Yesterday 117 olive trees were uprooted from a Palestinian-owned orchard in the Jayyus village near the Tzofin settlement next to Qalqaliya. The owners of a quarry surrounding the orchard on all sides and the residents of the Tzofin settlement, whose structural plan puts the orchard inside the settlement, are contesting the Palestinians' ownership of this land. Despite clashes with the owners of the quarry and the settlers, the Palestinians continue to cultivate the orchard. Recently, the Civil Administration announced that the land on which the olive trees are planted is the private property of Mohammed Salim, a resident of Jayyus village.

The people of Jayyus said that dozens of settlers, some of them armed, came yesterday morning to the olive grove, which is located west of the separation wall. A bulldozer began uprooting olive trees planted there.

The villagers noticed what was happening from their vantage point on the eastern side of the wall and notified the Civil Administration and the Israeli police to prevent the trees from being uprooted. The police and soldiers only arrived on the scene in the afternoon. At that point, widespread, irreversible damage had already been done to the orchard: 117 trees had been uprooted.

“We do not know if the settlers of the Tzofin settlement are responsible for this, or a private security company that was hired by other individuals to uproot the olive trees,” said Weam Shabita, the landowner's attorney, yesterday. “Entry to this land was restricted. The officials we spoke to at the Civil Administration said that the Civil Administration is not responsible for the actions that took place there and it did not approve them. These officials advised us to lodge submit a complaint with the police.”

The people of Jayyus village own thousands of dunam of the agricultural land that lies west of the separation wall, although the village is located east of the wall. There are long, complex legal disputes over some of these lands. As was previously stated, the case of the orchard in which the trees were uprooted yesterday was settled in favor of the Palestinians.