arye” illegal settlement
Photos 10-12 : the ravaging
Noteworthy, since the beginning of this year, the occupation authorities revealed a plan to build a road network in West Bank, which will isolate Palestinian communities and devour thousands of dunums.
Al-Lubban Al-Gharbi
Al-Lubban Al-Gharbi is a Palestinian village located northwest of Ramallah Governorate. The village is bordered by the Segregation Wall from the north, the Illegal Israeli settlement of Ofarim from the south, Beit Arye settlement as well as the Segregation Wall and ‘Aboud village from the east and Rantis village along with the Segregation Wall and, Green Line (Armistice Line of 1949), from the west.
The built-up area of Al-Lubban Al-Gharbi village spreads on 211 dunums of land, about 2 % of the village’s total land area (9695 dunums). The village is home to 1924 inhabitants (PCBS 2010), most of who work in the agricultural sector, which is considered the major source of income for the residents of the village.
Prepared by
