At the beginning of 2014, the municipality of Qaffin in Tulkarm and in cooperation with the CHF International and the support of the municipal fund, began rehabilitating a public park in the eastern part of Qaffin town for recreational use for the benefit of town’s inhabitants, especially children. The project had a significant impact on the inhabitants because it offered several opportunities for recreational activities as well as Psychological treatment after the town inhabitants witnessed the loss of their land and livelihood for the construction of the Israeli Segregation Wall on their land.
On the 24th of November, 2014, The Israeli Civil Administration (ICA) targeted Qaffin’s newly established public park with “stop work order” under the pretext of unauthorized building, due to its location in the area classified as "C", which according to the Oslo II Interim agreement of 1995, is still under the full Israeli control, security and administrative. The incident itself is not one of its kind as the Israeli occupation authorities continue to target Palestinian properties (lands, houses, trees, etc…) located in the area classified as "c" under the pretext of unlicensed building, while unleashes to build hundreds or even thousands of settlement units in Israeli settlements erected illegally in the town, and all over the West Bank Governorates.
The eastern part of Qaffin town is considered one of the richest areas in the town in terms of natural resources, environment and biodiversity. Today, this particular area is the only entertainment area left for town’s inhabitants. Following the construction of the wall which isolated 2446 dunums, 24% of the town’s land, inhabitants turned their efforts to rehabilitate the eastern part of the town and utilize it for good purposes; however, the Israeli Occupation Authorities didn’t let them go with their plans and notified them to stop with the attempt to stop the Palestinian urban expansion in the direction of Hermesh settlement,
Including areas “A” and “B” , Israel grants settlements’ councils control over more Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank
A report Published by Israeli daily newspaper (Haaretz) on the 27th of May 2013 indicates that the Israeli settlements jurisdiction area in the occupied West Bank increased by 7375 dunums (7.4 km²) in the year 2012 to stand at 538,303 dunums (538.3 km²) by the end of 2012 after it was 530,931 dunums (531 km²). It should be noted that that the Israeli settlements jurisdiction area exceeds that of the Israeli settlements master plan area of 1991. The increase was, as reported by the newspaper, as a result of Israeli military orders that have been issued and ratified during the year 2012 and granted Israeli settlements’ councils in the West Bank control over new Palestinian land for settlement expansion, that is in addition to the area which is already occupied by existing Israeli settlements and the area that comes under the Israeli settlements master plans. For more information, click here:
An Analysis conducted by the applied research Institute — Jerusalem (ARIJ) of the Palestinian land that was confiscated through military orders to become part of the Israeli settlements jurisdiction, qaffin town had its share of this long planned confiscation as Of the special cases noted in the analysis was the Shakid settlements’ bloc (Shaked, Rehan, Hinanit and Tel Menashe) west of Jenin city and located inside the Barta'a enclave. The settlements’ jurisdiction area extends beyond the Israeli segregation wall path, on the eastern side of the wall, at the expense of Palestinian land classified as “A” and “B”, and most especially, the eastern part of Qaffin town, where the public park is located and was targeted with stop-work order recently. See Map 1
Map 1: Barta'a Ash Sharqiya enclave and Qaffin town
To conclude,
Israel brands itself as a democratic state, however, it is clear that the law does not apply to Israeli settlements or the settlers living in them. In the last couple of years, the Palestinian territory witnessed several attacks by Israeli settlers which targeted land and property for the different colonial purposes; the Israeli government itself, didn’t make an effort to prevent these attacks, but conversely, it provided settlers with the necessary legal cover to seize the land, and always sought to support these groups financially in order to create a reality that cannot be changed in the future.
Prepared by:
The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem
