Halt of construction orders in Haris village

 

On 25 of July, 2009, the Israeli occupation authorities distributed  halt of construction orders to seven house owners from the village of Haris in Salfit governorate under the pretext of building in zone C without licensing. The orders were handed over by personnel from the so-called Israeli civil administration in the West Bank guarded by army patrols. The owners were given only one month to get a building license, a mission impossible given the lengthy and complicated Israeli measures in this regard.

 

No.	Name of owner	Area in M2	No. of family members	Status of  construction
1	Omer Ahmad Samara	140	8	Under construction
2	Abdul Rahim Ahmad Samara	120	6	Under construction
3	Sadeq Yunis Suf	160	12	Under construction
4	Taysir Yusif Suf	120	10	Under construction
5	Ma’zuz Farid Suf	70	2	Under construction
6	Abdul Khaliq Daood Suf	110	8	Under construction
7	Mahmud Daood Suf	146	2	Under construction
Total		866	48

 

 

 

It is located six km to the west of Salfit city. Its total surface land area is 8450 dunums of which 320 dunums built up area The village’s population toll by the end of 2007 reached 3112.

 

The Haris village lost vast areas of its fertile agricultural land for the construction of the so-called Trans Samaria high way in 1992 number 505 connecting between the Jordan valley and Israeli proper cutting the West Bank into two sections. The high way travels four km in the land of Haris village which is mainly cultivated with olive trees. Once it was built thousands of long lived olive trees were either destroyed or uprooted and transferred for re-plantation inside Israel or inside the existing Israeli colonies in the West Bank as part of the biggest ongoing land and tree robbery 

 

Colony name	Area in Dunum
Kiriyat Netafim	186
Revava	339
Industrial Barkan	1298
Barkan	64
Ariel industrial zone	482
Total	2369

 

 

Like most Palestinian urban areas in the West Bank the Israeli occupation authorities have been denying any expansion of the borders of the Israeli unilateral master plan announced in 1993  for Haris village despite the bad need for such a decision to meet the natural growth of the village population. The Israeli authorities even don’t think of this need, and, hence, any violators of the imposed master plan are met with harsh measures.

 

On the other hand, settlers from Kiriyat Netafim colony have been denying Palestinian farmers the right to tend their land and yield products, particularly, olive yields,  under the pretext of proximity to the colony fence. More than 60 farmers’ families  have been denied this right  for some years and the Israeli authorities make no move, whatsoever,  against the settlers. This situation aggravates the already bad economic status in the village which is mainly dependent on farming as main income. 

 

[1] GIS unit at LRC.

[2] Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.

[3] Haris village local council

 

 

Prepared by:
The Land Research Center
LRC