Violation: Tepuah colonists ravage 78 olive trees.
Location: Al Mufq’a, between Jama’een and Yasouf.
Date: January 13, 2012.
Perpetrators: Tepuah colonists.
Victims: 6 families in both villages.
Details:
In Palestine, the olive tree is considered a symbol of peace, love, and hard work which is the reason why it has been a target for Israeli colonists’ attacks over the years. The colonists torched, uprooted, cut down, and ravaged thousands of olive trees over past years. However, the Palestinians are still dedicated to flourishing their lands and their olives.
On January 13, 2012, a group of Israeli colonists sneaked into Al Mufq’a area and started cutting down trees and cutting their branches.Al Mufq’a is one of the most targeted areas in the West Bank, several colonists’ attacks took place in the area besides the plowing campaigns.In 2011, 9 attacks were recorded which implies that the attacks are not coincidental by systematic and organized.
Tbale 1: victims of the most recent attack:
|
Victim
|
Trees
|
Family members
|
Town
|
picture
|
|
Khaled Mesleh
|
12
|
7
|
Yasouf
|
|
|
Adnan Mesleh
|
8
|
9
|
Yasouf
|
|
|
Lu’ay Ubayyat
|
8
|
5
|
Yasouf
|
|
|
Samer Ubayyat
|
10
|
8
|
Yasouf
|
|
|
Ramez Yaseen
|
23
|
11
|
Jama’een
|
|
|
Ali al Mhasna
|
17
|
3
|
Jama’een
|
|
|
|
78
|
43
|
|
|
Source: Field work – Monitoring Israeli Violations of Human Rights Unit – LRC
Yasouf:
Yasouf is located 7 km to the north east of Salfit. It is inhabited by around 2600 people (PCBS) with a total of 260 households who mostly depend on agriculture in their living. Its total area is around 8550 dunums including 1000 dunums of built up area. The Israeli colonial activities devoured 300 dunums of the village lands.
