Violation: the Israeli Occupation Authorities declares 200 dunums as ‘state property’.
Location: al Wajh al Shami area – Kafr Qaddum
Date: August 7, 2012.
Perpetrators: the Israeli Occupation Army.
Details:
The Israeli Occupation Authorities declared 200 dunums as state property. The targeted lands are planted with olives and have been inaccessible for Palestinians for over 10 years. According to the order that was handed to the so-called ‘Civil Coordination Office’ on August 7, 2012, the Palestinians MUST evacuate the lands and remove all the trees in the designated area. It must be noted that the targeted area is adjacent to Kadummim colony and is considered part of the so-called ‘security buffer zone’ that surrounds the colony.
 | |
It must be noted that the lands of ‘al Wajh al Shami area’ have been inaccessible for over 10 years due to the Israeli restrictions. The Israelis, and while depriving the owners from free exploitation of their lands, had activated an article in the Ottoman’s land law which says that any land that was left unused for over five years will automatically be confiscated by the state.
Ironically, the Israeli Occupation Authorities prevented the owners of the lands from accessing them for over ten years and now declared it as state property because it was left unused for ten years. Kafr Qaddum is just one among several villages around the West Bank that suffered similar aggressions; however, Kafr Qaddum lost over 40 % of its lands due to Israeli measures.
Kafr Qaddum:
Kafr Qaddum is located 25 km to the east of Qalqiliya. Its total area is around 20,000 dunums including 1382 dunums of built up area. There are around 2500 dunums of rangeland and 5000 dunums were captured by the Israeli and being used for colonial activities. The rest are agricultural field mostly planted with olive (85%).
