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Access Denied:
Israeli measures to
deny Palestinians access to land around settlements
September 2008, comprehensive report
http://www.btselem.org/english/publications/summaries/200809_access_denied.asp
For years,
Israeli authorities have both barred Palestinian access to rings
of land surrounding settlements, and have not acted to eliminate
settlers’ piratical closing of lands adjacent to settlements and
blocking of Palestinian access to them. Blocking access is one of
the many ways used to expand settlements. In recent years, Israel
has institutionalized the closing of such lands in an attempt to
retroactively sanction the unauthorized placement of barriers far
from the houses at the edge of the settlements.
Settlers pave
patrol roads and place physical obstructions on Palestinian lands
adjacent to settlements, at times with the authorities’ approval,
at others not. Settlers also forcibly remove Palestinians,
primarily farmers, from their lands. B'Tselem has documented cases
of gunfire, threats of gunfire and killing, beatings, stone
throwing, use of attack dogs, attempts to run over Palestinians,
destruction of farming equipment and crops, theft of crops,
killing and theft of livestock and animals used in farming,
unauthorized demands to see identification cards, and theft of
documents.
The
authorities entrusted with enforcing the law not only fail to take
sufficient action to end the violence and prosecute lawbreakers,
they join them and block Palestinian access themselves. Soldiers
regularly expel Palestinians from their farmland, often under the
direction of settlers. Israel has also established a physical
system of barriers – barbed-wire fences, patrol roads,
illumination and electronic sensory devices – far from the homes
at the edge of the settlements, in effect annexing large swaths of
land to the settlements.
Especially
blatant in this context is the “Special Security Area” (SSA) plan,
in which framework Israel surrounded 12 settlements east of the
Separation Barrier with rings of land that are closed as a rule to
Palestinian entry. As a result of the plan, the overall area of
these settlements is 2.4 times larger, having increased from 3,325
dunams to 7,793 dunams. More than half of this ring land is under
private Palestinian ownership. The amount of land attached to
settlements other than through the SSA plan is much larger, given
there are no official limitations and less supervision of the
piratical closing of land by settlers. B'Tselem estimates that
such piratical closing has blocked Palestinian entry to tens of
thousands of dunams, thus annexing them de facto to the
settlements. Experience shows that this land grab will be
perpetuated and become part of official policy to the extent that
the plan is implemented at additional settlements.
Palestinian
farmers seeking access to their lands must cope with a complex
bureaucracy and meet a number of conditions. First and foremost,
they must prove ownership of the land. They also have to
“pressure” the Civil Administration time and again to set times
for them to enter. Also, the defense establishment subjects
Palestinian access to the good will and caprice of the settlers.
On this background, many farmers give up and stop trying to gain
access and to work their land.
Official
spokespersons justify some of the closing of land, primarily the
land closed as a result of the SSA plan, on security needs. They
contend that, after the Separation Barrier was built in the West
Bank, settlements east of it were left exposed to violent attacks
by Palestinians, and that rings of land could provide a warning
area. Indeed, in 2002-2004, Palestinians killed 31 Israeli
citizens and injured many others inside settlements in the West
Bank. But Israel allows settlers to enter freely, without
supervision, the land, which ostensibly was meant to serve as a
warning area free of people, but is, in effect, closed only to
Palestinians. As a result, settlers move about on the Palestinian
land regularly, steal their crops, and even live on and work the
land. This practice breaches both the logic of a “warning zone”
and the military orders closing the area.
The land
adjacent to the settlement is part of a long list of areas that
Israel closes to Palestinians in the West Bank: the Jordan Valley,
East Jerusalem, military-training areas, the settlement areas
themselves, and others. Every piece of land that Israel closes to
Palestinians joins those areas previously taken, and together they
limit the possibilities of millions of persons, principal harm
being suffered by farmers and those who rely of farming for a
living. In this context, it should be recalled that the poverty
level of Palestinians in the West Bank is extremely high, and that
agriculture is the main sector of the Palestinian economy.
Blocking access also impedes urban development and limits
recreation in the form of nature hikes and enjoyment of land
resources.
Blocking
Palestinian access to land adjacent to settlements is the direct
result, and an integral part, of the illegal settlement
enterprise. This enterprise continuously violates the absolute
prohibition specified in international humanitarian law on
settlements in occupied territory. Consequently, Israel is
obligated to evacuate the settlers and return them to sovereign
Israeli soil. If the settlers are not evacuated, there are ways,
which are presented in the report, to protect them in ways that
will harm Palestinians to a lesser extent. But the government of
Israel is obligated to evacuate them in any case, and evacuation
is the only legal way to meet the security need that stands,
according to official spokespersons, at the basis of the regulated
closing of the land.
http://www.btselem.org/english/publications/summaries/200809_access_denied.asp |
