Israel arrests Palestinian official planting trees near Ramallah

The Israeli army arrested a Palestinian official on Monday as he was taking part in a ceremony to plant 300 olive trees in the town of Silwad in the occupied West Bank. Jameel Barghouti is the acting president of the Anti-Wall and Settlement Commission, the late president of which died in December last year following an attack by Israeli soldiers during a similar event.

An activist with the commission, Abdullah Abu Rahma, told Anadolu that the army arrested Mr Barghouti, having already attacked him and other participants in the programme. Tear gas was also fired. “The Israeli army violate international law, and even their own laws and judgements issued by the courts,” he pointed out.

This was a reference to a High Court ruling in 2012 in favour of the return of agricultural land to the people of Silwad. The army has now issued its own decree allowing illegal settlers to enter the land.

“For more than 30 years,” said a local landowner, “we have been prevented from entering our land, which was annexed to the Israeli settlement of Ofra, and today we came to reclaim it and cultivate it, but they are preventing us from accessing all of our lands.” Rose Hamid’s land was confiscated by the Israeli army. It was not possible to get a comment from the army about this incident.

Settlers took control of almost 30 acres of Silwad’s land in 1978.