The Arabs48 news website has reported that a family from al-Tiwani village, in Hebron, lodged a complaint with an Israeli court against Israeli settlers for uprooting their orchard, and that the court ruled the Palestinians responsible for “not fencing their orchard”.The orchard is located near the illegal Israeli settlements of Ma’on and Havat Ma’on, built on Palestinian lands.
Israeli daily, Haaretz, said that the court told the al-‘Amour family that they “should have fenced their land”.
In 2006, settlers uprooted 120 olive trees, and one tree in 2011, in addition to cutting down half of the family’s olive orchard on October 9 2013, and writing “Price Tag” graffiti.
Ten days after the latest attack, the family, represented by an Israeli lawyer, asked the head of the Civil Administration Office, run by the Israeli armed forces in the occupied West Bank, demanding him to detail the measures taken to prevent another attack, basing their demand on a ruling by the Israeli High Court, in 2006, “obliging” the army to protect private Palestinian property.
Head of the Civil Administration Office said that Colonel Ronny Levin is handling the event, as he is in charge of overseeing complaints, despite the fact that he failed to respond to two complaints sent by the lawyer.
In June of this year, the lawyer decided to lodge a complaint against the state, demanding Israel to pay 65.840 New Israeli Shekels in damages.
However, Israel decided to blame the Palestinians for “failing to fence its orchard”, and failed to order the military to act against the settlers responsible for these attacks.
