On Thursday morning, 3 December 2020, ‘Abdallah Yasin (28) discovered that settlers had cut the chain-link fence he and his family had put up around their plot to protect it from settlers and wild animals. The fence did not deter the invaders from breaking into the plot and uprooting 58 olive seedlings planted earlier this year. Yasin notified his family, the village council and the Israel Police of the incident.
About an hour after reporting the damage, Yasin went to the plot with his father ‘Ali (71). A police car, Civil Administration personnel and a military jeep also arrived and witnessed the damage to the family’s property.
The Yasin family’s plot lies northeast of the town of Yasuf. The settlement of Tapuach was established about 200 meters away from it.
In a testimony he gave B’Tselem field researcher Salma a-Deb’i, ‘Ali Yasin recounted the incident:
We used the coronavirus and lockdown period to tend to the soil. We went to the plot often to water the seedlings, until the rainy season started and we didn’t have to. We put up a chain-link fence supported by iron rods, a meter and a half high, to protect the crops from settlers and wild animals. Despite the fence, settlers invaded our plot and uprooted 45 of the 93 olive seedlings we planted this February. They also uprooted 13 of 15 seedlings in my brother Shaher’s plot. We haven’t been to the grove since the rain started in October, and my son only went back now to check on the seedlings.
An hour after we found the fence destroyed and the seedlings uprooted, a police car arrived, followed by people from the Civil Administration and a military jeep. The soldier asked us if we had any enemies. I said that didn’t make sense because the settlement’s security cameras overlook the plot, so why not check the footage? It’s completely ridiculous, and they obviously know very well who did this. They said they’d call me if they found anything new, but I haven’t heard from them. I know everything they do is just for show, and the investigation by the authorities will lead nowhere.