Confiscation until further Notice Az Zawiya and Mas-ha- Salfit Governorate

Violation: confiscation of agricultural land for the construction of the wall.

Location: Az Zawiya and Mas-ha, Salfit.

Date: January 8, 2012.

Victims: farmers in Mas-ha and Az Zawiya.

 

The Israeli so-called District Coordination Office handed the Palestinian side on January 8, 2012, confiscation orders for lands in the villages of Mas-ha and Az Zawiya. The land is to be used for the construction of a new section of the segregation wall. It must be noted that the orders issued in January are extensions to orders issued in 2006 and 2004 to serve the same purpose. These orders allow the Israelis to take over tens of dunums of Palestinian lands to serve colonization.

 

Coherently, the Israelis issued an order concerned with ‘observing construction in Jehovah and Samaria’ entitled order AB/01/11, buffer zone 5772-2011; the order prohibits construction over 32 dunums stretching on both sides of the wall.

 

 

 

Order	Target village	Location	Renewal date (1)	Renewal date (2)	Target area (dunum)
T/88/04 (renewal of land capture order)	Mas-ha	Parcel 3	July, 2009	January, 2011	40.4
	Az Zawiya	Parcel 4
T/79/06 renwal of land capture for the third time	Az Zawiya	4	2008	The second renewal was on February, 2010 and the most recent in December, 2011	78

 

It is located 15 to the west of Salfit and edging the armistice line. Its total area, after the eruption of the wall, is 2700 dunum including 900 dunums of built up area inhabited by 4900 people. 81% of the population depends mostly, if not fully, on agriculture and the herding. Most of the lands are planted with fig, cactus, and olives.

 

 

 

The village has been facing a systematic land confiscation. It lost 12,000 duums of its lands to the Israeli colonization activities. It lost 12, 000 dunums in 1948. In addition, the eruption of the segregation wall which cost the village around. In 2003, 600 dunums were destroyed as a result of the construction of the segregation wall, 4000 dunums were completely isolated on the western side of the wall, not to mention 400 dunums that were destroyed before changing the route of the wall. In 2000, the Israelis confiscated additional 400 dunums for milling by-pass road ‘5’ which stretched for 4 km.