Settlers uproot and break about 190 olive seedlings near Turmusaya – vandalizing grove for second time this year

On Saturday afternoon, 14 May 2022, three masked settlers entered a plot that belongs to Riyad Jbarah (48) and Muhammad Rabi' (45) and lies about five kilometers east of the village of Turmusaya, in Ramallah District. The settlers damaged part of the fence surrounding the plot and uprooted and broke about 190 of the 200 or so olive seedlings there. Rabi' saw the settlers on his security cameras, but as he feared they were armed or escorted by soldiers, he did not go there and was forced to watch from afar as they destroyed his olive grove.

Jbarah and Rabi' purchased the land in 2018, and this was the second time settlers damaged their crops in 2022. On 23 March 2022, settlers entered the grove, uprooted and broke 160 two-month-old olive seedlings and spray-painted graffiti. The landowners then installed security cameras to protect the plot. On 4 May 2022, they planted new olive seedlings with the help of an international organization and put up a mesh-wire fence with a gate around the grove. 

In a testimony he gave B'Tselem field researcher Iyad Hadad on 23 May 2022, Muhammad Rabi' (45), a married father of five, described the vandalism of his grove: 

On Saturday afternoon, 14 May 2022, while I was at work in the village, I checked the security cameras we installed to protect our grove and saw three settlers in it. They were wearing shorts and had their shirts wrapped around their heads. I saw them uprooting and breaking the olive seedlings. They went around uprooting the seedlings, one after the other. I was afraid to go there because the settlers are usually armed or guarded by soldiers. There's a military watchtower nearby, which was set up on the pretext of protecting the land and crops of Palestinians. But as far as we can see, it's only used to protect the settlers when they're vandalizing our crops.

The settlers stayed in the grove for about 15 minutes until they finished destroying it, and then left. I went over there with a few people to assess the damage. We found that the settlers had uprooted and broken about 190 seedlings and uprooted the 50-meter-long barbed-wire fence and the gate.

When I checked the camera to see what had happened before, I saw that at around 11:00 A.M., about 15 settlers and three Border Police jeeps came to the plot. They patrolled around the plot and left at 11:30 A.M.

We didn't file any complaints about any of the times the settlers damaged our crops. We simply didn't see the point. Village residents have filed many complaints about such acts, and they haven't led to any results. We're also convinced that the military and police cooperate with the settlers. But this time, due to pressure from the local council, which wanted the incident to be documented, and because this time there's a clear video of the settlers, my partner will file a complaint at the Binyamin police station.

In the previous incidents, the Israeli DCO came every time on their own accord, without coordination. They arrived, patrolled the area and left without asking about the extent of the damage caused or who owns the land. This situation is very frustrating, and we don't know how we can work the land. We’ve lost a lot of money we paid for workers, renting farming equipment, fertilizer, transporting water to the plot, and the price of the seedlings. Last time, the seedlings were funded by Première Urgence Internationale (PUI). Every seedling cost about NIS 45 (~13 USD), meaning a total cost of NIS 9,000 (~2,704 USD). This time, when we asked them to support us again, they said we'd have to wait a bit because they're currently afraid to fund the seedlings again, since the risk of the settlers damaging them is so great.