Human rights organisation BT Selem has released footage of Israeli settlers from the Yitzhar settlement in the West Bank setting fire to fields near olive orchards belonging to Palestinians in the nearby villages of Burin and Huwara. The ensuing fire consumed dozens of dunams of land and 400 olive trees according to media. BT Selem has made public a video recorded by Mu’az Sufan, a Palestinian from the West Bank village of Burin and a member of BT Selems camera project, of local Israeli settlers setting a fire that went to cause wide scale damage to Palestinian land.
The film shows a group of settlers stopping on their return from a demonstration and setting light to fields before fleeing in the direction of the local Yitzhar settlement by car. Palestinains complained that Israeli troops later prevented Palestinian firefighters from accessing the blaze. The road from which the fire was lit is closed to Palestinians.
The attack was one of several arsonist attacks against Palestinians around the Yitzhar settlement in recent weeks according to BT Selem. Nobody has been charged in relation to the attacks.
BT Selem provide hundreds of cameras to local Palestinians to document attacks by Israeli settlers and military on Palestinians and their property.
The video can be accessed at http://www.btselem.org/press-release/video-documentatio…burin
