Palestinian farmers, owners of lands located between the separation barrier and the Green Line in the West Bank, have complained that the Israeli occupation forces have intensified efforts to uproot them from their lands and confiscate their properties for settlement expansion.
Jessica Montell, Executive Director at the Center for the Defence of the Individual (HaMoked), said that the Palestinians’ concern is reasonable and based on tangible proofs.
After Israel constructed the isolating wall, it cut a wide space of lands (around 137,000 donum) that are acknowledged as Palestinian agricultural lands.
In the beginning, the farmers were deprived of access to their lands so they headed to the Supreme Court and obtained a decision from the Civil Administration to be granted licenses to access and farm their lands. However, these permits became a weapon used against them.
In 2018, 72 percent of Palestinian requests for farming permits were refused, compared to 24 percent in 2014. There are also very few permits issued by the Civil Administration for “agricultural employment,” beyond the barrier, permits given to 1,876 out of 7,187.
“The figures affirm HaMoked’s position that this is in violation of the Supreme Court decision, which recognizes the right of residents to work their lands, together with their families and laborers, the [Israeli] army methodically works to rob this basic right, to minimize the entry of Palestinian farmers to the ‘seam zone’ and to gradually displace them from the lands,” said Montell.
The Civil Administration also provided a breakdown of the pretexts for refusal such as “failing to meet the policy criteria,” “security reasons,” “no connection to the land,” and “missing documents or details.”
During those three years, Hamoked’s intervention has helped 352 Palestinian farmers obtain permits to work on their lands.
