Thirty olive trees sawed down by Brochin settlers in the town of Kafr Ad-Dik, Salfit governorate

February 5, 2021

• Violation: sawing  and vandalizing  30 olive trees.
• Location: Kafr Ad- Dik town / Salfit Governorate.
• Date of violation: 05/02/2021.
• Perpetrators: the settlers of “Brokhin”.
• Affected party: Citizen Muhammad Ayyoub Ali Ahmed.

Violation details:

On Friday evening, February 5, 2021, a group of settlers from the settlement of “Brokhin” infiltrated into the “Ras AL-Mawares” area in the northern part of the town of Kafr Ad-Dik, taking advantage of the darkness and the absence of farmers, by they cut down  and destroying  30 olive trees at the  age of 40 years using electric saws. The sawed down trees belong to the farmer Muhammed Ayyoub Ali Ahmed.

It is noteworthy that the “Ras Al-Mawares” area is considered one of the risky areas, as it is only 800 meters away from the wall of the “Brochin” colony.

Photos 1-5: damage done to the trees of Mr. Muhammed Ahmad.

 The owner of the trees, Mr. Ahmad gave the following account to LRC’s field researcher: 

“For many years, we have been suffering from constant harassment by the colonialists, especially during the olive harvest season, as I own an 18 dunum plot of land there, all cultivated with olives and figs. I try to constantly exist on my land despite the continued harassment by the colonialists, who between now and then,  wander in the area, and try to attack us and insult us, and sometimes they steal agricultural tools from our land.  For example, three years ago they cut and destroyed more than 45 trees there in the same way,This comes within the framework of the continuous attempts by the colonialists, their government and their army to expel us from our land, but we are determined to remain in it despite all fears. “ 

The aforementioned  attack synchronizes with another attack by settlers form the same colony  on the same day in which  30 olive and almond seedlings in the Al Wadat (valleys) area north of the town of Bruqinvillage were cut down, in addition to stealing and vandalizing fences on the same site.

The colonies of “Brochin”, “Beduel” and “Ali Zahav”, pose a real threat to the lives of farmers in the area, on one hand, and continue to confiscate more Palestinian  land in their vicinity, on the other hand, which deprives the local Palestinian people of their only source of income.

An introduction to Kafr Ad Dik [i]

Kafr Ad Dik is located 15 km to the west of Salfit. It is surrounded by Bidya (north), Rafat and DeirBallut (west), Bruqin and Sarta (east), and BaniZaid villages (south). KafrAdDik has a population of 4553 people, according to a 2007 census.  Its total area is 15529 dunums; however, it has been suffocated by bypass roads and 3 Israeli colonies that lay over their lands. This has further limited its expansion knowing that it had already had a 791-dunum organizational plan (built-up area); it also isolated the village from its surroundings. The Israeli occupation confiscated 2477 dunums of Kafr Ad Dik lands as followed:

1. About 1225 dunums were seized for the construction of the following colonies:  

*Source: Field Research- Monitoring Israeli Violations Team- Land Research Centre (LRC).

2. About 362 dunums for the building of bypass roads;
3. About 890 dunums for the construction of the Wall, in addition to the inclusion of 8824 dunums inside it;

 The lands of Kafr Ad-Dik are categorized according to Oslo Accords into lands under Area B (15% of the lands) and lands under Area C (85% of the lands).

i] Source: Geographic Information System- Monitoring Israeli Violations Team- Land Research Center