On July 9, 2008, the Israeli Chief Commander of the West Bank Jad Shemny handed out residents of Rummana village northern of Jenine governorate; a military order holding # (08/16/T) informing them that 6 dunums of their lands will be confiscated for military uses in order to expand a shooting field for the Israeli army near salim military camp. See the military order.    

 

On August 8, 2008 The Israeli army bulldozers started to bulldoze the agricultural areas and uprooting the fruitful olive trees in the land. The targeted land owned by Mahmoud Ahmed, and the heirs of Aziz Tahir Bushnaq, all of them are citizens of the village, according to the affected,  the bulldozed area is planted with fruitful olive trees, and bulldozing it at this time means a  disaster to them, particularly as they forthcoming on the olive harvest season. See Map 1

 

 

What behind the bush

Analysis done by the Geographical Information Unit (GIS) at ARIJ,  shows that there are more than 10 square kilometers open spaces northern salem military base , i.e. the base don't need any more open space in the West Bank southern the base. This means that this new military order in Rummana village it just to pave the way for new confiscations along the segregation wall. These confiscations aimed to legitimize more than 300 meter buffer zone along with the segregation wall. These confiscations may be issued under many names: either state property or property of absent near the settlements along the Western part of the segregation Wall, or for military uses near military bases as happened in our case.  

 

Rummana Area, Location & Population:

Rummana located 13 km to the north west of Jenin city. Its total area 10464 dunums, of which 2501 dunums in area B while 7963 dunums in area C. The village population mounts to 3466 according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS).  The village depends mainly on agriculture and animal husbandry as main income. Table 1 illustrates the land use and land cover for the village:

 

Landuse Landcover 2006 for Rummana	Area in Dunum
Arable land	1634
Forest	82
Heterogeneous agricultural areas	2263
Open spaces with little or no vegetation	1639
Permanent crops	4142
Plastic House	3
Shrub and/or herbaceous vegetation associations	287
Palestinian builtup area	374
Wall Zone	40
Total Area	10464

Source: GIS unit, ARIJ 

The segregation wall and Rummana

68 dunums of the village have been isolated by the segregation wall, when it was built in 2003 in the northern, southern and western sides of the village, and according to Rummana local council, at least 32 Palestinian families out of 450 have migrated the village to nearby towns and cities to find living as a result of the continuous harassment and closure on the part of the Israeli army.

 

Table 2 below shows land use and land cover for the isolated area

 

Isolated Landuse Landcover Inside Wall	Area in Dunum
Arable land	4
Heterogeneous agricultural areas	16
Open spaces with little or no vegetation	8
Permanent crops	24
Wall Zone	16
Total Area	68

 Source: GIS unit, ARIJ 

 

Latest Israeli violations against the village:

In 2001 the Israeli authorities confiscated 40 dunums of Rummana and Zabbuba lands to build the Salem military checkpoint and military base in the north western corner of Jenin district close to Megiddo road intersection. The place hosts now the Israeli civil administration offices for Jenin district and the military liaison offices as well as a temporary detention centre.

 

On June 2008 the Israeli army sat fire in lands owned by Palestinians, near Salem military base, the flames had spread to affect more than 30 dunums of cultivated lands with olives and almonds. Recently the Israeli Chief Commander of the West Bank handed out residents of Rummana village; a military order informing them that 6 dunums of their lands will be confiscated for military uses

 

To conclude

Israel is in a race against time in order to confiscate Palestinian land as much as it could before starting the final status negotiations. The best proof of this, the recent Israeli Foreign Minister Tzivi Livni statement; that she rejects any peace agreement with the Palestinians within any schedule. Livni prefers to agree on some progress things. Ms. Livni ignored that her Government behavior undermine all success chances in the negotiations. Also she ignored the International Law rules and conventions

 

Today, and after 41 years of the Illegal Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, Israel insists on neglecting all of the International Law rules and conventions regarding its illegitimate procedures, policies, and violations practiced against Palestinians and their lands and properties.

 

The UNSCR (United Nation Security Council Resolutions) and specifically the resolutions: 242 and 338 called upon Israel to completely withdraw from all of the territories it occupied in its aggression in the year 1967, which means that the Israeli existence in these territories is Illegal, therefore, all of the rules, decisions, laws or any regulations issued by the Illegal occupation authorities is null and.

 

 

 

 

 Prepared by 
The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem