Confiscating a Truck in Ya’bad Village – Jenin Governorate

 

In a step taken towards damaging the Palestinian economy, the Israeli Occupation Army confiscated a coal-loading truck on November 2, 2011. The truck was moving the coal from the isolated village of Bart’a towards Ya’bad before being intercepted.

The truck is the property of Fathi abu Bakr (56) of Ya’bad who was taken to Dutan colony entrance before being served a confiscation order of the truck and its load for some days as well as penalizing him. Fathi, the sole supporter of his 9-member-family, considers the truck as his only source of income. In addition, the truck confiscation will have drastic effects on the coal supply coming from Bart’a. The Israeli soldiers claimed that the truck was carrying ‘illegal’ material.

 

coal production is an old industry, it has been there for decades, long before the Israeli conquest. Ya’bad is considered the capital of coal production in Palestine.

 

The industry contributes to more than 30% of the town’s income; it consigns the sole source of income for hundreds of families in Ya’bad and the surrounding villages knowing that there are more than 55 facilities in the village.

These workshops used to playa role in providing Haifa railway station with coal in 1922 in addition to the role the industry plays in providing tens of job opportunities for the town folks.

 

 

 

Coal industry is being targeted by the Israelis who claim that they are located in areas classified ‘C’ despite the fact that the lands are registered in the “Tabu” (the Ottomans property registration system) and that all the owners of the facilities are contracted with the owners of the lands and that most of these facilities are older than the Israeli Occupation.

 

In addition, intercepting supplies getting to those facilities have become a usual matter.  The Israeli Army had also demolished two facilities in the last 3 years besides warning 18 others of the same fate. The Israelis tend to clear the plains of Bart’a to ease capturing them.