On Friday, illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers assaulted Palestinian farmers and international solidarity activists in the town of Kafr Malik, east of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank’s central part, preventing them from reaching their agricultural land.
Local sources reported that a group of colonizers intercepted the farmers and the international activists accompanying them aa they headed toward Palestinian land lands in the southern areas near the bypass road and the eastern “Manater” area.
The colonizers attacked the Palestinians and the international activists forcing them to turn back without being able to enter their orchards.
Early Friday morning, Israeli colonizers launched a coordinated assault on Palestinian farmers harvesting olives in the village of Beit Iksa, northwest of occupied Jerusalem, in the West Bank.
The Wall & Colonization Palestinian Commission stated that its field teams have documented a total of 158 attacks targeting olive harvesters since the beginning of the current season.
Of these, 141 were carried out by colonizers, while Israeli occupation forces were responsible for 17.
All of Israel’s colonies in the occupied West Bank, including those in and around occupied East Jerusalem, are illegal under International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention in addition to various United Nations and Security Council resolutions. They also constitute war crimes under International Law.
Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits collective punishment and acts of terror against civilian populations.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory”.
Articles 53 and 147, prohibit the destruction of civilian property and classify pillage as a war crime.
