The farmers of Turmusaya routinely suffer hostile incursions to their lands from settlers emerging from nearby settlements and outposts.
One such farmer is Salim Dar ‘Awad (68). On Tuesday morning, 14 April 2020, Dar ‘Awad arrived at his plot to discover that settlers had vandalized 70 meters of the protective fence he had erected around it. While they were at it, they stole the fence rods and broke the branches of a few olive trees. Dar ‘Awad reported the incident to the Turmusaya municipality, which passed on the complaint to the Palestinian DCO.
Dar ‘Awad built the fence in 2018, after settlers uprooted about 100 olive seedlings in his grove and he decided to try to protect his crops.
On 15 April 2020, in a testimony he gave to B’Tselem field researcher Iyad Hadad, he recalled:
“Recently, settlers built another outpost near my lands. They drive out farmers and try to take over farmland in the area. Now they’re taking advantage of the fact that people are staying home for fear of the coronavirus, and are mercilessly destroying crops without thinking twice. They don’t have a shred of humanity in them.
It’s not just about financial damage during a tough time, but about a constant sense of threat and repeated attacks.”
The settlement outpost of Adei-Ad, which lies about a kilometer from his plot, was founded in 1998.