Prevention of tens of farmers from reaching their lands located behind the Israeli Wall in At Tayba and ‘Anin villages

Violation: Preventing 320 Palestinian farmers from reaching their lands  located behind the Racist Israeli Wall.

Location: At Tayba and ‘Anin villages, western Jenin.

Date: Early November 2009 to present.

Violators: The Israeli Occupation Army.

Victims: Palestinian farmers of both villages.

 

Israeli Occupation Authorities are still banning 320 farmers from At Tayba and ‘Anin from getting to lands located behind the Racist Wall for olive picking since mid October. ‘Security reasons’ was the Occupation Authorities justification for the step taken. Nevertheless, it is known that such actions are part of an on-going Israeli policy that aims at sabotaging  the olive picking season, the most important season for many Palestinian farmers who find joy during it, and turning it into a painful season for the Palestinians. Moreover, the Occupation Authorities aspire to isolate the Palestinian farmers from their lands in order to make taking over the land a much easier task.

 

The olive picking season has become a season of suffering  for Palestinians because of the military laws applied by the Israeli authorities. The season means much to the Palestinians who consider the olive picking season part of their culture. However, farmers need a miracle called â��permitsâ�� in order to get to their lands, and these permits can only be granted by the Israeli Occupation Authorities who have never defined any criterion for issuing permits. As such,  hundreds of farmers have been prevented from participating in olive picking.

 

 

The Racist Wall has caused the isolation of hundreds of dunums of the most fertile lands that are planted with olive trees in the villages of ‘Anin, At Tayba, Barta’a, Baqa, and Zabuna in Jenin district. The Occupation Authorities have demanded the application for permits from the farmers, according to Rabah Yasin, ‘Anin’s village council president. A mere 350 out 1200 Palestinian farmers were granted permits to get into their lands behind the Wall. Mohammad Jabareen, At Tayba village council president explained:’ the agony of At Tayba farmers is unbelievable; their lives have become very hard because they cannot reach their only source of income; their lands as the Occupation Authorities did not issue permits to most of the farmers. However, the Palestinian farmers will always keep a grasp on their lands. They will never leave it and they will always try to regain their right of using it freely and to reclaim their only source of income and regain the joy of the olive picking season’.

 

‘Anin is located 18 km to the north east of Jenin city; its total area is about 12272 dunums of which 526 dunums are residential areas. The part of the Isolation Wall that surrounds the village is about 4700 meters long which isolated 5813 dunums behind it and making the lives of 3691 people who live in the village unbearable. The village used to depend totally on Um al Fahem, a village occupied in 1948 and located to the west of ‘Anin. Because of the  Wall, the village has become one of the most doomed villages in the West Bank.

 

At Tayba is 15 km away from Jenin city. Its total area is about 4000 dunums, 1515 dunums out of them are used as residential areas. The 2 km long slice of the wall that surrounds the village has devoured about 700 dunums of its total area. 2500 people live in At Tayba.

 

 

About 3000 dunums of the lands isolated behind the Wall is planted with olive trees, 50 planted with Prunus, and the rest was destroyed because of the cattle that the settlers of Shakid settlements set free in the defenseless area. There is only one gate that leads to the farms behind the Wall (locally known as gate 214) which is closed most of the times except during the olive picking season. It must be pointed out  that the village council handed a memorandum to the Israeli Occupation Authorities to object to the cattle that roam freely in the Palestinians lands but the memorandum was completely ignored.

 

Since the construction of the Racist Isolation Wall  around the village of ‘Anin in 2003, many of the workers who used to work in Um al Fahem have now to take a long, expensive, and risky trip to Jerusalem and from Jerusalem to Um al Fahem. Um al Fahem is 15 minutes away from ‘Anin.