The Musa family from Qaryut owns several dunams [1 dunam = 1,000 square meters] of farmland south of their village and east of Turmusaya, in Ramallah District. The settlement outposts of Adei Ad and Esh Kodesh were established on land belonging to area villages on either side of Qaryut and Turmusaya. Due to the proximity to the outposts, the military permits the family access to the land only during the plowing and harvest seasons.
This year, the military permitted the family to harvest their land from 26 October to 5 November 2020. However, when they arrived on the first day, they discovered that settlers had plowed a dunam of soil in their grove, uprooted 20 olive trees that were 50 years old and stolen 10 of them.
The farmers estimated that the trees had been uprooted about two months earlier, under cover of the military ban on the family’s access to the land most of the year. A mature olive tree can yield about 15 liters of oil a year, selling at 500 to 700 shekels (~152-215 USD) in the market. This means an annual loss of more than 10,000 shekels (~3,055 USD) from the uprooted trees.