On Tuesday morning, illegal Israeli colonizers invaded an orchard in Husan village, west of the West Bank city of Bethlehem, and cut several Palestinian olive trees.
Mohammad Sabateen, the Mayor of Husan, said the colonizers came from the illegal Bitar Illit colony, built on stolen Palestinian lands in Husan.
Sabateen added that the colonizers cut fourteen olive trees in an orchard in the Shu’ab Kharyan area after invading the orchard.
About ten days ago, the colonizers cut at least fifty olive trees in the same area, demolished retaining walls, and cut barbed wires surrounding them. Palestinians from the local Sabateen family own all of the invaded lands.
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 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”.
