On Tuesday, dozens of Israeli soldiers, accompanied by bulldozers, invaded Palestinian orchards in Bardala village, in the West Bank’s Northern Plains, and uprooted at least 450 olive trees.
Media sources said the soldiers surrounded the entire area, before invading it, and proceeded to uproot the olive trees, owned by several villagers.
They added that, last year, the army issued orders for uprooting the trees in that area, after alleging that the orchards are in “state-owned lands,” which have been illegally confiscated.
Bardala village is one of the very few Jordan Valley villages designated as area B, under the Oslo accords, giving some theoretical rights to the local population to have control over infrastructure and planning controls.
However, just 3 km2 in the center of the village is in area B, and all surrounding areas and farmland are in Area C, over which the Israel army has absolute control in the occupied West Bank.
