Settlers from the Israeli settlement of Carmel in the South of Hebron Hills have uprooted most of the 400 olive trees planted by the campaign earlier in 2012.
The attack was carried out by the settlers on Wednesday night, November 21, 2012. The following morning, a shepherd saw the destroyed trees and contacted the families and landowners about it.
It was obvious that the settlers took their time destroying everything on the land, and spraying racist graffiti and threats. They also used the term "Price Tag" which is a term used by the Israeli settlers for justification of acts of violence that aim to eliminate Palestinians, terrorize them, and destroy their livelihood.
Jamil Hoshyyeh (Abu Iyad), one of the affected farmers, complained about the destruction to the Israeli authorities, who filed the "incident" against "anonymous" and did not purse any investigation to catch the settlers who destroyed the land.
The area where the trees were destroyed is surveyed with at least one camera from the settlement. There are only a few settlers who live there. As such, it is logical that the Israeli Authorities could catch the offenders easily, but once again they act in favor and protection of the Israeli settlers.
Finally, 185 of the destroyed trees were sponsored by friends and partners from Denmark, Japan, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and the USA.
In case you are from any of the mentioned countries we urge you to do some of the following:
- Write a letter to your countries representative in Tel-Aviv asking for a visit to the destroyed fields and affected farmers. Contacts to the farmers can be made available after contacting the Olive Tree Campaign (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).
- Write a private and / or public (through news papers) letter to the Israeli representatives in your country, sharing the story of the farmers and seeking explanation for lack of investigation and failure to bring those responsible for the destruction to justice.
- Write a letter of support to the farmers to let them know they are not left on their own in watching their livelihoods being destroyed.
- Try to bring this story to light using your local newspapers, radio, TV stations or any other media tools.
- Help in sponsoring the planting of more olive trees or call on your friends and other people you know to sponsor olive trees to be planted in fields that suffer the same type of risks.
Please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. of in case you have decided to do something about this loss