Violation: targeting trees during military trainings
Location: Lafjam area- Aqraba town
Date: November 06, 2016
Perpetrators: Israeli Occupation Forces
Victims: farmer Osama Bani Fadel
Details:
Olive tree is a symbol of the land Arabism and the strong connection between man, land and history.
The Israeli Occupation Forces have always worked hard to take down Palestinian farmers' well through targeting lands and trees.
On November 06, 2016, Israeli Occupation Forces used the area of Lafjam as a shooting\firing area as per conducting some military trainings, causing at least 20 olive trees to get fully and partially damaged. Trees were used as shooting objects.
Photo of the damaged trees
The damaged trees( 25 years) are reported to be owned by farmer Osama Bani Fadel from the area. The farmer is fully dependant on agricultural as a source of income.
It is reported that this attack is not one of the kind in the area. The occupation forces tend to conduct such trainings, epically during the harvesting seasons to cause as much damage as possible on the farmers .
About Lafjam :
The area of Lafjam is inhabited by 500 farmers coming originally from Aqraba. The warmth of the area and abundance of agricultural lands have prompted farmers and shepherds to live in Lafjam. The latter is now threatened of being confiscated at any time.
It should be marked that Lafjam is of 30,000 dunum in area mostly pastoral and agricultural, of which 8,000 dumum is arid land. Around 15,000 dunum is used for irrigated and field crops plantation where 7,000 dunum is subject for colonial activities.
The following colonies are founded on the lands of Lafjam that are classified as area C:
- Jetit :It was established in 1973 and is inhabited by 191 colonists until 2005. The colony has a total area of 1720 dunum and is 37km away from the Green Line*.
- Maale Afraim : it was established in 1970 and is inhabited by 1423 colonists until 2005; the colony has a total area of 4778 dunum.
- Itmar colony extension: it was established in 1984 and is inhabited by 651 colonists until 2005. The colony possesses an area of 7189 dunum and is 28km away from the Green Line*.
*Green Line refers to the demarcation lines set out in the 1949 Armistice Agreements between the armies of Israel and those of its neighbors (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria) after the1948 Arab–Israeli War).
Prepared by
The Land Research Center
LRC
