On Saturday, illegal Israeli colonizers invaded a Palestinian orchard in Bruqin town, west of the central West Bank city of Salfit, and uprooted at least fifty olive saplings.
The olive orchard’s owner, Mohammad Fawwaz, said the colonizers invaded his lands in the Khallet Az-Za’faran area, north of Bruqin, and uprooted at least fifty olive saplings.
He added that this orchard is near the Industrial Zone of the illegal Ariel colonialist block, built on stolen Palestinian lands belonging to several surrounding villages and towns.
Palestinian farmlands and orchards in the area are subject to frequent Israeli violations, including during the olive harvest season.
The attacks include cutting and uprooting trees, saplings, and plants and flooding Palestinian lands with toxins and wastewater mixed with chemicals, especially from the Industrial Zone.
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”.
