Preface:
The village of Burin is located in the southern countryside of Nablus. It used to be the food basket for the entire Governorate of Nablus as it used to provide all of the needed vegetables and barley for the population of the Governorate.
This used to be the case until the Israeli occupation of 1967 befell the entire West Bank including Burin. In its aftermath, the farmers of Burin were not allowed to reach their lands especially after the establishment of a number of colonies on the hills and fields surrounding the village.
One of the most notorious colonies surrounding Burin is the colony of Yetzhar is which located on the hills overlooking the southern region of the village. From the western direction lies the colony of Brakha while Israeli camps and observation towers planted all around the village. It is a well-founded fact that the colonies of Brakha and Yetzhar are the hub of violence and racism against anything that is Palestinian in the area.
Such racism was drawn from their rabbis including Rabi Yetzhaq Shapira, a resident of Yetzhar and the author of the 230-page “The King’s Torah” book issued in December 2009. In the book, the Rabbi declared that “It is permissible for a Jew to kill a non-Jew for the sake of protecting the security of Israel”. The colonists of Yetzhar and Brakha have used this fatwa to increase their attacks and violations against anything that is Palestinian including human beings and their property including the trees.
Details:
The village of Burin has witnessed a wave of attacks by the Yetzhar colonists since the beginning of March, 2011. The new wave took place in the aftermath of the removal of 4 colonial outposts from Gil’ad Zoher located in the vicinity of the colony. In response of the evacuation, Yetzhar colonists raided the village of Burin during the night and set four Palestinian vehicles ablaze. The vehicles were owned by: Mr. Waleed Al Najjar (vehicle: Audi 2000), Mr. Waleed Al Hawwari (vehicle: Peugeot), Mr. Basheer Hamza (vehicle: Reno) in addition to a JSB bagger (partially damaged) owned by Mr. Khalil Al Tallawi.
Pics: The damaged vehicles.
In addition to what was listed above, the Yetzhar colonists tried to burn down the houses of Mr. Ayman Sofan and Waleed Al Najjar in the village of Burin. Yet, the collective effort by the residents of the village managed to stop the attempt.
Another group of Yetzhar colonist made their way towards the nearby village of Huwarrah where they set the first floor of the house of Mr. Ihasan Taha Sibti Al Dumeidi ablaze. The entire 120-m2 first floor was destroyed while the 33-year old Al Dumeidi and his 28-year old wife suffered suffocation due to smoke inhalation. They were transported to a hospital in the city of Nablus while the colonists continued their attack on the village causing property damage to the house of Mr. Mohammad Ahmad Al Dumeidi.
The Colony of Yetzhar:
The colony of Yetzhar 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, Oreef, 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 located in Parcel 8. The confiscated lands were from the locations of Salman Al Farisi, Al Marj, Jabal Al Nada and Khalil Salameh Al Muhr. 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 are from the Israeli extreme right.
Prepared by
The Land Research Center
LRC
The Land Research Center
LRC
