Sunday, January 13, 2013, the Palestinian, grassroots anti-apartheid wall campaign (Stop the Wall), the Farmers’ Union and the Popular Coalition for the Right of Land organized an event to plant new olive trees. A delegation from the boycott committee against the Jewish National Fund (JNF), residents from Khirbet at-Twail and Aqraba village participated in support of the steadfastness of Khirbet at-Twail, which is threatened with expulsion by the Israeli military.
The group for boycott of the JNF – with members from Scotland, England and USA – came to the 112 year jubilee of the establishment of the JNF. The JNF is one of the most important Zionist institutions that have contributed to the displacement of Palestinians since 1948 and the destruction of more than 530 Palestinian villages by funding the occupying power. The boycott committee has achieved big victories in their campaign to expose the JNF, which has presented itself as a charity organization.
The participants managed to plant 112 olive trees, all with the names of destroyed Palestinian villages. The last tree carried the name of the village “Bab al-Shams” that was demolished on the same day as the activists planted it.
The campaign has been organized yearly. Last year it was in Tulkarem on a piece of land threatened with confiscation by the occupation. This year the planting of olive trees took place in Susya, which is threatened with displacement and demolition, south of Hebron.
Khirbet at-Tawil is located close to Aqraba, east in the Nablus region, and is just one of many communities threatened with eviction and displacement such as Yanoun and Tana. Residents of Khirbet at-Twail received an order of eviction in 2007 from the occupying state – including its school, mosque and electricity grid. At the same time, the occupation forces and settlers have demolished several buildings, attacked the village’s cattle and attacked its resident population these last years.
This activity is the beginning of a national and global campaign to strengthen and protect the Palestinian population in the Nablus region.