Violation: raiding a coal production facility and the confiscation of large amounts of wood and coal.
Date: August 6, 2012.
Victim: Abdul Fattah abu Baker.
Perpetrators: the Israeli Occupation Army.
Location: Yabad – Jenin.
Details:
A new Israeli crime to hit the already fringe Palestinian economy took place on August 6, 2012 when Israeli troops broke into a coal production facility in Yabad. The soldiers confiscated 12 tons of coal, 10 tons of wood, and a number of equipment. The facility was the source of income for the owner Abdul Fattah abu Baker (9 members) and the families of 6 other people working in the facility, a total of 19 members.
 | |
Picture 1-2: coal facilities in Yabad
The Israelis justified the raid by claiming that the operations of the facility are unlicensed and that their existence impose threat to the ‘safety’ of nearby colonies.
Coal production is an old industry, it has been there for decades, long before the Israeli conquest. Ya’bad is considered the capital of coal production in Palestine. The industry contributes to more than 30% of the town’s income; it consigns the sole source of income for hundreds of families in Ya’bad and the surrounding villages knowing that there are more than 55 facilities in the village.
These workshops used to playa role in providing Haifa railway station with coal in 1922 in addition to the role the industry plays in providing tens of job opportunities for the town folks.
Coal industry is being targeted by the Israelis who claim that they are located in areas classified ‘C’ despite the fact that the lands are registered in the “Tabu” (the Ottomans property registration system) and that all the owners of the facilities are contracted with the owners of the lands and that most of these facilities are older than the Israeli Occupation.
In addition, intercepting supplies getting to those facilities have become a usual matter. The Israeli Army had also demolished two facilities in the last 3 years besides warning 25 others of the same fate. The Israelis tend to clear the plains of Bart’a to ease capturing them.
