TULKAREM: Palestinian activists and residents planted a grove of 250 olive trees in a northern West Bank town on Monday in memory of the late US President Jimmy Carter, describing him as a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause.
The former president’s legacy is “rooted” among Palestinians and across the globe, said Abbas Melhem, executive manager of the Palestinian Farmers Union. Carter was one of the few world leaders who “stood firmly supporting the struggle of the Palestinians for independence and for freedom,” he said.
Under clear winter skies, Palestinian kids helped a handful of adults place the trees into newly dug holes. Melhem said the 10-dunam (2.5-acre) grove in the city of Tulkarem, titled “Freedom Farm,” would be fenced in to protect it from wildlife or extremist Jewish settlers, who have attacked Palestinian olive trees in the past.
The advocacy group for farmers in the West Bank launched the project in collaboration with US-based nonprofit Treedom for Palestine, which plants trees to empower Palestinian farmers.
Carter, who died last month at the age of 100, brokered the Camp David peace accords between Israel and Egypt in 1978.
In his later years, Carter was highly critical of Israel’s military rule over the Palestinians, saying conditions in the occupied West Bank amounted to apartheid. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Palestinians want it to form the main part of their future state.
“I think planting olive trees that live at least 100 years old like him is a very suitable way to honor his life and his legacy,” said George Zeidan, the Carter Center’s Director in Israel and Palestine.
Palestinians dedicate a new West Bank olive grove to former US President Jimmy Carter
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Palestinians dedicate a new West Bank olive grove to former US President Jimmy Carter
- The "Freedom Farm" would be fenced in to protect it from wildlife or extremist Jewish settlers
- Jimmy Carter was highly critical of Israel’s military rule over the Palestinians
UN: 119,000 people flee Aleppo after days of intense fighting
DUBAI: United Nations spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said Tuesday that recent clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters in Aleppo, northern Syria, have displaced around 119,000 people, Al Arabiya News Channel reported.
He also noted that the UNHCR is working to provide assistance to all displaced families in shelters and host communities.
“As of yesterday, some 119,000 people have been displaced since the resumption of hostilities in Aleppo. The UNHCR and other partners on the ground are providing assistance to displaced families in temporary shelters and host communities. This support includes the distribution of blankets, mattresses, and essential winter clothing,” the channel quoted the spokesperson as saying.
Hundreds of displaced residents began returning on Monday to an Aleppo neighborhood in northern Syria after days of intense fighting.
The clashes, which killed at least 23 people and displaced tens of thousands, broke out on Jan. 6 in the predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Achrafieh, Sheikh Maqsoud and Bani Zeid after the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on implementation of a deal that would merge the SDF into the national army. Security forces captured the three neighborhoods.
On Monday, armed security forces stood guard as traffic flowed normally through the streets of Achrafieh, while buses carried displaced families back to the neighborhood. Many shops had reopened, although residents complained about electricity cuts.
