Smotrich announces uprooting of 3,000 Palestinian trees in northern West Bank

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also serves as a minister in the Defense Ministry, announces that the Civil Administration agency has uprooted some 3,000 trees planted by Palestinians in the northern West Bank, which he says were located on state land.

“We are building the Land of Israel and destroying the idea of a Palestinian state,” says Smotrich, a refrain he has repeated numerous times in recent months.

The trees were planted on some 50 acres of land close to the Shakak Industrial Park near the Shaked settlement. Although his statement doesn’t say so, it appears from pictures sent by Smotrich’s office that olive trees were removed.

Smotrich says the trees were planted within the boundaries of the zoning masterplan for Shakak and that removing them would enable the further expansion of the industrial park together with the establishment of a new settlement, in accordance with approvals already issued by the government.

State land is land not privately owned and is available for the government to allocate for the public benefit, such as the construction of residential homes, infrastructure as well as economic and agricultural activity.

Of the state land in the West Bank allocated for any use by Israel, fully 99.8% is allocated for the use and needs of Israeli settlements, according to information provided by the Civil Administration in 2018.

The uprooting of the 3,000 trees on Wednesday followed numerous other tree removal operations by Israeli forces in the West Bank in recent days.

“While the state supports hundreds of illegal outposts which constitute focal points for severe violence by Israelis against Palestinians, it compounds one crime with another, by cutting down thousands of olive trees just because they belong to Palestinians and thereby does mortal damage to the income of thousands of people,” Yesh Din says.

Over 120 illegal outposts have been established during the course of the current government, mostly on state land and often with the coordination of municipal settlement authorities.