Violation: Cutting down olive trees
Date: 06/10/2013
Location: As Sahayel-Deir Sharaf- Nablus
Perpetrators: Colonists of "Shavei Shomron"
Victims: A farmer named Muhammad Al Shawli
Details:
On 06/10/2013, Deir Sharaf witnessed a new wave of attack; this time on the trees. A group of colonists from Shavei Shomron broke into As Sahayel where they cut down 19 olive trees (15 of which,15 years old, are partially damaged and 4 saplings, 5 years old, are totally damaged ).
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Pictures 1-3: Scenes of the attacked trees- Deir Sharaf
The damaged trees belong to a farmer named Mohammad Al Shawli who is the only breadwinner of his 7-member-family, 3 of whom are children. Colonists were not content with cutting down the trees; they also stole them and moved them into the colony of Shavei Shomron built on Deir Sharaf lands.
Ra’fat Al Shawli, 53 years old, told an LRC observer that he owns all the legal documents and deeds that prove his ownership of the land. He also added that it was not the first time his land was under attack. In 1993, colonists uprooted the trees he planted. He filed an official complaint to the Israeli occupation but to no avail as colonists did it again after 20 years of the first attack. Colonists intensify their attacks during the olive harvest season with no legal deterrent.
Deir Sharaf is west of Nablus. It has an area of about 9,000 dunums. The town is surround by Beit Iba from the east, Beit lead and Ramin from the west, Sabastiya from the north, and Qusin from the south.
West of Deir Sharaf, there is an outspread plain that people used to plant with grain and barley among other crops but the Israeli occupation shut it off and considered it a closed military zone. Now it is barely planted; by only some farmers who manage to sneak into and take care of it.
