Preventing Khirbet Al Farisiya Farmers from Using their Lands

February 13, 2009

On the 24th of January 2009 a large force of Israeli soldiers raided the Bedouin community in Khirbet Al Farisiya in the area of Wadi Al Maleh east of the governorate of Tubas. The occupation forces chased off after the herders and prevented their sheep from grazing under the pretext that the area is a “Closed Military Area” and that it is close to an Army training site.

It was not the first time that occupation soldiers carryout such a raid. They have also destroyed the water network as to prevent any access to water resources by the Bedouins of the Khirbet. The repeated and frequent raids aim at forcing the Palestinians out of their lands as to allow the further expansion of Israeli colonies located in Wadi Al Maleh including the following:

Colony Name	Year Est.	No. of Colonists in 2006	Area of Colony in Dunums	Built-Up Area
Sal’eit	1977	429	1377	256
Mikhora	1973	114	550	132
Ronim	1984	24	123	16
Miskiot	1987	500	N/A	N/A
Mehola	1968	362	615	190
TOTAL		1429	1665	594

Khirbet Al Farisiya:

Khirbet Al Farisiya is located 20 kilometers east of the city of Nablus in Al Maleh area. Its lands extend from Tayaseer checkpoint in the west until it reaches the Jordan River in the east. Its current population is 241 while a thousand used to live there before the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in 1967. They depend mainly on planting and herding as the main sources of income. The clans present in the Khirbet include Bisharat, Dababat and Daraghma all of which have origins in the city of Tubas and the town of Tammoun. The Khirbet used to be known for the fertility of its soil and the presence of a large number of water springs which made it an ideal place for planting and grazing and one of the main sources of food production in the northern parts of the West Bank.