Settlers have recently increased their destruction of agricultural equipment and severe damage to fruit-yielding trees in the area of Turmusaya.
On Monday morning, 20 April 2020, farmers went to plow their land east of the village. The military forbids them to reach these plots without prior coordination. Recently, the Israeli DCO granted the farmers two rare working days – for the first time since the olive harvest season. When the Hamza family finally arrived at their plot, they were dismayed to discover that almost 100 olive trees had been cut down. Rabah Hamza reported the incident to the Palestinian DCO.
The mutilated trees were 30 years old.
Hijazi Hijazi, a 46-year-old farmer from Turmusaya, encountered a similar sight the next day. He arrived at his plot, adjacent to the Hamza’s, and discovered that 40 olive trees had been destroyed.
Hijazi had been growing the trees for 35 years.
The same day, after coordinating with the Israeli DCO, farmers from al-Mughayir also arrived at their land to plow. One of them, Jamal Na’asan (40), discovered that 40 of his olive trees had been destroyed.
They were 25 years old.
This wholesale damage to trees is one aspect of a broader phenomenon. In late 2019, settlers started placing mobile structures on private lands of Turmusaya residents in an attempt to take them over. The Israeli authorities repeatedly remove the structures but the settlers replace them – while destroying crops of Palestinians in the area in reprisal. In 2018-2019, B’Tselem documented nine incidents in the area, in which hundreds of trees were damaged and olives were stolen from Turmusaya land.
The settlement outpost of Adei-Ad was established about 500 meters from the abovementioned plots.