Jewish settlers burn dozens of olive trees in Bethlehem

Jewish settlers have today burned dozens of olive trees in Khalil Al-Lawz, near Bethlehem, Ma’an has reported.

According to Hassan Breijieh, from the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, a group of settlers set fire to fields belonging to the Al-Abayat and Al-Mawaleh families. Dozens of the precious trees were destroyed in the blaze.

Two days ago, a group of settlers set up a caravan in the same area, in an attempt to take control of the land and establish a new settlement outpost. All of Israel’s settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are illegal under international law, as are the Jewish settlers who live in them. Although so-called settlement outposts are also illegal under Israeli law, the government usually turns a blind eye and eventually gives them full recognition and connects them to the utility grids for water and electricity supplies.

Many Palestinian farming families cultivate olive trees for decades, even centuries, and depend on the olive harvest for their livelihood. “Approximately one million olive trees, many of which were centuries old, have been uprooted by Israel since 1967,” Saad Dagher, a Palestinian agronomist in the occupied West Bank, told journalist Carolina S Pedrazzi last year.

“They don’t only uproot them on the pretext that they need to make space for settlements or other Occupation infrastructure. They also claim that the olive trees represent ‘security threats’ towards Israelis, as trees are posts behind which Palestinians hide to target soldiers. It’s madness.”

READ: Israel destroys Palestinian properties in West Bank raid