NABLUS, December 4, 2020 (WAFA) – Israeli occupation forces today cracked down on a seed-planting event in Beit Dajan village, east of Nablus city, causing dozens to suffocate, according to an activist.

Tawfeeq Haj-Mohammad, a member of the Land Defense Popular Committee, confirmed that a large Israeli military force violently dispersed the participants of the event called for to plant seeds in the villagers’ lands threatened with confiscation, northeast of the village.

The villagers managed to plant seeds in large tracts of their land that the Israeli occupation authorities plan to seize to make room for the construction of new colonial settlements before they were dispersed.

Soldiers fired tear gas canisters, stun grenades and rubber-coated steel bullets towards the participants, causing dozens to suffocate.

The village has become the scene of weekly protests against the Israeli occupation authorities’ move to construct and expand colonial settlements at the expense of Palestinian land.

Such events came in the wake of the construction of a new settlement outpost on the territories of the village. Settlers installed an animal barn, extended water pipelines to supply the new outpost with water, and built a several-kilometers road, causing damage and seizing hundreds of donums of the villagers’ land.

Located 12 kilometers to the east of Nablus city, Beit Dajan has a population of some 4,700 and occupies a total area of 44,100 dunams, including 360 donums of built-up area for the villagers. A large part of the village lands were seized for the construction of Al-Hamra and Mekhora (Mehola) colonial settlements, east and southeast of the village, in 1971 and 1973.

The village depends on grains plantation and fruitful trees, such as olive, figs and almonds.

K.F.