Palestine: Settlers Burn Olive Grove 8th Time

Facebook
Twitter
Email
WhatsApp
Print

by CPT Palestine

Settlers burn olive grove: First responders douse flames in Abu Haikel grove.On Sunday, 28 July, Tel Rumeida settlers set fire to Hani Abu Haikel’s olive grove. The Abu Haikel family has lived in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood for generations, and has been under constant attack from nearby settlers since the settlers arrived in the 1980s.

Members of CPT Hebron arrived as firefighters and internationals were extinguishing the flames with hoses and buckets. Hani Abu Haikel said, “This has become a yearly thing,” elaborating that this marks the eighth time settlers have set his olive grove on fire.

Abu Haikel said the fire started from below a nearby Israeli military base and speculated that the settlers, whom he had seen on his land earlier that day, had spread a flammable substance on the ground. His evidence, besides the smell of burning chemicals from the ashes, was a small patch of ground left unscathed. Settlers had recently planted a garden on Abu Haikel’s grounds in another attempt to push the family off their land. The settler-planted garden in the middle of the blackened grove was untouched by the flames.

Israeli police have offered two responses to multiple complaints filed since the incident. They have said that the culprit is unknown, and video footage from cameras pointing at the trees is top secret, so nothing can be done; and that the trees probably burned “due to natural reasons” in the hot weather.

Read More Stories

An aerial view of Oak Flat lands, red stones and mountains under a blue sky with a layer of white clouds

Kill the sacred or stop the mine

At Oak Flat, the capitalist powers of destruction seem to want to play God – but how does one destroy all that sustains life in favour of scars of death?

A compilation of the logos of the undersigned organizations

Sekiz Yıllık Şiddet, Ayrımcılık, Tecrit ve Dışlanma

Mart 2016’da AB-Türkiye Mutabakaı’nın yayınlandığında, devletlerin mültecilerin haklarını koruma konusundaki uluslararası yükümlülüklerini tamamen göz ardı etmesi nedeniyle insan hakları grupları tarafından şiddetle kınanmıştı

A compilation of the logos of the undersigned organizations

Eight years of Violence, Discrimination, Segregation, and Exclusion 

On the eighth anniversary of the EU-Turkey Statement, we denounce Turkey and EU states’ consistent failure to uphold their international obligations with regard to migrants and refugees, and strengthen our joint commitment to challenge all official and unofficial policies that lead to the discrimination, segregation, and ultimately exclusion of migrants.

Skip to content