Violation: imposing complicated restrictions to access isolated lands behind the wall
Location: Jayyous village/ Qalqiliya
Date: 11/09/2014
Perpetrators: the army of the Israeli occupation
Victims: farmers of Jayyous
Details:
After a week from dismantling a segment of the apartheid wall( implemented on September 2014), west of Jayyous village; northeast of Qalqiliya governorate, the occupation returned 2200 dunums to Jayyous village and 474 dunums to Falamya village as well. Noteworthy, these lands were isolated behind the wall since 2002. Shortly after that incident, the occupation imposed complicated procedures on farmers to access their lands, which are still segregated behind the wall.
The responsible of the apartheid file in the People Committees Mazoz al-Qadomi to the LRC researcher stated the following: "the occupation set up a new gate no. 935 in the apartheid wall(isolating 6000 dunums) from the southwest side of the village, more specifically 2km away from its built-up area. Noteworthy, the gate no. 927, which is mutual with Falamya village was removed after dismantling a segment of the wall from western side of Jayyous".
Al-Qadomi also added: " on September 11th 2014, we were shocked by the District Coordination Office decision to only let 50 farmers from Jayyous in their isolated lands".
According Jayyous municipality, more than 394 farmers own lands, which are segregated behind the apartheid wall. The number includes the farmers and their families as well.
The occupation justified the limited number of permits (for lands accessing) by saying that a vast area of lands was returned to their owners, taking into consideration that what has been returned is only the third of what was confiscated.
Photo1: the dismantled wall and the returned land
Photo 2: the new apartheid wall
Complex procedures on the gate opening hours:
Qadomi also asserted: "before removing the segment, the gate no. 927 functioned from 5:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Now after setting up another gate on the modified segment, the working hours were as follow: (5:30-6:15 a.m.), (1:00-1:30 p.m.) and (5:30-6:00 p.m.). Noteworthy, these hours are not convenient for farmers due to the lands far from the village".
About the apartheid wall in Jayyous:
The segregation wall isolated, in 2002, around 8600 dunums form the villages of Jayyous and Falamya. After a long tribunal procedures in Israel Supreme Court, a decision was made, on September 9th 2009, to modify the wall to its final status where 2450 dunums from northwest Jayyous shall be returned to their owners.
On January 18th 2013, the modification of the wall started and was represented in ravaging new areas for the sake of establishing a new modified segment to substitute the old one. The removed segment is of 3km from the northwestern side of Jayyous. As a result, 80 dunums were left damaged after the removal.
On September 1st 2014, the work on the new segment was done and on September 7th, farmers were given access to their lands, which were returned as a matter of fact..
According to the mayor of Jayyous: " the returned lands contain two artisan wells namely( Yabok and Abu Thahir) and has more than 25dunums planted with green houses. Rest of the area is lands planted with olives. Noteworthy, the isolated lands have 27dunums planted with vegetables, citrus, olives and guava as well.
Prepared by
The Land Research Center
LRC
