Khaberni - The Applied Research Institute "ARIJ" stated that more than 25,000 dunams of land planted with olive trees, close to the settlements and colonial outposts in all provinces of the West Bank, are prohibited by the Israeli occupation from allowing owners to approach and enter to pick olive fruits.
ARIJ added in a report, today, Thursday, that according to the analysis conducted by the institute, the number of military orders issued by the occupation reached 96 orders, covering more than 25,000 dunams of lands planted with olive trees, with the largest targeting being in the provinces: Jenin, Jerusalem, Qalqilya, and Ramallah respectively.
It pointed out that since the beginning of this year, the institute has recorded more than (3100) attacks carried out by settlers against Palestinians and their properties and agricultural lands and natural resources, which caused significant damages.
The report also showed that the institute recorded the uprooting, destruction, and burning of approximately (13) thousand trees either by uprooting, burning, or destroying them since the beginning of this year, by settlers and Israeli occupation forces, most of which were olive trees in various provinces of the West Bank.
It explained that the occupation authorities continue, year after year, to issue military orders preventing Palestinians from accessing their lands planted with olives, especially those on which settlements or colonial outposts are established, or close to them, in a repeated policy aimed at the gradual seizure of Palestinian lands, through temporary banning and gradually moving to permanent banning.
The institute pointed out that the Israeli orders issued do not include lands isolated west of the apartheid wall, which have become virtually isolated from their owners, doubling the suffering of farmers, and limiting their ability to benefit from their lands, and providing their annual livelihood from the sales of olives, as it targets Palestinian landowners through reducing the number of permits granted to them to enter their lands (west of the wall).
It affirmed that the Israeli military orders constitute one of the most prominent colonial tools used by the Israeli occupation authorities for the seizure of Palestinian lands, particularly in areas classified as "C", which are still under full Israeli security and administrative control.
It continued: These practices are in conflict with international humanitarian law, and the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits an occupying force from seizing private lands, or making any permanent changes to the occupied territories, as well as the establishment of settlements and the transfer of the occupation state's inhabitants to the occupied territories, which constitutes a clear violation of Article (49) of the same convention, and a breach of United Nations Security Council resolutions, particularly Resolution 2334 of the year (2016) which reaffirms the illegality of the settlements in the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967.
