Violation: declaring a Palestinian area closed military zone
Location: Ya’bad village- Jenin
Date: December 22, 2015
Perpetrators: Israeli occupation forces
Victims: 20 agricultural families
Details:
Agriculture is a crucial nerve for the prosperity of economy. As a matter of fact, 70% of the Palestinian community is rural, where people depend on agriculture to make living.
It should be marked that the Israeli occupation worked day and night to steal Palestinian lands for the sake of carrying out colonial expansion plans.
The Israeli occupation issued on December 22, 2015 an order declaring an area of 90 dunums from Ya’bad village closed military zones. Noteworthy, the targeted area is adjacent to the bypass road number 585.
Photos 1-2: side of the targeted lands by the bypass road number 585
Photo 3: the military order served on the lands
The occupation justified this act as to create a buffer zone by a large segment of the bypass road to guarantee the safety of colonists traveling through the road to Mevo Dotan colony.
The mayor of Ya’bad, Yousef Atatrah, said that what is going on in the area is a continuation of an old plan the Israeli occupation started in 2010 to close the agricultural roads that link Ya’bad village to the bypass road number 585.
By the year of 2012, the occupation closed all coal factories founded by the bypass road. Noteworthy the factories provided sources of income for many workers from the area at time. In 2013, the occupation targeted the trees on both sides of the road claiming them to be hiding places of Palestinian attackers. Farmers and herders were not safe from the occupation measures of chasing, attacking and arresting; specifically in 2014. Finally, the occupation came today to establish a buffer zone to take over more land to be used for colonial purposes.
About Ya’bad village:
The village is located 18 km to the west of Jenin governorate. It is edged by the villages of Al-Khiljan, Al-Tarm, Al-Araqa, Imraiha and Khirbet Mas’oud, Zabda from the north, Qaffin village from the west, Al-Qaffriat village from the east and Arraba, Al-Nazla Al-Sharqiya and Baqa Al-Sharqiya from the south.
With a total land area of 29572 dunums, of which 1814 dunums are the built-up area, Ya’bad is inhabited by 13640 people (2007).
The occupation confiscated 1840 dunums from Ya’bad; the confiscation is clarified as follows:
- Israeli colonies confiscated 483 dunums as follows:
Settlement Name |
Year of establishment |
Confiscated areadunum |
No. of colonists |
Mevo Dotan |
|
|
|
Jarmish |
|
|
|
Total |
|
|
- Bypass roads number (569 & 585) confiscated 1357 dunums.
The lands of Ya’bad are classified, according to Oslo Accords, as follows:
- 1674 dunums are classified as area “A”
- 8124 dunums are classified as area “B”
- 19774 dunums are classified as area “C”
Some International conventions and Humanitarian laws pertaining to attacks on land and natural resources are:
Article 17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:
- Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
- No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
Article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights States:
"All peoples may, for their own ends, freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources without prejudice to any obligations arising out of international economic co-operation, based upon the principle of mutual benefit, and international law. In no case may a people be deprived of its own means of subsistence."
Prepared by
The Land Research Center
LRC