As of 12.01am May 4, you have helped us and the farmers of Deir Istyia to gather 3694 signatures! Thank you!

Organizations and News Sites are helping to spread the message and showing solidarity with the farmers of Deir Istyia/Wadi Qana:

Electronic Intifada: Israel claims that olive trees in Wadi Qana must be uprooted for a nature reserve, but the move is about controlling the land and destroying the Palestinian economy.

Palestine Monitor: Deir Istiya’s Farmers are Under Siege

Deir Istiya, occupied West Bank—On Tuesday April 1 in the West Bank’s fertile Qana Valley, residents of Deir Istiya and members of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) organized a solidarity cleanup event for May Day. About 30 Palestinian and international volunteers gathered to aid Deir Istiya’s farmers in picking up the masses of plastic bags so commonly strewn throughout the West Bank.

However, the May Day event was arranged for another, rather gloomy, reason. According to the International Women’s Peace Service (IWPS), nine of Deir Istiya’s farmers were given orders last week by the Israeli Civil Administration (ICA—the Israeli governing body operating in the occupied West Bank) to uproot 1,400 olive trees in the Qana Valley agricultural area. They were given by May 1st to do so.

Read more about Wadi Qana below and here

“Olive trees say to the world we are Palestinian and we own this land”

R tells us “there is an olive tree on my land that is between 2000-3000 years old.” Generations of Palestinian farmers transfer their knowledge about tending their trees from father to son: ´I learned from my father, my father learned from his father … each learning from his father about how to keep these trees. My son is 8 years old now and after school and during school holidays I take him to our land and teach him about these trees.”

Most Palestinian families depend on the income derived from olive oil from their trees. Traditionally, the olive harvest marked a significant date in their calendar as farmers would wait for the harvest to pay their bills. It is hard work but a joyous community occasion. Important life events such as weddings were also scheduled around the harvest. Olive oil is also often bartered for other goods through the year. R tells me it is the Palestinian “petrol.”

In April 2012, farmers in Wadi Qana were ordered to uproot 2000 olive trees. This order was issued to ten farmers but more than 80 people are affected by it. More than 1000 trees were uprooted in 2011. In recent times, at least 50 families have been directly impacted by orders to remove their olive trees. Olive trees aged between 3-12 years of age produce 5000 kgs of olives. At maturity, they can produce 15 tonnes of fruit.

Wadi Qana has been a fertile farming valley for centuries and the farmers are not about to give this up. Now, the nine settlements including Nofim, Yaqir, Immanuel, Qarne Shomron and Ma´ale Shomron crown the rim of this beautiful valley. Several small outposts indicate that the settlements are expanding. The Israeli government wants to turn Wadi Qana into a nature reserve.

Farmers in Wadi Qana have been receiving orders to uproot their trees from 1986 but this has not deterred them. Around 1999, the trees started dying and water tests proved that more than 70% of the water supply was severely polluted from sewage waste pumped down from the settlements. A few hundred trees died. Sewage pipes were eventually put in to pump the sewage out. The farmers returned and continued to replant their trees. Wadi Qana is a fertile valley filled with fruit orchards including almond, fig, pomegranate and citrus. In recent decades, farmers have started to replace fruit trees that had reached the end of their life with olive trees. Olive trees are hardy and require little water or attention apart from irrigation during their first three years to establish. Furthermore, as R tells me, the farmers plant these trees as an investment and as a way to keep their lands from the settlements.

The farmers´ story left me with an acute sense of Palestinian resilience. They would continue to replant their trees irregardless of how frequently they were uprooted. My thoughts turn constantly however, to that magnificent old olive tree by the settlement road in Zone C and I said a silent prayer to keep it safe.

The following morning, before we began our “work” we took a hike through the hills to see and learn some of the history of Wadi Qana. Before the settlements which surround the valley were built and Israel claimed Wadi Qana as their “natural reserve” about 300 people lived in the valley. Remnants of their habitation are numerous. A grinding wheel for wheat lay unused for many years. It dates back to roman times.

Not far away is a cave from which a spring bubbles out.

The water forms a small lake. The water that comes from the spring is pure, but sewage from the settlements has polluted the lake. Pressure on the Israeli’s from the municipality of Deir Istyia and IWPS has forced the Israeli’s to create septic systems for the settlements, but as the settlements expand the septic tanks overflow. It is ironic that the Israeli’s try to confiscate the Wadi Qana, calling it their natural reserve, yet they pollute it with their own sewage water.

On our walk back we hiked off the main path and was delighted to see the wild flowers that spring up naturally like the water from the springs. Israel said they would make the desert bloom; they must have missed the flowers that have grown on the rocky terraces for centuries. We walked through a field of wheat, careful to keep our footing in the rows between the wheat, making our way back to camp. We then proceeded to the picnic area to do a clean up of the area and plant some olive trees.

As we were cleaning rubbish from the area, a field trip of settler children accompanied by men with machine guns, rifles and pistols, came into the Wadi.

These children are being taught that Wadi Qana is their land. They trampled through the fields with no regard for the newly planted crops. A young Palestinian woman yelled at them, and the settlers called “settler security” and the Israeli Occupation Forces. Soon the picnic area was filled with soldiers, who seemed to think we were a menace. We were cleaning the picnic area. Yes, we were cleaning the picnic area, and for that we were a menace and a possible to danger to the illegal settlers. The soldiers remained for about an hour, watching us clean the area of rubbish. This is the Occupation. A day never goes by, not a single day, that the ugly beast of the Occupation does not rear its ugly head.

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On the 19th of April, IWPS house team went on a relaxing walk through the Wadi Qana valley with some long time friends of IWPS. You can read about it below, along with other reports that have been written about the Wadi Qana.
As picturesquely written in that article, the Wadi Qana valley is as about as close to nature as one can get. There is native flora and fauna, eucalyptus and carob trees, terraced hillsides of Olive trees, and verdant citrus groves that seem to blossom with an intoxicating scent year around. Natural springs abound and villagers from Deir Istyia have enjoyed the valley with their families for hundreds of years. The villagers have also tended the olive and citrus groves for hundreds of years, working with nature to keep the valley pristine and sustainable.
The illegal settlements that now surround the Wadi Qana and dump raw sewage are a threat to the valley, and their ticky tac houses are an eyesore. But the Israeli government has decreed the area a “natural preserve” and under this guise has appropriated land and bulldozed hundreds of olive trees since 2002. Now, in an unconscionable act, on April 25, the Israeli Occupation forces invaded the Wadi Qana and left orders that 10 farmers destroy a total of 1,400 olive trees by May 1, 2012. This is the largest evacuation of trees ever perpetuated on the Wadi Qana Valley.

Villagers, IWPS, and other international and Israeli activists have mobilized a global campaign to save these trees and the livelihood they provide to the farmers and their families. It cannot be stressed enough that these groves do not hinder the natural beauty of the valley. What hinders the beauty are the illegal settlements and their raw sewage and their machine gun toting settlers.

On April 27, hundreds of villagers and activists gathered in the valley; after midday prayers we were taken on an informational nature walk through the valley. We were shown some of the olive trees slated for destruction. Most of the 1,400 trees are around 5 years old; a few were planted 2 years ago and some are about 7 years old. They targeted groves are dispersed throughout the valley. Ironically, it is only olive trees that are to be uprooted. As of yet, there is no order to demolish the citrus groves.
The villagers of Deir Istyia have vowed that they will not uproot their trees, even though they face heavy fines and or imprisonment if they do not. Beginning on April 30th, villagers and international and Israeli Activists will begin a 24 hour vigil in the valley to protect these precious trees from destruction.

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Flood these offices with telephone calls, emails and texts. Let the Israeli government know the world cares about Palestine

Prime Minister’s Office: Benjamin Netanyahu
02-6705512 02- 5664838
PMO.HEB@it.pmo.gov.il

Ministry of Defense Ehud Barak Ehud Shani
03-6976663 03-6976218
pniot@mod.gov.il

Ministry of the Environment Gilad Erdan Yossi Anbar
02-6553701 02-6535958
pniot@sviva.gov.il

Department for nature preservation and national parks at the civil administration is Asaf Goldfeld
Telephone: 02-9977001
Fax: 02-9977337

Isaeli Army coordinator for Salfit Rami Barakat 09 792 2359

IDF Spokesperson Roni 03 608 0202

Israeli DCO
Ops room 09 775 9359/9218 02 970 4660
Salfit Liason 09 251 5688/ 059 925 9306
Commander 09 775 9219 / 0506 234 008

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