The Israeli military and Jewish settlers continue to harass Palestinian farmers in the West Bank … destroying hundreds of trees stealing crops and preventing farmers from accessing their lands. The frequency of such attacks increases during the harvest seasons especially olives.
The Palestinian farmers’ loss was not only due to the scarcity of olive production for this year but rather the season witnessed increased settlers’ crimes which inflicted heavy losses on farmers and cost them much money effort and fatigue.
Stealing the crop
As soon as the farmers of Azmout village east of Nablus arrived at their lands adjacent to Elon Moreh settlement they discovered that the olives which they wanted to pick were stolen and looted by the Israeli settlers.
Farmer Muhammad Alawneh one of the landowners in the village says “The villagers are prevented from accessing their lands close to the settlement as they are labeled as closed military areas. At the beginning of the olive harvesting season of each year we receive directives by the civil liaison that we are allowed to pick olives only on specific days” according to Huriah News.
“As soon as we reached the land that contains dozens of olive trees we found a large number of trees whose fruits were stolen” he added.
Cutting down trees
Farmer Faris Omran from Deir al-Hatab town who also owns land close to Alon Moreh settlement explains that many of his olive trees have been cut down by the Jewish settlers.
Omran stated that he and other landowners were prevented from entering their lands which delayed the discovery of what he described as a “massacre” against trees that annually produced significant quantities of oil and olives.
Omran pointed out that these crimes have become a seasonal ritual for Jewish settlers during the olive harvesting season. These crimes are committed to inflict heavy losses on farmers and to force them to depart their lands leaving it an easy prey for Israeli settlers he added.
Wild boars
Farmer Fadi Sawalha from Azmout town stated that olive seedlings have been destroyed by herds of wild boars that wreaked havoc on agricultural lands.
Sawalha said that hundreds boars invaded the eastern hamlets after being released by Israeli settlers and they have multiplied in recent years.
Abd al-Karim Hussein the head of the village council in Deir al-Hatab said that Alon Moreh settlement continues to expand at the expense of the lands of Deir al-Hatab and Azmout villages.
Sewage water
Hussein stressed that farmers are prevented throughout the year from accessing their lands and are exposed every now and then to settler attacks that take place under the very eyes of occupation forces which sometimes intervene to support the settlers in their attacks.
Hussein said that farmers discovered that their lands were flooded with sewage water as they found it very difficult to pick olives from trees that were flooded with the stinky water.
Settlers have intensified their violations against the olive pickers on their lands during the past few days including physical attacks and denying them entry into their lands in addition to burning and cutting trees.
Settlers also take advantage of the protection and support of the occupation forces to escalate their violations against Palestinian farmers and their trees especially during the olive harvesting season. Farmers rush to pick olives to save what can be saved from their crops before settlers cut and burn them or steal their fruits.
During recent days the areas and villages south of Nablus have witnessed an increase in settler attacks most notably Asira al-Qibliya town.
According to a periodic report issued by Hamas’s media office in West Bank the occupation forces committed (1575) violations against the Palestinians and their lands in the West Bank and Occupied Jerusalem during September.
