Violation: Taking over a piece of agricultural land
Location: Ras Mouis
Date: 08/06/2014
Perpetrators: Colonists of Shilo
Victims: A number of farmers from Jalud
Details:
Colonists of Shilo have seized a new piece of land of Jalud village, east of the West Bank city of Nablus. The targeted land is in area known as "Ras Mouis", southeast of Jalud and within the natural blocks no. 18 and 20 of the village. It should be marked that the land grabbed is located outside the boundaries of the colony and is within what is called the colony's "security zone".
After seizure, colonists embarked on plowing the land and set up barrels around the olive trees in addition to fencing it and installing water pipes. During ravaging the land, more focus was given to the part near the northwestern side of the colony.
The area of the confiscated land, as estimated, is no less than 25 agricultural dunums within the circumference of the colony of Shilo and it belongs to the families of Rashid Muhammad (owning 17 dunums) and Ahmad Muhammad (owning 8 dunums).
About the land, Abdullah Muhammad stated to an LRC field researcher that: "The targeted piece of land is located between Jalud and Qaryut villages and is considered futile as it is planted with olive trees, especially Romans. It is unreachable, though, as the Israeli occupation imposes restrictions denying farmers access to the location except for the plowing time and oil harvest season since it is within the security zone of the colony. This fact has made it even easier for colonists to work in a systematic way in ravaging land and uprooting trees. In the past year alone, vast areas of land were swept away and a large number of trees uprooted."
Pictures 1-4: Razing land within the circumference of the colony of Shilo
About Qaryut:[i]
Qaryut is located 20 kilometers to the south east of Nablus city; a 4.5 km road connects the village to Nablus-Jerusalem road, the road has been closed by the Israeli Occupation Authorities since 2000. Its total area is about 8,471 dunum, 312 dunums of residential areas. Around 2,321 people currently live in the village.
The Israeli Occupation Authorities expropriated about 1,332 dunums for the expansion of the following colonies:
- Shilo: established in 1978; its share of Qaryut lands was about 779 dunums and the residential area of the settlement is about 1,347 dunums.
- Eli: established in 1984. It devoured 553 dunums of the village lands. Its built up area is 3,360 dunums.
[i] Source: Geographic Information System- Monitoring Israeli Violations Team- Land Research Center
Prepared by
The Land Research Center
LRC
