***image2***In Jenin district, systematic land burning â a technique already practiced by the Occupation â has destroyed invaluable land and trees. Hebron farmers are beginning to be subjected to the same expulsion mechanism of the permit system which is already in place in the northern West Bank. Slowly, more and more lands are eaten up as the Wallâs path continues the destruction of Palestinian lands and livelihoods.
On Tuesday, farmers in Tura Sharqiyyeh and Tura Gharbiyyeh saw their olive trees consumed by fire on the land isolated behind the Apartheid Wall. 4500 total dunums of the villages’ land is trapped on the other side of the Wall which bolsters expansion of two Zionist colonies. In the afternoon, as the farmers were herded from their farm land through the ghetto gate, they saw the Occupation Forces burning dry grass near the gates. Shortly thereafter, a fire spread on the lands, setting ablaze approximately 400 olive trees belonging to the farmers of Tura. Occupation firemen came to the place and stopped the fire from spreading to the nearby forest, yet they did not interfere or extinguish the fire destroying the fields of the Palestinian farmers.
The trees belonged to 10 families forced to stand by watching as their isolated lands were being destroyed. Since April, none of their family members have been granted permits to reach their lands. In Tura, like all over the West Bank, permits implement the slow expulsion of the farmers from their lands. A mere 50 out of over 210 farmers from Tura who requested permits were allowed to reach their lands in the last few months.
Also on Tuesday, in Beit Ula (west Hebron), the Occupation began to enforce the permit system, barring entire families from their lands. Two families were passing the Apartheid Wall gate when the Occupation Forces stopped them, took their ID cards and told them that the whole area had been turned into a âmilitary closed zoneâ. Through this racist system, thousands of dunums of land isolated behind the Wall and cultivated with corn, vegetables and trees are now threatened to dry out and the farmers will lose this summer seasons crops and income. The Beit Ula farmers alone are losing approximately 2000 dunums, while neighboring villages will be affected as well.
The racist procedures of blocking Palestinian farmers from reaching their lands came along with new confiscation orders in the south of Hebron. 25 dunums of land have been confiscated from farmers in Yatta village. The lands are at the entrance of Tuwani village and close to Jewish-only Road 80. This confiscation prepares the finalizing of the Wall built along the road. This will isolate all the villages on the other side of the road from Hebron, Yatta and all the main services in these cities.
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