Israel’s Occupation Forces demolish retaining walls and uproot trees in Qalqiliya governorate
- Violation: demolition of retaining walls and uprooting trees
- Location: Jayyous village
- Date: September 10, 2017
- Perpetrators: Israel's Civil Administration
- Victims: two Palestinian farmers
Details:
A force from the Israeli occupation army accompanied by a military dozer raided on September 10, 2017 the area known as "Aqdet At-Tin" in Jayyous village and carried out a demolition operation that reached out to a 180 meters of retaining walls and 120 meters of metal fences that were gifted by Land Research Center through a developmental project implemented in the area. Not only, the dozer caused massive area to get ravaged and uprooted 13 trees of different varieties. The attack was justified by the occupation on the claim that the targeted lands were "state lands".
Photo 1: the targeted land of farmer Sharif Khalid
Photo 2: the location of uprooted trees
Farmer Sharif said that the occupation has been working to seize his land by claiming it state land. His land is around 63 dunums in area and it accommodates a 1000m3 water cistern. By 1996, the farmer managed to obtain a supreme court decision of ownership for his land.
In 2015, the occupation forces raided Sharif lands and ordered him to dismantle the fence surrounding the parcel because it violates the boundaries of state lands as they claim.
Photos 3-6: the destroyed retaining walls
Photo 7: the eviction order "dismantle" in 2015
Ban on agricultural lands rehabilitation:
In the same context, Israel's Occupation Forces banned farmer Ali Nofal from rehabilitating his 2 dunum land that is founded to the west of the village within the natural block number 3 on the claim of it being "state lands". The farmer was threatened of detention if he doesn’t leave the area.
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 have more than 25dunums planted with green houses. Rest of the area is olive groves.
Noteworthy, the isolated lands have 27dunums planted with vegetables, citrus, olives and guava as well.
Jayyous:
Jayyous is located 10 km to the northeast of Qalqiliya city and is edged Falamya village from the north, Zufin colony the west, Khirbet Jabir from the east and Izbet Al-Tayeb from the south.
Its population mounts to 3731 (2014 census) people who live on a total land of 10,925 dunums, of which 418 dunums are considered the village's built-up area.
Israeli colonies confiscated 724 dunums from Jayyous lands. Zufin colony that was established in 1990 is founded on confiscated lands from the village.
The apartheid wall is founded on 1045 dunums from the area and was reported to isolate 6,496 dunums behind its construction.
The lands of Jayyous hamlet are classified according to Oslo Accords as the following:
- 3128 dunums (29%) are classified as area B
- 7707 dunums (71%) are classified as area C
Prepared by
The Land Research Center
LRC
