Yasuf village homes threatened of demolition by the Israeli occupation

( Photo1: Yasuf- Salfit: houses threatened with demolition)  

On June 14th, 2007, the Israeli occupation authorities circulated notifications to halt works in the construction of 9 houses in the village of Yasuf, Salfit governorate under the pretext of un-licensing.  The notifications were issued by the supreme planning council, sub-committee for inspection, affiliated to the so-called Israeli civil administration in Judea and Samaria ( West Bank). 

The Israeli authorities have been refusing to give construction permissions to owners under the pretext that the houses are located in zone C of Olso agreement's classifications meaning that  this area comes under complete Israeli security and civic affairs.  The threatened houses area located at the southern side of the village far away from the fences of the colony of Kfar Tapuah which was built over the lands of Yasuf village. Some of the houses have been inhabited since 8 years.

Table 1: Affected house owners by name and type of building

Source: Yasuf village council

( Photo2: Yasuf- Salfit: a copy of the halt construction notification)

Negative impact

The halt construction notifications have had an immediate negative psychological impact on the affected house owners, on one hand,  and, on the rest of the village inhabitants, on the other hand, as 47 % of the village houses are built in zone C which poses real danger  to these houses. 

Although one of the target houses is located inside the borders of zone B which is supposed to be under total Palestinian civic affairs, its owner, Mr. Jihad Mahmud Fallah, 39 years old,  had, also, received a halt construction notification. In reality , 90 % of the body of his house is located in Zone B and the remaining 10 % in zone C. Its owner had managed to get a building permission from the Palestinian side in the year 2000. So far, he spent at least 32000 US $ to build the house which is now facing demolition.

( Photo3: Yasuf- Salfit: the map of the village built up area showing the threatened
houses in zone C except the house of Mr. Jihad Fallah which is located in zone B )

( Photo 4: Yasuf- Salfit: A copy of the license issued by the Palestinian ministry
of local authorities to Mr. Jihad Fallah to build his home dated may 10, 2000 ) 

As for Mr. Najeh Ibrahim Yassin, 40 years old, he was obliged to take loans to build his house and move to settle in it with his 7 family memebrs. By so doing, the Israeli occupation authorities is aiming to bring his family to homelessness and destroying their future.

Complicated  licensing measures

The affected land owners have filled cases to the Israeli legal advisor at Beit Eil court who fixed July 12 as a date for a court session to discuss the issue. However, he asked the owners to start the licensing procedures with the Israeli occupation's supreme planning council, the subcommittee for inspection in Qalqiliya region. To complicate matters for them, the owners have been asked to prepare, within a short period of time,  many documents as a prerequisite for accepting the case in the court, including the following:

• Inheritance designation certificate;

• Power of attorney for the target land;

• An Affidavit of no dispute over or mortgage of the target land;

• A 3 dimension photographing of the standing construction.

 Background to Yasuf

The village is located 7 km to the north east of Salfit city. Its current  population mounts to 1800 distributed to 260 nucleus family. 87% of the village's population depend on agriculture as main income (source: Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics- PCBS). See Map 1

The village total surface area is 5928 dunums, of which 267 dunums are built up area and 300 dunums taken by the colony of Kfar Tapouh ( established in 1978, its population in 2005 was 648 settler, its total municipal boundaries are 414 dunums, including 156 dunums as built up area) Source: Foundation for East Peace- Washington.

Two new ' random' colonial posts  were set up near the village of Yasuf in the year 2000 confiscating about 100 dunums from the lands of the village, they are:

• Arhama 1:  located to the south of Yasuf;

• New Tapouh:  located to the east of the village.

Impact of colonies at Yasuf citizens

The citizens of Yasuf and nearby villages are continuously suffering from the presence of the Israeli colonies and colonists. The following are some examples:

1.     Blocking all the agricultural roads with earth and rock mounds to  prevent the village citizens from reaching their agricultural lands, particularly during the harvesting seasons;

2.     Uprooting more than 1000 fruitful olive trees in the vicinity of Kfar Tapuah colony for the construction of Walls and fences;

3.     Releasing of great numbers of wild pigs that attack and overgraze fields and trees;

4.     Polluting agricultural land with sewage water and causing diseases to local people.  

(Photo 5: Yasuf- Salfit: other homes threatened with demolition) 

Opening of bypass roads

During the seventies of the last century, the Israeli occupation authorities confiscated about 50 dunums of land from the village of Yasuf to built a 3 km long by 16 m wide section of road No, 60.

Later, at the beginning of the nineties of the last century, the Israeli authorities confiscated another 32 dunums to build  bypass road number 505 known as Samaria Highway in the northern parts of the village agricultural land. This process, also, led  to the uprooting and devastation of more than 1200 olive trees.

In 2004, The Israeli occupation authorities confiscated an additional 300 dunums of agricultural land to expand the main checkpoint of Za'tara (Tapuoh) turning it into a huge crossing point between the northern and southern Palestinian West bank governorate.  

All over, about 782 dunums of Yasuf village land have been seized by the occupation authorities for different purposes. This number represents more than 13 % of the total area of the village. More than 2000 olive trees have been uprooted in the process.

Closing the village

After the Israeli re-occupation of the Palestinian cities and villages in the West Bank in April 2002, the village of Yasuf, like other sisterly villages,  was put under strict military siege. This siege was manifested in blocking all the local and agricultural roads with earth mounds, rocks, cement blocks, trenches and iron gates. In this context, an iron gate closed the main entrance to the village that connects it with the bypass road number 505, thus, cutting of the village from the outside world and causing severe economic, social and psychological problems to village inhabitants for almost two consecutive years before it was  re-opened in December,  2004.

Prepared by
The Land Research Center
LRC