[shniad at sfu.ca: [R-G] Palestinian olive trees sold to rich Israelis]

[Hans Ehrbar]

------- Start of forwarded message -------

Daily Telegraph  28/11/2002

Palestinian olive trees sold to rich Israelis

By Alan Philps in Jerusalem
 
Israel's Defence Ministry is investigating reports that Palestinian olive
trees uprooted to make way for a security fence are being sold illegally to
rich Israelis and town councils, sometimes for thousands of pounds each.

The illegal trade in olive trees has flourished as Israeli contractors,
supported by armed guards, clear Palestinian agricultural land where an
80-mile electronic fence is being built to seal off the West Bank.

Thousands of olive trees have been dug up to make way for the 150-ft wide
barrier and security zone. Its route usually passes inside Palestinian
territory, not along the old pre-1967 border, and thousands of Palestinian
farmers say their livelihood is being taken away.

Sale of the olive trees emerged after the owner of a contracting company
offered two reporters from a popular Israeli newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth,
100 large olive trees for £150 each.

The reporters found one enormous tree, said to be 600 years old, on sale at
an Israeli plant nursery for £3,500. They said the trade was conducted with
the complicity of an official in the civil administration, the Israeli
military government in the occupied territories.

Olive trees are extremely hardy, can live for hundreds of years and will
often stand transplanting. Gnarled old specimens which are claimed, with
some exaggeration, to have been alive at the time of Jesus are much sought
after for gardens of the rich or city parks.

The Defence Ministry, which is in charge of the security fence, said it had
launched an investigation. "The ministry pays contractors for uprooting and
replanting and, in their contract, there is no clause that allows for trade
in the trees. If there is such a trade, it is a criminal activity," it said.


Some contracts require the olive trees to be relocated to areas suggested by
their owners outside the Israeli-declared security zone. But Yael Stein,
researcher for B'tselem, an Israeli human rights organisation, said: "We
have never seen any relocation. The contractors cannot just sell the trees.
That is theft."

While the trees may be ornaments to Israelis, olives are the lifeblood of
Palestinian agriculture, almost the only crop which grows on the stony
hillsides of the West Bank without irrigation. Most Palestinians are
unemployed after two years of violence and their staple diet is bread and
olive oil.

About 11,000 Palestinian farmers will lose all or some of their land
holdings to the fence. Sharif Omar, from the village of Jayous, near the
Israeli town of Kochav Yair, said: "I have lost almost everything. I have
lost 2,700 fruit and olive trees. And 44 of 50 acres I own have been
confiscated for the fence."

His village lost seven wells, 15,000 olive trees and 50,000 citrus and other
fruit trees. "This area is the agricultural store for the West Bank. They
are destroying us," he said.

Israel is offering compensation for confiscated agricultural land but
Palestinians are unlikely to apply, as they still hope to get their land
back.

The Palestinian Agriculture Ministry says 200,000 olive trees have been
destroyed by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the past two years to provide
security for settlers.

The £90 million fence will prevent suicide bombers infiltrating into Israel.
But some Israeli border communities say depriving Palestinians of their
livelihood will make for worse, not better, neighbours.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2002%2F11%2F28%2Fwo
liv28.xml&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=316380

------- End of forwarded message -------