Israeli Bulldozers uproot 300 Palestinian-Owned Trees near Jenin
JENIN (Ma’an) —
Israeli bulldozers razed dozens of dunams and uprooted hundreds of
Palestinian-owned trees, on Monday afternoon, on lands belonging to residents
from the Bartaa village, southwest of the northern occupied West Bank district
of Jenin. According to local
sources, Israeli forces along with bulldozers stormed the area and began to
raze about 28 dunams (6.9 acres) of land. In addition, bulldozers uprooted 300
almond and olive trees. Sources added that the
razed land belonged to Jamal Sharif Amarneh.
According to
Palestinians and rights groups, Israel’s main goal, both in its policies in
Area C, in which more than 60% of Palestinian land is under full Israeli
control, and Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise, is to depopulate the land
of its Palestinian residents and to replace them with Jewish Israeli
communities, in order to manipulate population demographics in all of historic
Palestine.
The movement of
Israeli settlers taking over Palestinian land, and further displacing the local
Palestinian population has been a “stable” Israeli policy since the takeover of
the West Bank and Jerusalem in 1967, B’Tselem said, underscoring that all
“Israeli legislative, legal, planning, funding, and defense bodies” have played
an active role in the dispossession of Palestinians from their lands.
B’Tselem also argued
that under the guise of a “temporary military occupation,” Israel has been
“using the land as its own: robbing land, exploiting the area’s natural
resources for its own benefit and establishing permanent settlements,”
estimating that Israel had dispossessed Palestinians from some 200,000 hectares
(494,211 acres) of lands in the occupied Palestinian territory over the years.
https://www.juancole.com/2019/02/israeli-bulldozers-palestinian.html
