About two years ago, ‘Odeh al-Khatib (59), a married father of seven from the village of a-Sawiyah, planted 42 olive seedlings in his plot, which lies about three kilometers west of the village homes. Since then, he watered the seedlings every three days.
On Thursday, 17 September 2020, al-Khatib came to his plot and discovered that settlers had uprooted his seedlings and broken dozens of olive tree branches in adjacent plots owned by other villagers. Al-Khatib called the head of the village council and reported the damage.
The settlement of Nofei Nehemia was established about 400 meters from the plots.
In a testimony he gave B’Tselem field researcher Salma a-Deb’i, al-Khatib described what happened next:
The day after the incident, the council head called me and told me that Israeli DCO staff would come to the area. I refused to meet them there because I’m certain that they have no intention of doing anything. I don’t want to go to my plot again and see my little seedlings uprooted and withered.
It should be mentioned that there’s a settler ranch, Nofei Nehemia, that split off from the settlement of Rehelim and is only about 400 to 500 meters away. Since the day it was built, settlers have damaged olive trees in the area several times. My plot is in an area defined as Area B and doesn’t require security coordination to reach it, but it’s still not protected from the settlers’ violent attacks.