CPTnet
24 June 2011
AL-KHALIL (HEBRON): Settlers burn land adjacent to outpost
by Esther Mae Hinshaw
On 8 June 2011, fire burned twenty to thirty dunums (4 dunums equal about 1
acre) of a fifty dunum plot of land owned by five different Palestinian families, who grew fruit trees and other garden
produce on it. One of the property owners reported to CPTers Paulette
Schroeder, Jessie Smith, Laurens van Esch, and Esther Mae Hinshaw that the fire
was set by settlers who live in a Kiryat Arba settlement outpost adjacent to
the burned trees and field. When the CPTers arrived on the scene, an
Israeli fire truck was spraying water on the surrounding land. The
property owner reported that a Palestinian fire truck had put out the
fire. One of the owners, who has a shop near the CPT apartment, had
alerted the CPTers.
The Israeli military seized the fifty-dunum plot on 26 October 1971. On 5
May 2011, the Israeli soldiers gave the owners a document telling them that the
seizure notice had been cancelled and the land was now theirs. The
military also told the Palestinians that the property owners were now responsible
for defending the land against the settlers. The owners fear that having their property returned to them
will give the settlers a “green light” to attack them and their land.
They also fear that the settlers will try to connect the outpost to the Kiryat
Arba settlement.
