Destruction of Palestinian farmland by Israeli occupation troops

Ramallah (Palestine), 6 August 2001/P/RE/17255c-is

From a news release by the Palestine Media Center (PMC)

According to Palestinian official sources, Israeli occupation forces have razed and burned 3,669,000 square meters of planted land since late September 2000. They have also uprooted and burned 26,570 olive trees.

In its latest acts of aggression against Palestinian fields and crops, Israeli occupation forces burned and razed a number of fields in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

In the Nablus District, Israeli occupation forces burned on 4 August more than 200 olive trees planted on the road connecting the Ziwata and Ejinsia villages.

Eyewitnesses reported that the Israeli occupation forces prohibited civil defense crews from extinguishing the burning trees.

In Jericho, a large number of Israeli occupation forces, supported by military bulldozers, razed 20 dunums [1 dunum = appr. 1.000 square meters] of banana farmland. The owner of the farm said that Israeli occupation forces razed his land under the pretext that Palestinian gunmen supposedly used it for cover in the past.

The Palestinian farmer refuted the Israeli allegations, stressing that his farm lies 2 km away from the main road, making the allegation that gunmen used it for opening fire absolutely preposterous. He told reporters that this was the second time his farm is razed, adding, “Last time, the [Israeli] soldiers razed 30 dunums of my farmland using the same excuse.”

The Emergency Committee of the Jericho Governerate evaluated the farmer’s losses at 360.000 NIS (appr. 85.000 US $).


END/Destruction of Palestinian farmland by Israeli occupation troops/06-08-01/P/RE/17255