Violation: cutting and theft of olive and prune trees.
Location: Ein Fares, Nahhalin – Bethlehem.
Date: November 8, 2012.
Perpetrators: the Israeli Occupation Army.
Victims: number of farmers of Nahhalin.
Details:
On November 9, 2012, Israeli troops accompanied by workers cut a number of olive and prune trees using saws before loading the trees into trucks. The workers cut trees randomly under the protection of Israeli soldiers who set three checkpoints in the area to prevent farmers from getting near. The soldiers claimed that the lands were public property.
Ahmad Shakarna, one of the victims said: ‘it was like cutting my hands or parts of my body; if these were humans they would have felt sorry for the trees’. Ahmad tried to express the fury and sorrow of the owners who has been conserving and taking care of the trees for years. Currently, the owners are preparing documents needed to prove their ownership of these lands and hopefully, stop the Israeli attacks.
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Picture 1: workers cutting trees down
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Picture 2: country folks gathering in protest
Nahhalin:
The village is located 9 km to the south west of Bethlehem and 3.5 km to the east of the armistice line of 1949. It is edged by Bitar Illit and Hadar Bitar colonies (north), al Khader (east), Wadi Fukin and the armistice line (west), and number of Israeli colonies (Rush Tzorim, Ealazr, Allon Shevut, and Ezyon) (south).
The village’s total area is 17250 dunums including 496 dunums of built-up area, inhabited by 7460 people according to the PBS statistics of 2007. Israel has confiscated 2988 dunums of the village lands for colonial expansion purposes. 5 colonies inhabited by more than 30,000 colonists reside over the village lands. They are all part of Ezyon colonial compound which hold 11 colonies within.
