Israel uproots 80 trees north of Hebron

Israeli bulldozers Wednesday razed land and uprooted trees to the east of the town of Beit Ummar, north of the occupied West Bank city of Hebron.

Mohammad Awad, a local activist, told WAFA that Israeli occupation forces uprooted more than 80 trees, including olive trees, belonging to Issam Abu Ayyash in al-Qarn area, which is located one kilometer away from the Hebron-Jerusalem Street and three kilometers away from the bypass street.

While Israel razes Palestinian land and demolishes structures across the West Bank, particularly in Area C, which constitutes 60 percent of the occupied West Bank, it much more easily gives over 700,000 Israeli settlers there building permits and provides them with roads, electricity, water and sewage systems that remain inaccessible to many neighboring Palestinians.

The “Civil Administration” is the name Israel gives to the body administering its military occupation of the West Bank.

Israeli soldiers in the oxymoronically named Civil Administration determine where Palestinians may live, where and when they may travel (including to other parts of the occupied territories like Gaza and East Jerusalem), whether they can build or expand homes on their own land, whether they own that land at all, whether an Israeli settler can takeover that land among others.

Basma Qaddour