On 15 Jan. 2017, the Civil Administration began uprooting olive trees
and leveling land near the Palestinian villages of ‘Azzun and a-Nabi
Elyas in Qalqilya District, as part of a plan to build a bypass road to
replace a section of Route 55 that runs through the villages. To that
end, the authorities have expropriated 10.4 hectares of land from ‘Azzun
and uprooted some 1,000 olive trees. Declarations that this will serve
“the public interest” are belied by Israel’s policy of using Area C for
its citizens only, illustrated by similar cases.