Israeli settlers fell 1,000 trees planted in West Bank

Israel settlers felled about 1,000 trees that were planted in a West Bank village for a nature reserve.

On Sunday, a group of ultra-nationalist Jewish extremists stormed Burqa, near the city of Nablus, and destroyed the trees, said Palestinian Authority official Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settlement activity in the West Bank.

The tree project was co-ordinated by the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture and the village’s local council, Mr Daghlas told Palestinian news agency Maan.

Settlers regularly attack Palestinian plots, including those with olive trees and vines, to stop them harvesting on land they consider to be theirs.

Between May and July last year, Israeli rights group B’Tselem recorded 10 attacks on Palestinian farmland, that destroyed more than 2,000 trees and grapevines and burnt a barley field and bales of hay.

Some leave graffiti in what are known as “price tag” attacks, with phrases such as “There’s no place we won’t reach”.

Rights groups say such violence takes place under the watch of Israeli soldiers and police, who fail to hold the settlers to account.

Some of the Palestinian farmers attacked do not report the incidents because they do not trust the Israeli authorities to do anything about them.

The violence helps Israel to expand its presence in the West Bank, rights groups say, as more Palestinian farmers are dispossessed of their land.

Settlers regularly attack Palestinian plots to prevent them harvesting on land the Israelis consider to be theirs

More than 400,000 settlers live in the West Bank and another 150,000 live in East Jerusalem. They are protected by thousands of Israeli soldiers who form one of the biggest militaries in the world.

Palestinians fear Israel plans to annex the entire West Bank to prevent a sovereign Palestinian state on its border and ensure a “Greater Israel” – the area that right-wing Israelis believe to be the homeland of the Jewish people.