URGENT: Palestinian farmers protest Israeli confiscation of land and water

For Immediate Release:


What: Palestinian farmers and international supporters hold prayer service and march protesting confiscation of farmland and water sources by the Israeli military.


When: Friday, 13 September 2002, Prayer Service at 12:30pm, March at 1:30pm


Where: Prayer Service in Beit Amin and March to Izbet Salman, West Bank, Palestine


Contact Information:

Omar Sabhar, General Director, Ministry of Local Government, Palestinian National Authority, 059/837-606 from Israel/Palestinian Territories, (972-59)837-606 international


Osama Qashoo (Qalqilya, ISM) 052/225-703 from Israel/Palestinian Territories, (972-52)225-703 international


Garrick Ruiz (Los Angeles, ISM) 067/371-507 from Israel/Palestinian Territories, (972-67)371-507 international


Lisa Nessan (San Francisco Bay Area, ISM) 052/272-524 from Israel/Palestinian Territories, (972-52) 272-524 international


Kristin Razowsky (Flo) (Minneapolis Midwest Region, ISM) 067/361-708 from Israel/Palestinian Territories, (972-67) 361-708 international




Palestinian farmers from villages in the Tulkarem and Qalqilya regions of the Israeli occupied West Bank will gather Friday between Beit Amin and Izbet Salman to pray on their land. The Israeli Military plans to seize over 80,000 dunams of fertile farmland (one dunam is approximately a quarter acre) and nearly all of the region's 37 water wells. After the prayer the farmers will march to the neighboring community of Izbet Salman. Volunteers from the International Solidarity Movement, a Palestinian-led organization which supports Palestinian nonviolent resistance to Israeli Occupation, will participate in the march.


These seizures of Palestinian land will result in the redrawing of the border between Israel and 1967 Occupied Palestine. Areas affected extend along the Israeli-Palestinian border, from Jenin to Hebron. The Israeli military claims the confiscations are necessary due to nonspecific security concerns.


Last week, the Israeli military notified farmers of the immediate seizure of their lands when Israeli soldiers placed handwritten documents signed by General Keflinsky in Palestinian olive orchards and croplands. Within days, bulldozers accompanied by military personnel began the destruction of acres of cultivated farmland and the cutting down of ancient olive trees laden with fruit ready for harvest in the coming month of October. According to the handwritten notices, the farmers had one week to appeal the decision; however, they have been unable to make an appeal due to military travel restrictions and Isreali administrative office closures for the celebration of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.


Israeli seizure will turn the area's subsistence level farmers into refugees, robbed of ancestral land and economic means of supporting their families. The area around Tulkarem and Qalqilya is one of the most fertile agricultural area in the West Bank and includes the Western Aquifer Area which supplies the primary irrigation and drinking water for the surrounding population. The region's economy is dependent on these wells and family farms, which have been under cultivation for generations.


This week, Israeli surveyors with armed Israeli soldiers continue to mark the areas slated for seizure. Painted and red ribbon markers have been placed meters away from villagers' homes, on agricultural greenhouses and trunks of fruit trees. Palestinian farmers state their only hope for holding onto their land is through international condemnation of the Israeli seizures.