On Saturday morning, 17 October 2020, Bilal Badawi (45) arrived at his plot, which lies east of the village, to continue putting up a fence around his land to protect it from damage by settlers. When he got there, he was amazed to find that settlers had cut down 30 five-year-old olive trees in his grove.
The settlement of Shvut Rachel was established in 1991 about a kilometer from the plot.
Bilal Badawi, an administrator in the Palestinian Authority, gave his testimony to B’Tselem field researcher Salma a-Deb’i:
I went to my plot, which is in an area called a-Sahel a-Sharqi. I own 11 dunams [1 dunam = 1,000 sq. meters] of land. On six of them, I grow olive trees that are five to seven years old.
When I got to the plot, I found that settlers had broken 30 olive trees. I had visited the land just a few days earlier, and everything was fine. I go there all the time and don’t need to coordinate with the Israeli DCO.
The land lies about a kilometer away from the settlement of Shvut Rachel. About three months ago, they stole the work tools I’d left at the plot. I notified the village council of the theft.
I inherited the land from my father and do my best to tend to it, although there’s not much water in the area. I fill up plastic buckets at home and take them to the land to water the trees. Now I’m afraid the settlers will damage the rest of the trees, because they enter village land whenever they please.