[News] 36,000 Trees Set Ablaze in Occupied Palestine
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Wed Jul 27 08:35:49 EDT 2005
<http://www.pej.org/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=3029&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0>36,000
Trees of Land Set Ablaze in Occupied Palestine
Posted by: rycroft on http://PEJ.org Tuesday, July 26, 2005 - 09:35 AM
36,000 Trees Set Ablaze in Occupied Palestine
stopthewall - Thousands of dunums of agricultural lands have been scorched
in a series of devastating fires ignited by Occupation Forces and their
settlers in the most fertile areas of Palestine. In the villages of Qaffin
and Akkaba in Tulkarem District in the northwest region of the West Bank,
over 36,000 trees in 4000 dunams have been burnt through five separate
attacks since May 2005. Over the past three days alone, as fires continue
to blaze through strong winds, 65% of Qaffins lands and 80% of Akkabas
have been burnt, destroying collectively 80% of their ancient olive trees,
15% of their almond trees, and 2% of their carob trees. Villagers and
Palestinian firemen have been prevented by Occupation Forces and the
Apartheid Wall from putting out the fires, unable to protect areas that
remain tenuously unaffected. On July 7th, agricultural lands in Ain Yaboos,
Nablus, were also torched in this same manner, destroying 130 dunams.
www.stopthewall.org
From: "Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign"<lists at stopthewall.org>
Subject: 36,000 Trees of Land Set Ablaze in Occupied Qaffin and Akkaba
Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 13:17:52 +0200
Steering The Vision of Expulsion:
The lands set ablaze have been confiscated and isolated behind the
Apartheid Wall since 2002, and declared a "closed military zone" accessible
only to Occupation Forces and the few farmers who have recently been
allowed to cross. On July 24th at eleven am, villagers noticed their fields
on fire directly after Occupation Forces left the area. Palestinian firemen
attempting to access the burning fields were denied entry through the gate
of the Wall, as Occupation firemen on the scene stood by watching the fires
intensifying. Farmers have had tremendous difficulty caring for their lands
since the Apartheid Wall was erected, yet their determination to fight for
their land has been unremitting.
Qaffin and Akkaba are situated in an area known as the breadbasket of
Palestine, the heartbeat of economic and agricultural activity for
Palestinians that is rapidly being appropriated and destroyed. The burning
of already expropriated Palestinian land builds upon a long and elaborate
racist structural system of Zionist Occupation designed to expel
Palestinians from their ancestral lands. The Apartheid Wall is an integral
element of this broader scheme that has unfolded in progressive stages: its
construction, the annexing of Palestinian land, isolating Palestinians from
these lands, and now, burning any "evidence" of Palestinian ties to the
land. In doing soas the legacy of the Occupation supports territorial
expansion can continue to be legitimated through the manipulation of old
Ottoman Law that stipulates land uncultivated for three years may be
confiscated and declared "state land".
Destruction of land through its isolation began immediately after the first
phase of the wall was completed in October 2003, whereby the isolated areas
were declared a military zone. Hundreds of farmers have, subsequently, been
unable to cross to their lands, or those who have been "lucky enough to
obtain permission to do so have been subjected to humiliating procedures of
control at the gate. In Jayyous and Falamya alone, 20,000 citrus trees
dried out last year, as well as 60 dunams of greenhouses, because farmers
were denied access. This policy continues now through the burning of Qaffin
and Akkabas trees, to isolate and, ultimately, transform once fertile
agricultural lands into deserts that leave no reason for farmers to cross
to their land. As Rushdi Tumeh, one of the farmers watching his land
burning behind the gate in Qaffin stated, "this is proof of Zionist plans
to expel us from our lands", to burn us out of the history and future of
Palestine. But this will remain an illusive Zionist dream, for despite the
struggle and humiliation, the long term Zionist vision of the Wall will
never succeed in severing us. The roots of the olive tree, like the will of
Palestinian people, run deep into the landscape and continue to feed our
resistance.
*** www.stopthewall.org ***
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