On the morning of 17 March 2021, farmer Nu’man Samhan (65), a father of one, discovered that settlers had raked five dunams [1 dunam = 1,000 sq. meters] of his land, uprooted 15 olive trees that were about 50 years old and damaged a well there.
The settlement outpost of Zayit Ra’anan was established near the plot, which is surrounded by the outpost fence. The military only allows Samhan to access his plot twice a year, during the plowing and harvest seasons, and only after prior coordination with the Israeli DCO.
Last year, on 9 September 2020, Samhan discovered that settlers had raked parts of his land and damaged about 20 mature olive trees. A week later, they returned and destroyed another 170 trees, in order to prepare Samhan’s land for running sewer pipes through it to serve area outposts.
In a testimony he gave B’Tselem field researcher Iyad Hadad, Nu’man Samhan described the settlers’ damage to his crops and property:
My family owns about 50 dunams of olive groves that we inherited from our grandparents 50 years ago. When I was a child we used to come to the land and stay on it for days, weeks, and even months. Our land has a well and more than 200 olive trees, which are 50 years old. They are now surrounded by the fence of the Zayit Ra’anan outpost. We’re only allowed to go there twice a year: once during the plowing season at the beginning of the year, and once during the harvest season at the end of the year, based on prior coordination with the Israeli DCO.
Last September, we found out that settlers had uprooted 20 olive trees, which were 50 to 60 years old, in order to lay a sewer pipe in the ground. A week later, we found out that the settlers had damaged about 170 more olive trees and stolen their crops.