Violation: establishing sheep farms
Location: Yasuf village- Salfit
Date: 01/04/2015
Perpetrators: Tapuah colonists
Victims: residents of Yasuf
Details:
The Israeli occupation authorities work on imposing a de facto policy that cannot be dealt with in any futuristic negotiations with Palestinians.
There is no doubt that the Salfit village of Yasuf got a huge share of violations and attacks on people and trees. Lands are attacked seasonally or even monthly by the occupation, which aim is to take over the area to expand Tapuah colony.
On April 2015, a group of colonists embarked on establishing a number of farms and agricultural barracks on private Palestinian lands from Yasuf, which have been recently confiscated under the pretext of “security purposes”. According to the field follow-up conducted by Land Research Center, colonists built 2 barracks for sheep and 2 other storehouses for fodder. This step allowed colonists to take over 2000 dunums , which is 30% of the village’s total area.
The chairman of Yasuf village council Hafeth E’biyeh, about the negative impact of the barrack, told a research from Land Research Center the following:
“The farmers of Yasuf entirely relied on the recently confiscated lands for wheat and summer crops plantation; the taken lands were given to colonists to establish their sheep barracks on. It should be marked that colonists release their sheep to graze in the nearby agricultural lands, causing damage to crops”
He also added:
“The problem started in2004 when a fanatic colonist named Samhi grazed his sheep on the edges of the village under the protection of the Israeli occupation army. By time, barns and barracks were established on confiscated lands where many professional colonists in the sector of agriculture were brought to take the lead of the area. Palestinians filed many complaints to the Israeli police in that regard but no results have been rendered”
Photos 1-2 : the recently established farms and barracks by colonists
Yasuf:
It is 16km south of Nablus. Yasuf is surrounded by Huwara and Jamma'in (north), Marda (west), Yatma (east), and Iskaka (south).
Yasuf is inhabited by 2090 people (according to 2013 projections). It has a total area of 6037 dunums, 330 of which are built-up area of the village.
The Israeli occupation confiscated 814 dunums for these two colonies: Kfar Tapuah colony which was built on Yasuf lands in 1978. The colony is inhabited by 523 colonists and Rachelim- Shvut that was built in 1991 and devoured 10 dunums.
Besides, bypass number 508 confiscated more than 155 dunums of the village lands.
According to Oslo Accords, only 1427 dunums of Yasuf lands are under Area B (PA is in charge of civil matters with Israel responsible for security) while most of Yasuf is under Area C (Israel maintains full security and administrative control). About of 4609 dunums of Yasuf is in area C.
Prepared by
The Land Research Center
LRC
