Place: Ras Al-wad, Za'atra, Beit Shaour.
Violation: Uprooting more than 500 olive and Almond trees
Violator: Israeli Occupation Forces.
Israeli bulldozers, accompanied by armed vehicles and Israeli border occupation police, commenced the second stage of constructing an Israeli bypass road southeast Bethlehem district, thus confiscating vast areas of agricultural land that belong to Palestinian farmers form Ras Al-wad, Za'atra and Beit Sahour. To date, 500 olive and almond trees have been uprooted. ARIJ field workers visited the site and eye witnessed such an Israeli crime against Palestinian nature and farmers' properties. See Photo 1 & photo 2.
This bypass road will connect the south-eastern settlements of Bethlehem district with Jerusalem to further Israeli strangulation of the district. In a previous report, a detailed study about this bypass road and its impact on surrounding Palestinian communities was posted on ARIJ web page, click for full report. Also, a local and international delegate visited the site several times and protested against such Israeli violations. Work on site had been stopped for a while but recently resumed at a rapid pace. It is worth mentioning here that this new by pass road was decided upon between the Israeli Infrastructure Minister, Avigador Liberman and the Government after an internal dispute over the annual budget back in February 2002.
Prepared by:
The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem
