Occupation Forces destroyed over 50 trees belonging to villagers in Ramin on the evening of Monday May the 8th, as devastation of Palestinian land in the region continued. Soldiers used chainsaws to uproot 6 dunums of land running close to a main Palestinian road. The road now usurped by settlers for their own exclusive use has been a frequent scene of settler attacks on Palestinian farmers and their families in recent months.
Soliders took chainsaws to 30 olive trees and 25 fig trees belonging to villager Rabah el Dain Zeidan and his family. They targeted land immediately south of the village (in the southeast of Tulkarem district) which runs near the historical road between Tulkarem city and Nablus. Today that road is off-limits to Palestinians as part of the Apartheid Road system enforced by the Occupation. Settlers have exclusive use of the road in order to reach their colonies in the Enav and Shave Shomron settlements.
Farmers cultivating their land near the road have suffered regular beatings and abuse by settlers and Soldiers alike in recent months. The farmers have resisted the attacks of the Occupation, and continued to farm their lands running close to the road. Taken with wider devastation in the area, it ensures that Palestinians in Ramin are cut off from a crucial main source of livelihood. .
Settlements have encroached on the village land over the last two decades, wreaking havoc and violence upon Palestinians and their lands. During the 1980s, 200 dunums of Raminâs land were confiscated to build Enav settlement. During 2005, a further 450 dunums of land were confiscated from the village to expand the settlement. This included fencing off the area in order to bar farmers from their lands.
Around 150 dunums of this land was planted with olive trees, the rest cultivated with several kinds of vegetables. Since last year, the Occupation has already uprooted 132 dunums here. Along with ongoing land theft, the village has suffered from intense isolation, enforced since the beginning of the Intifada. The population of 2200 in Ramin is cut off from east and west by enforced Occupation closures between the village and nearby cities of Tulkarem and Nablus.
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