Violation: cutting down trees
Date: 20/02/2015
Location: Wad is-Swwayed / Yatta
Perpetrators: colonists from the nearby
Victims: citizen Jamal Hausheyih and his brothers
Details:
A group of colonists on February 02, 2015 cut down 36 aging olive trees from the lands of citizen Jamal Hausheyih in the area of Wad is-Swwayed, south Yatta town. Jamal told a researcher from Land Research Center the following: " I received a phone call on Friday from one of my family members informing me that my plots were attacked and a number of my trees were cut down".
He also pointed out that colonists cut down his trees through sharp tools and electric saw. Colonists took advantage of the snow storm that hit the area to carry out their attack without being noticed by anyone.
Photos 1-6: signs of the trees cutoff (source: Dove Operation)
The affected citizen said that the aggrieved trees were planted 25 years ago on part of his lands. Jamal and his brothers own around 325 agricultural dunums in the area of Wad is-Swwayed, which is located nearby the colonial bypass road no. 31. Also, the area is located nearby Susiya and Mizpe Ya'ir colonies from the east.
Citizen Hausheyih reported the attack to some foreign activists who reside in the area and the Palestinian District Coordination Office DCO. Israeli police and the Civil Administration came and examined the scene on February 21, 2015 and requested the citizen to submit a written complaint to the police station.
It should be mentioned that colonists escalated attacks on olive trees belonging to Palestinians; in 2014 they uprooted around 70 olive seedlings in the nearby area where they cut down 17 aging olive trees (25 years) in 2009.
Colonists also took over a part of Hausheyih's land and planted it with grape-vines. After a long battle in Israeli courts over the land, Hausheyih managed to restore the land by 2012.
For more information about attacks citizen Hausheyih and his land went through, please read the following reports issued by Land Research Center in this regard:
