The occupation dumps two under construction cisterns with dirt and rocks

Violation:  dumping two water wells

Location: Khirbet Yarza

Date: 02/12/2013

Perpetrators: the army of the Israeli occupation 

Victims: farmer Jamal Msa'id

Details:

On Monday, December 02nd 2013, the troops of the Israeli occupation accompanied by a military bulldozer raided Khirbet Yarza, 7km east of Tubas city and dumped two under construction water cisterns (of 80m3 in volume for each) with rocks and dirt.

The cisterns are owned by farmer Jamal Msa'id (56) from Yarza who contributed in the  digging process funded by  Palestine Ministry of Agriculture MaO. It should be marked that the farmer started the project by the beginning of the past October after he obtained a fund from MoA for the sake of serving his land that is surrounded by the well. Noteworthy, an area of 47 dunum has been going under reclamation in the farmer's land. Jamal Msa'id to the LRC researcher stated that he has not received any  demolition notification and that he has started reclamation on his land that leads to the al-Tyasir military checkpoint two years ago for the sake protecting it from colonial expansion plans that might occur in the future. Despite the fact that the land is of no threat or danger, yet the occupation surprised the farmer and dumped the wells.

It is notable that the occupation fights hard against all projects related to water in the West Bank as a whole and that is for the sake of controlling the water stack and striking the agricultural sector especially in the areas of al-ghoor.

About Yarza:

It is situated 10km east of Tubas, more specifically in the area of Sahel al-Buqai'a. The Khirbet is inhabited by 12 families of 100 people who remained out of hundreds  farming and planting their agricultural lands estimated of 25,000 dunum in area of which 283 dunum is classified under the name of Jither Balad, which is an old inhabited city.

It is indicated that 75% of Yarza lands belong to the Jordanian Tabu under and are registered under the ownership of Palestinians who had to leave the area towards Tubas and the nearby Khirbets due to the extreme discriminative activities the occupation inflected  upon them.  It should be also mentioned that the roots of Yarza citizens come from Tubas and that the Khirbet has three main families namely Ainabosi, Msa'id, and Shideh.

Yarza  is considered a closed military zone by the occupation, using its lands estimated of 25,000 dunums as shooting fields , and military training camps due to the mountainous forest nature of the location. Noteworthy, the Cobra training camp that is situated in Yarza in addition to tens of shooting fields located here and there form an imminent danger on the life residents. Training camps caused a huge damage on residents either by the outcomes of direct military training or by their leftovers. Since the area is declared inaccessible for Palestinians, Yarza lacks all kinds of life services and standards due to the blockade on the area.

Prepared by
 The Land Research Center
LRC