Israel settlers set fire to Palestinian crops in Bethlehem

Israeli settlers today set fire to crops belonging to two Palestinian farmers in Kisan village, east of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.

Mayor Mousa Ebayyat told Wafa news agency that a group of extremists from the illegal Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Amos torched wheat and barley crops planted in a plot of land belonging to farmers from the village.

This is not the first time village land and residents have come under attack from Israeli settlers and soldiers, he added.The town of Kisan has been subject to repeated attacks by settlers against farmers, abusing them, stealing their equipment and preventing them from grazing their livestock.

Over 700,000 Israelis live in the illegal Jewish-only settlements across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem in violation of international law. All of Israel’s settlements and the settlers who live there are illegal under international law.

Last year, Israeli settlers attacked a group of Palestinians and foreign solidarity activists who volunteered to help pick olives in Kisan village.

Settler gangs also uprooted more than 300 olive saplings and sprayed olive trees with incendiary chemicals.

Kisan, a village cut off from other neighbouring Palestinian villages, is inhabited by 800 people and is surrounded by the two illegal Israeli settlements of Maale Amos and Avi Menahem.

Its area is about 133,278 dunams (133 square kilometres). Israeli settlers expropriated 2,201 dunams (2.2 square kilometres) of its land.

The village does not have transportation, electricity, water networks or a medical clinic.

Like hundreds of other Palestinian towns and villages in the occupied West Bank, Kisan is located in ‘Area C’ under the Oslo Accords, putting it under full Israeli military and administrative control.

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