Troops bar international supporters from entering Jenin

Saturday November 17, 2007 06:35 by IMEMC Staff

The Israeli army barred on Friday more than twenty international peace activists from entering the northern West Bank city of Jenin as they were trying to reach some Palestinian villages in order to aid the residents in picking their olive trees in orchards that became isolated by the Annexation Wall.

Archive Photo

The international peace activists were from several committees and institutions in Europe. The Israeli army stopped them at the Al Hamra checkpoint, near the West Bank city of Tubas, and barred them from crossing.

Cruise Turner, spokesperson of the International group of volunteers, stated that the residents are not allowed to pick their olive trees and are not even allowed even to enter their orchards.

He added that the local farmers in the area voiced appeals to international human rights activists to help them.

Turner also stated that soldiers inspected the passports of the international activists and detained them for more than two hours before forcing them out of the area.  

The army considers the orchards as closed military zones as the Wall is constructed near them after the army uprooted hundreds of olive trees, and bulldozed farmlands in order to construct it.

The Palestinian agricultural sector is collapsing as Israel continues to bar the residents from entering their orchards and farmlands as they became isolated by the Wall and surrounded by illegal Israeli settlements.

Translated by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC 

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