Hussein Hussein, 72, a father of nine and a farmer, owns more than 13 dunams of land with 340 olive trees. On Wednesday morning, 30 October 2019, Hussein went to pick his olives along with his children and grandchildren. Although the harvest day was coordinated with the DCO, when he got to the land he found that the low-hanging branches of some 150 trees had been harvested and the trees damaged.
In a testimony he gave B'Tselem field researcher Salma a-Deb'i, Hussein shared his anguish:
I was very sad about my trees. The thieves didn’t just take the olives, they used sticks and broke the branches. It’s a painful sight. It weakens the tree and makes for smaller fruit next year. Some people from the Israeli DCO came and took pictures, but I’m sure they won’t do a thing. They let the settlers do whatever they want on our land, and even protect them. We used to make our living off this land. It put my sons through university. But now we don’t get anything out of it. What can land yield if you get to it only once or twice a year? What can you do with three days for harvest and one day for plowing? What kind of farming is that?! They’ve ruined us.
