Order for destruction of olive trees of Palestinians in the Nature Reserve of Nahal Kana:
Gradually, the Nature and Parks Preservation Authority began to enforce the laws concerning the Nature Reserve of Nahal Kana in regard to the olive groves of Deir Istiya and Qarawat Bani Hasan in the year 2011. The Nature Reserve was declared in 1983. As far as we know, no map was ever sent to the owners of the groves which were included in the Reserve, groves which have been cultivated for generations. There is also no sign on the ground itself.
We met R. in Deir Istiya, who showed us all the destruction orders from 6.2.17, which require destruction of the trees and fence within 7 days. This happened in Deir Istiya as well as in Qarawat Beni Hasan, as R. told us at our meeting).
The list of prohibitions in the Nature Reserve is added to the prohibitions in Area C (forbidden to dig, forbidden to build). Among them are the prohibition to plant a new tree, a command which is like a death sentence to the grove in which there is not a prohibition for a tree to get sick or die. Up until now, about 2000 young olive trees have been uprooted from the groves of Dir Ista which were found within the Nature Reserve.
The goal of these laws is not disguised as the desire to convert agriculture to “nature”. On the contrary, to convert ownership of the land and the rights to it to the public sphere: the public of the settlers and the tourism from which they might profit.
In the leaflet “Maayanush” (“50 springs, 50 years. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Judea and Samaria”), published by the Local Council of Judea and Samaria (to which the Society for the Protection of Nature, Ofra Field School is a partner): Two pages of the leaflet are dedicated to “The springs of Nahal Kana”. On the maps and directions for getting to the area there is no Palestinian village mentioned. The settlements which have been built on the heights on either side of the Wadi, “25 minutes from Ariel, 50 minutes from Tel Aviv”, are named: Emanuel, Ginot Shomron, Alonei Shiloh, Yakir, Nofim, Havat Ya’ir, Ma’ale Shomron, Almatan.
For all of them, bed and breakfast rentals are listed and the development of tourism services. A Palestinian who arrives on a tractor or a car with work tools – this is not the picture which the settlement movement will tolerate for long. There are laws and their implementation which will shorten the time needed.
The tractor driver R., from Qarawat Beni Hasan, also came to our meeting at Deir Istiya, although his tractor had been confiscated by the Nature and Parks Preservation Authority in 2014, on the false grounds that he had transgressed the rules of the Nature Reserve and broke through a new road in order to repair his terraces. To get it back, he was required to pay a fine of 15,000 NIS. His lawyer said on their appeal to the military court in Judea and Samaria: “The claim (of the tractor driver) is that there is not a Nature Reserve here”.
The judge did not deny, nor did he confirm, that a map showing the area of the Nature Preserve had been presented to him. The judge was merciful and charged him a fee of only 5000 NIS. He wrote “As long as there is not another indictment presented to the plaintiff within six months, this sum should be returned to him”.
The tractor driver, R., does not read Hebrew and did not understand that, from the end of April 2016 he would be able to collect from the police the 5000 NIS which he had deposited, since there had not been another indictment served to him during that time. During our next shift, we will travel with him to the police in Ariel to try and receive the 5000 NIS which he paid, after 5 months of unemployment caused by the confiscation of his work equipment, the tractor.
A YouTube is attached.