Villagers from Wadi Rasha, Ras Tira, and Dabaâa held a protest against the destruction of their olive droves and managed to block Occupation machinery for much of the morning. Every day, Occupation forces uproot as many as 40 mature olives trees in their efforts to clear a path for the Wall on village land.
***image1***This morning, the residents of Wadi Rasha, Ras Tira, and Dabaâa called a general strike and marched to their threatened lands. Some 200 men, women and youth from the villages participated in the demonstration, where they blocked machinery from uprooting trees for much of the morning. Soldiers were unable to force the crowd away, and eventually retreated.
Following the initial success, however, soldiers and machinery were relocated to another area and began to raze land and uproot trees. The people were blocked from reaching the site, located just meters from the edge of Wadi Rasha homes. Some 25 mature trees, which produce three to four buckets of olives each during harvest season, were destroyed during the course of the day.
Every day Occupation forces uproot between 30 â 40 older olive trees and hundreds of the saplings in their effort to clear a new path for the Wall. The new route will affect raze or isolate 2,500 dunums belonging to the three small villages. 70% of this land is planted with olive trees, while the remainder serves as natural pastures and agricultural areas.
The villages of Wadi Rasha, Ras Tira, and Dabaâa are located just southeast of Qalqilya and are currently isolated on three sides by the Wall and a forth by a settler road. The new path of the Wall will isolate a much of their land for the expansion Alfe Menashe settlement.
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