Violation: ravaging 267 olive seedlings.
Location: Al Arma, north east Aqraba.
Date: May 13, 2012.
Perpetrators: colonists of Itmar.
Victim: Izzat bani Umayyah, a Palestinian farmer.
Details:
On May 13, 2012, a group of colonists broke into Al Arma area before ravaging 267 olive seedlings, property of Izzat bani Umayyah (54). It is the third attack on the same area since the begging of the year.
Izzat said: ‘almost a year ago, I embarked on rehabilitating my land in cooperation with the PARC which implemented a collective rehabilitation project that included 5 farmers in the area, close to the colony of Itmar. My objective was protecting my lands which has been targeted by the colonists for years. During the planting process, the lands were the target for an attack that included demolishing of cisterns and retaining walls as well as theft of seedlings. Despite all that we are still trying to exploit the lands and grow it. On May 13, 2012, I headed to my field when I suspected that something is wrong as 80 meters of the fence were ravaged and some poles were missing. I ran towards the land to see that 267 seedlings were uprooted or ravaged in some way. Some of the traces led to Itmar. ‘
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Picture 1-3: scenes of the attack
Jawdat Bani Jaber of Aqraba Municipality commented by saying: ‘the Israeli Army and colonists attacks on the lands of Aqraba are increasing; these include cutting trees, land grab, preventing farmers or herders from working, and many others. We filed several complaints to the Israeli Police but it does nothing to prevent such attacks, on the contrary, the number of attacks has increased lately‘.
It must be pointed that al Arma has been targeted constantly since 2000 while land theft has become a usual scene in the area. The only road edging the area, connecting Aqraba and Awarta has been blocked for several years. It must be noted that the Israeli Occupation Authorities have realized the importance of olives and that is the reason for their war against olive groves and trees.
Colonists, under the protection of the Israeli Army, has ravaged thousands of trees by torching, uprooting, spraying with chemicals, etc. which resulted in the loss of a major source of income for many Palestinian families.
