Violation: " Yakir" colony is going under expansion
Location: Wadi Qana, Nablus governorate
Date: July 8, 2014
Perpetrators: Colonists of Yakir
Victims: Farmers of Wadi Qana
Details:
At the center of Wadi Qana area, colonists are being active, ravaging the land in the eastern part of the colony; more particularly outside the colony borders. The bulldozing work includes uprooting of 15 fruitful and evergreen trees. The number was documented by the date of issuing this study case, taking into consideration that the percentage of the uprooted area might have increased since.
An explicit violation against "protection of nature " laws:
It should be mentioned that according to Oslo Accords signed between the Israeli occupation and the Palestinian authority in 1990, Wadi Qana; located in the northern part of the West Bank, was declared a natural reserve subjected to nature laws which call on preserving the unique environmental and agricultural diversity in the area.
Based on the aforementioned fact, the so called the society of the protection of nature in Israel "SPNI" fights actively against Deir Istiya farmers by uprooting newly-planted trees and even sending farmers out of their lands which hinders them from utilizing their property.
What we witness today is that the occupation which passes the protection of nature laws is the same one which uproots adamant trees for the favor of the expansion of random colonies in Wadi Qana area, so did the judge become the executor?
The 54 year old Rizq Abu Naser stated to the LRC researcher that" the Israeli occupation military is being lately active in military training in Wadi Qana area, putting farmers, wanderers, animals, and wild birds under the imminent danger zone which might cost them their lives and negatively affect the whole area. In the same time, it is considered as a breach of the protection of nature laws; the occupation pretext of cutting peoples' sustenance off. See Photo 1
Photo 1: The expansion work going on in Yakir settlement
Double standard policy :
It should be mentioned that the Israeli occupation is following the double standards policy where it fights against the Palestinian existence in Wadi Qana by sabotaging the agricultural land, cutting off trees and confiscating agricultural tools. In the same time , the occupation encourages colonial acts and land takeovers in Wadi Qana which in that sense has transferred the place into an afflicted area on which nine colonies are built surrounding the Wadi from the four directions and zoning out the Palestinian existence in it. A massive area of lands has also been confiscated in Wadi Qana.
Natural resources in Wadi Qana have become a target for colonization and colonists. Small historical towns such like Khirbet Shehada has also become a target for colonists not mentioning the confiscated water reservoir which in that sense has been monopolized by colonists only. The owners of citrus fields -which are twelve families – are now forced to sleep under the trees in order to protect their crops from the colonists. Those fields remain the last surviving spot in the massive Wadi " valley".
Prepared by
The Land Research Center
LRC
