Colonists Poison 53 Heads of Sheep in Al-‘Auja / Jericho governorate

July 28, 2020

• Violation: Colonists poison a herd.
• Location:  Al-Auja Area/ North Jericho.
• Date: July 28^th 2020.
• Perpetrator: “Ne’ama” colony.
• Victims: farmer Hassan Zwahra.

Description:

Israeli colonies spread around the Jordan Valley have a devastating impact on the agricultural sector; colonists intentionally throw chemicals and /or poisonous substances on Palestinian lands and postures.

 Recently, 53 heads of sheep died as a result of chemicals thrown in open lands and postures around Ne’ama colony, The poisoned herd belong to citizen Ahmed Az-Zawahra from Aj-Jahaleen Bedouin community.

  The affected farmer told LRC the following:

“I own a herd of Black sheep (85 heads), that provide a source of income for my family which is composed of 9 people , and I don’t have any other sources of income. Monday morning July 27^th 2020 , I went herding in postures around Ne’ama colony (about 1.5 km away from my community), i noticed chemical substances in the ground so I took the herd back home , but on our way home some of the sheep died and others got really sick , during the night the sick sheep started dying one by one , in the next morning , 53 sheep were dead , I called a vet and informed the ministry of Agriculture , and the vets team found out that the sheep were poisoned.

In the next morning, officers from the so called Israeli Civil Administration showed up at the location, and denied that colonists are behind poisoning the sheep, our loss is so big , may god help us.”

Photos 1-9: poisoned sheep

Az-Zawahra’s loss reached about  21^st thousand dollars (price of the dead sheep) .

Al-‘Auja village council head told LRC : “During the past three years , sheep were poisoned in several spots in the same way , colonists throw chemicals in postures , which harms herds and herders.”

Ne’ama colony was established in 1998 on parts of An-Nuwe’ima and Al-‘Auja lands north Jericho , the colony eats up 5125 dunums , and inhabited by 114 colony who enjoy facilitations and benefits from the Israeli government.

Al-‘Auja village – an overview:[1]

12 km from Jericho city, Al-‘Auja village has a total area of 106,399 sunums, of which 1,186 dunums are a built up area for the village , it also has a population of 5,224 people until 2017 census.

The Israeli occupation confiscated about 4717 dunums for colonization , 1600 dunums are military bases for the army, while bypass 90 , which is 8,180 m long and devoured 818 dunums,  in addition to Israeli settlement that ate up 2,299 dunums, as shown in the following table:

[1] GIS-LRC.