Picture 1: the agricultural road
Violation: preventing the milling of a new agricultural road.
Victims: more than hundred villagers.
Violators: the Organization and Structure Committee in the Israeli Occupation Army.
Date: June 22, 2010.
Location: Kafr Kaddum is 23 km away from Qalqiliya city. Its total area is 17161 dunums including 456 dunums of built up area which is inhabited by 2908 people.
A number of Israeli colonies surround the village including Kadumim Zion, Giv’at Harkaziz, and Kadumim Get.
Picture 2: Kafr Kaddum village
Details: the Israeli Occupation Army had ordered the immediate stoppage of the road milling works on June 22, 2010. The area is endangered of confiscation since it is only 350 meters away from Kadumim colonial compound. The project is funded by the USAID and implemented by the CHF in cooperation with the village council.
The road is intended to be 2 km long and serve more than 100 farmers who suffer badly from the inability to reach their lands due to the rough roads they use. An Israeli Civil Administration officer orally informed the village council of the stop-work.
Abu Mus’ab Ishtewi, the village council deputy stated to an LRC observer: ‘it required a lot of effort to receive funds for the project; finally, we received it and started working a couple of months ago. If the project was implemented, it would have served more than hundred landlords who own lands placed under confiscation threats. The blueprints of the project included a 5 km road which was reduced to 2 km because of anticipated Israeli aggressions and interventions despite the fact that the targeted area is classified ‘B’ according to Oslo agreement. Soon after readying 1 km, the Israelis ordered the immediate stoppage of the milling claiming that work is not permitted in areas classified ‘C’. We posted a complaint in the DCO office since the maps provided by the Israeli side show otherwise. The Israeli decided that we can proceed in the millings since we do not get near area ‘C’. One day after restarting the work; Israeli soldiers showed up and ordered immediate halt of any work’.
The Israeli closures of the agricultural road became a habit since they consider anything Palestinian a threat to their illegal colonies security. In addition, Kafr Kaddum village suffers from frequent colonists’ and soldiers aggressions.
The soldiers raid the village arresting and beating Palestinians and messing the houses up. Concurrently, Isradei colonists attack the farms and sabotage or steal the crop. Sometimes, they set some fields alight.
The Palestinian faced the most vicious attck during the last olive-picking season when the colonists formed a group of armed colonists that tried to prevent the villagers from harvesting their crop by beating them and sometimes shooting at them.
In addition, the colonists used to steal part of the crop, other times; they stole some of the machines the farmers owned. The worst of the colonists’ actions was spraying the trees with a strange substance that killed the trees beside torching and uprooting a large number of trees. It is not strange to see the Israeli Army closures of the agricultural road since they only serve Palestinian farmers.
On the other hand it provides the colonists with the perfect environment which enable them to spread their hatred and evil around the Palestinian villages. In addition, it restrains any Palestinian development plans. See Map 1
Prepared by
The Land Research Center
LRC
The Land Research Center
LRC
