December 16, 2009 - Another incident of olive tree vandalism occurred in West Bank. Akram Na’san, a resident of the village of al-Mughayyir, north-east of Ramallah, discovered on Monday morning that approximately 260 Olive seedlings which he planted recently were uprooted and destroyed. Of them, approximately 190 were newly planted, and the rest were planted last year...
Another incident of olive tree vandalism occurred in West Bank.
Akram Na’san, a resident of the village of al-Mughayyir, north-east of Ramallah, discovered on Monday morning that approximately 260 Olive seedlings which he planted recently were uprooted and destroyed. Of them, approximately 190 were newly planted, and the rest were planted last year.
When Na’san arrived on his land, he documented the damages with his videocamera, which was provided to him by Israeli NGO B’T selem. In January 2007, B’Tselem launched its camera distribution project, a video advocacy project focusing on the Occupied Territories, providing Palestinians living in high-conflict areas with video cameras, with the goal of bringing the reality of their lives under occupation to the attention of the Israeli and international public, exposing and seeking redress for violations of human rights.
As reported by the Israeli Association BT’selem, Na’san contacted the Israeli DCL (District Civilian Liason Office), whose representatives arrived on the scene, counted the damaged seedlings, and arranged for him to make an official complaint at the police station.
The vandals came at night from Adei Ad, a Jewish settlers’ illegal outpost located near to Shvut Rachel. Adei Ad was established in late 1998 by a group of Yeshiva students and according to the Israeli organisation Peace Now, the Israeli Ministry of Housing and Construction financed the establishment of the infrastructures in a total amount of 1.450.000 NIS (http://www.peacenow.org.il/site/en/...).
In July 2009, Israeli authorities demolished some caravans at the settlement outpost; security forces only evacuated those structures that were erected in the recent past, but not the outpost itself, constructed in violation of Israeli law and illegal also under international humanitarian law. According to figures provided by OCHA (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in oPt), who recently has issued a report on Israeli settler violence and the evacuation of outposts, there are between 90 and 100 settlement outposts in the West Bank.
Since August 2009, Israeli settlers of the area already set fire to at least 1500 Palestinian olive trees in the village of Al-Mughayyr and cut down nearly 200 olive trees. (see the article published on The Economist
->http://www.economist.com/world/middleeast-africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14660454]
This phenomenon is part of the ongoing violence against Palestinians and their property "in response to attempts by the Israeli authorities to dismantle unauthorized settlement outposts".
A strategy named by Israeli settlers 'price tag" policy. It might come in the form of olive trees uprooting, vandalizing Muslim graveyards or setting fire to mosques as it happend last week to Yasuf mosque in the Nablus region.
OCHA has also mapped those Palestinian communities considered vulnerable to settler violence, and "the result is a list composed of 83 communities with a combined population of nearly 250.000 people." Al Mughayyr community appears on the list.
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