Violation: setting 96 dunums alight and damaging 210 olive trees.
Location: Al Wadat, Al Azraq, and Kafet al Manzela – Urif.
Date: June 6, 2012.
Victims: 21 farmers of Urif.
Details:
At the early morning hours on June 6, 2012, a group of Israeli colonists sneaked into the areas known as Al Wadat, Al Azraq, and Kafet al Manzela in Urif village. The colonists took advantage of the movement restrictions imposed on the Palestinians and set fire into the dry weeds there; the fire spread rapidly over 96 dunums of lands, ravaging 210 olive trees.
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Picture 1-2: lands set alight by colonists
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The villagers responded to the raging flames by rushing to their fields to put down the fire; however, the Israeli patrols in the area obstructed them and did not allow them to pass while, at the same time, colonists continued starting fires in the area. Fire trucks intervened after a long time. Ravaging lands and torching and uprooting trees are part of the methods used by the colonists to spread chaos and destruction.
During the past few years, the area witnessed tens of attacks that included torching fields as well as cutting and uprooting of trees; all is done to drive the Palestinians away.
Yizhar:
The colony of Yizhar was established in 1983 on Palestinian lands belonging to the villages of Burin and Asira Al Qiblia south west of the city of Nablus. The colony has expanded multiple times ever since as additional tens of dunums were confiscated for that purpose. The additional dunums were taken from the villages of Burin, Asira Al Qiblia, Urif, Madama and Huwwara. The built-up area of the colony was 158 dunums as of 2005 while the area of land under its jurisdiction is about 1,800 dunums.
The number of Israeli colonists in the colony has grown over the years; in 1983 there were 64 colonists while in 1998 the number grew to 291. In 2004 around 534 colonists lived there. Around 90% of them belong to the so-called ‘Guardians of the Temple’, and extremely radical right wing group.
Colonists of Yizhar have embarked on attracting more colonists to come and reside there; a number of mobiles homes have been placed over ‘Asira’s lands; 1 km away from the colony built up area. In addition, a number of roads are being opened within the boundaries of the colony, setting infrastructure for its development and expansion. The Israelis are trying to connect the colony with the huge colonial compound in the area; a road was opened to connect the colony with by-pass ’60’ which leads to Shavi Shamron colony to the north of Nablus. Another road was opened to connect the colony with Itmar; tens of dunums were destroyed in the process.
