Israel prohibits the extraction of ground water in Kafr Dan Village

Violation: prohibiting the extraction of ground water.

Perpetrators: the Israeli Occupation Army.

Location: Kafr Dan plains.

Victims: farmers of Kafr Dan.

 

Kafr Dan has been targeted by the Israelis for year due to its availability of water. According to Mr. Ryad Meri, Kafr Dan Village Council, there are 80 wells in the village but only 6 has permission to operate and extract water; all of the 6 have been operating before the occupation of the West Bank in 1967.

 

The Israeli claim that the others are randomly dug and they refuse licensing them despite being located in an area classified ‘B’ according to Oslo. The Israelis control all the water sources in the West Bank.

 

Several Israeli campaigns were launched against the Palestinian agricultural sector and Kafr Dan has been set as a target.  The Israeli Army buried all the wells that it considers illegal and confiscated a great deal of tools from the fields. This caused shortage of water and affected the kinds of crops produced. It has also increased the unemployment rate in the village.

 

In addition, the Israelis refuse to permit the maintenance of the other ‘licensed’ wells which have been used since the British mandate or the Jordanian regime. These wells provide a total of 2,000,000 m3 per year. However, they cannot operate efficiently due to the urgent need for maintenance.

 

  

 

Omar al Damj, an agronomist of the PARC, said that the lack of water is drastically damaging the productivity of the agricultural fields in the village.

 

The village of Kufr Dan is located 5 kilometers northwest of the City of Jenin. Its area is 7,328 dunums, however only 300 dunums are classified within its Master Plan.

 

The village is surrounded by a number of other villages including Burqin (south), Al Yamoun (west) in addition to the city of Jenin (north). Around 4,000 dunums are used for agricultural purposes in an area known as Marj Ban A’amer where most of the irrigated crops are present. Hundreds of Green Houses spread throughout the Wadi while others parts of it are planted with fig, almond and olives. As to sustain such a large scale agricultural activity, landowners dug up tens of Artesian wells to use the underground water.  The population of the village is 5312 according to the PCBS’s estimate of 2008.