- : Setting fire to scores of olive trees
- : Ainabos town- Nablus governorate
- : July 13, 2014
- : " Yitzhar" colonists
- : Number of farmers in Ainabos town
- :
On July 13,2013, at noon, a group of " Yitzhar" colonists set fire to Ainabos olive fields ; south of Nablus city. At 1:30p.m.- and according to Mr. Abdel Rahman Hamad ; the chairman of Ainabos village council to the LRC researcher :" The smoke arose from Ainabos areas such like ( Al Ta'ameer. Kafayef Amar, and Al Soma'a) which are 1 km away from "Yitzhar" colony."
It should be marked that because of the wild geography of the land and it is being regarded as the colony's buffer zone , all citizens' attempts at reaching out their lands have failed.
Despite that, the LRC researcher made it to the edges of the targeted areas. About sixty trees (30years of age) were totally burnt down to the ground. The aforementioned affected trees are owned by Hamad and Allan clans from the town.
The Israeli occupation soldiers denied farmers access to their agricultural land since it is classified as "security zone" as stated. The fire department staff was even denied access to the fields at first but after stalling for an hour, they were let through. The fire by then has burned down a massive olive-planted arealand, inflicting irreversible damage.
It should also be mentioned that because of the wild nature of the targeted area and its closeness to Yitzhar colony, neither governmental nor civic bodies could reach out the fields to estimatecalculate the damageloss there.
Photo 1-5 : burnt trees in Ainabos
The ongoing scenario of Israeli violations against the Palestinian trees:
It is known that during the fourteen past years Ainabos town witnessed several frequent violations by the colonists of " Yitzhar" ; the colony which occupies the mountain tops in the town.
According to the available census for the LRC researcher and in addition to the village council data, Ainabos -as other nearby Palestinian towns and villages- has witnessed, almost every harvesting season, several frequent violations by colonists. The violation is mainly manifested in burning down the olive trees and cutting them off.
Not only the occupation army and police are always complicit with colonists at times of attackviolations but they also ensure their security guaranteeing more violations against the Palestinian land and human.
According to the chairman of village council to the LRC researcher: "All complaints submitted by the farmers to the occupation police about trees being cut off and burnt have been stalled and pushed aside."
About Ainabos :
Is located 8km from the southern part of Nablus city. Form the north west there is Urif village. From the west there is Jamma'in village, from the east there is Huwara town and from the south there is Zeita village. Ainabos has a population of 3019 people until 2014 and has a total area of 4088 dunums , 482 of which are built-up area. The occupation confiscated around 144 dunums as follows:
Israeli colonies: 111 dunums were confiscated for the favor of Yitzhar colony
Bypass road : 2.5 dunums were confiscated for the favor of road no. 5076.
According to Oslo classification of areas, 3413 dunums of the village are considered as area "B" where 675 dunums are considered area "C" .
Source: Geographic Information System- Monitoring Israeli Violations Team- Land Research Center
Prepared by
The Land Research Center
LRC
