'Othmaniyah ‘Omari (69) is a mother of seven from Kafr a-Dik. On Sunday, 4 October 2020, she arrived at her plot of land and discovered that in all likelihood settlers had cut the branches of eight olive trees. ‘Omari inherited the plot from her father and tends to 22 ancient olive trees on it, which are about 100 years old.
The settlement of Bruchin was established in 1999 close to the plot, on land belonging to the village of Bruqin. As, unlike other farmers, ‘Omari is not required to coordinate her arrival with the Israeli DCO, she reported the damage to the village council.
In a testimony she gave B’Tselem field researcher Abdulkarim Sadi, 'Othmaniyah ‘Omari described the scene she found in her olive grove:
I went to my plot to clear around the olive trees, in preparation for the harvest. When I got there, I found that settlers had cut down the branches of eight trees. I was very sad and angry to see the branches like that. When we last went to the grove, in August, all the trees were fine. I went home with tears in my eyes and told my husband and kids. We notified the council, but we didn’t file a report because there’s no security coordination between the Palestinians and the Israeli at the moment.