'Azzun 'Atma

9:45  We left from the train station In Rosh Ha'ayin.

10:40 Yasuf

We went to Yasuf where settlers had cut down 36 olive trees during one of the snowy nights last week. A report about the incident had been broadcast on the radio and a detailed report mentioning 170 trees, which was quoted on our net, had also appeared in the newspaper 'El Itihad'.

We met with the head of the local council who gave us the announcement (in Arabic) he had sent to the Palestinian authorities, to the police and to the Palestinian ministry of agriculture. This is the summary of the report (translated for us by Nadim): "Settlers had cut down 36 yielding olive trees two kilometers from the village. The trees belonged to four members of one family. One of the villagers discovered the crime when he went to check if his plot had been damaged in the snow.  Since he didn't see the settlers in action it seems probable that the trees were felled at night between January, 5-7.  Trees had been cut down in the same place three months ago. After the announcement, representatives from the DCO and the Israeli police arrived at the site. They checked and counted 36 felled trees. A complaint with attached pictures was made to The DCO and the police in Ariel. We hope that the wicked crimes of the settlers, who take revenge on the trees in such a violent way, will not be repeated."

Is the number of felled trees 170, as it appears in the Arabic paper? It isn't clear if this number is incorrect or if the head of the local council, for reasons known only to him, is trying to mitigate the impact of the crime. According to him, in the first stage "only" 80 trees were felled, meaning that the total amount of felled olive trees belonging to Yasuf is 117. In his report to the Palestinian authorities he doesn't mention the number of felled olive trees in the first incident, neither the total number. He also refrains from mentioning the difference (even if very small) between the number of trees that the villagers claimed to have been felled compared to the number reported by the DCO and the Israeli police, meaning decreasing the number from 37 to 36. Such pettiness…

Speaking to us the head of the local council enumerated the acts of vandalism performed by the settlers from Tapuah: stealing goats, puncturing car tires, destroying outbuildings, and the most severe act of all – setting fire to the mosque. But he stressed that these acts belong to the past and that the residents in Tapuah do not harass them anymore. Also, regarding the present incident he refrained from blaming the residents in the neighboring settlement: "We haven't got a clue, nobody saw the perpetrators in action." We can only hope that the head of the local council really does believe in the innocence of the settlers in Tapuah and that he isn't covering up for them to avert acts of revenge on their part.

We were driving on the new road to Azzun-Atma to check the progress of the new fence (or more precisely, wall) to find out when the checkpoint would be removed to its new location. The wall was almost completed. Workers were busy installing a tall iron fence on top of it at the cost of millions of shekels, but who cares. To our surprise, the road was blocked at the entrance to Sha'arei Tikva. Nadim, who knows all the roads in the territories, turned back trying to drive onto the old road but it was blocked on both sides. A young Palestinian walking on a path by the road told us that the checkpoint at Azzun-Atma leads nowhere. It had simply been cancelled.  From now on, those workers who are lucky enough to have permits to work in Israel will evidently have to take the road to Habla, drive through the tunnel to Qalqiliya, meaning at least an extra half hour, and from there to cross into Israel at the Eyal checkpoint. One can only imagine how little sleep the workers from Azzun-Atma will be able to get, now when they have to leave home even earlier, before dawn, in order to hurry to work in Israel, how large the crowd at the checkpoint will be, how long it will take to pass through the checking because of the increased number of people and how humiliated and distressed people might feel at having to go through this ordeal morning after morning only to earn a few shekels. But who really cares?