BETHLEHEM, Monday, June 26, 2023 (WAFA) – Israeli forces today uprooted dozens of olive trees in Khallet al-Qutun area, near Tuqu town, east of the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, according to a local activist.
Hassan Breijeh, director of the Anti-Wall and Colonial Settlement Commission in Bethlehem, said that the occupation forces chopped down some 70 perennial olive trees planted in a three-donum grove, close to Khallet al-Qutun, belonging to Yousef Ibayyat.
With more than 12 million olive trees planted across 45% of the West Bank’s agricultural land, the olive harvest constitutes one of the biggest sources of economic sustainability for thousands of Palestinian families.
According to UN OCHA, the olive oil industry supports the livelihoods of more than 100,000 families and accounts for a quarter of the gross agricultural income of the occupied territories.
But, as local NGO MIFTAH notes, “olive trees carry more than an economic significance in the lives of Palestinians. They are not just like any other trees, they are symbolic of Palestinians’ attachment to their land.”
“Because the trees are drought-resistant and grow under poor soil conditions, they represent Palestinian resistance and resilience. The fact that olive trees live and bear fruit for thousands of years is parallel to Palestinian history and continuity on the land.”
The “Civil Administration” is the name Israel gives to the body administering its military occupation of the West Bank.
Soldiers in the oxymoronically named Civil Administration determine where Palestinians may live, where and when they may travel (including to other parts of the occupied territories like Gaza and East Jerusalem), whether they can build or expand homes on their own land, whether they own that land at all, whether an Israeli settler can takeover that land among others.
K.F.
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