PARC's Campaign on 40 years of Occupation
June, 2007
List of Actions
North of WB:
-
Demonstration at 1967 border in Qalqilia, 10/06/2007, 11 am.
-
Human
chain from PARC's Office in Nablus to the city center,
17/06/2007, 11 am.
-
Solidarity action with the people of Tammoun/ Toubas,
24/06/2007, 11 am.
-
Televised roundtable on agriculture through 40 years of
occupation, Tulkarem 13/06/2007.
-
Public
meeting in Nablus on agriculture through 40 years of
occupation, 21/06/2007.
Central WB:
Demonstration in Ramallah, 5/06/2007, 11
am, gathering at the Orthodox Club at 10:30.
South WB:
-
Demonstration, Um Salamona/ Bethlehem,
Friday 8/06/2007.
-
Televised roundtable on agriculture
through 40 years of occupation, Bethlehem T.V, 4/06/2007, 6
pm.
-
Panel on 40 years of occupation,
discussants are MK Mohamad Barakeh, President of Democratic
Front for Peace and Equality in 1948, and Fu'ad Rizeq,
General Secretary of the Palestinian People's Party.
Gaza Strip:
-
Demonstration, north Gaza, 25/06/2007.
-
Conference on Prospects of sustainable
development after 40 years of occupation, PARC's headquarter
30/06/2007, 9 am.
PARC
and its partner organizations are also joining all other
actions organized by the civil society organizations and
national movements in the West Bank including Occupied
Jerusalem and Gaza Strip
Top
An Open Letter to G8 Summit in Germany
Only one day after the fifth of June which
marks the fortieth anniversary of the longest enduring Israeli
military occupation in the world, and during the week of events
organized along with the international solidarity groups and
advocates for the realization of justice and peace for
Palestine, you will be holding your 2007 summit in the Baltic in
Germany.
For us, it
is an extremely important emblem to have your summit in Germany,
which has witnessed one of the two most important events in the
life of humanity, occurred in the past decade of the twentieth
century; (1) the collapse of the Berlin wall in 1989, and (2)
the defeat of the Apartheid regime in South Africa in 1994. In
parallel, our people in the twenty first century is still
suffering from forty long years of occupation and its associated
Apartheid regime based on the policy of separation and racial
discrimination.
Israel, the occupying power, has
consistently followed the policy of controlling and annexing as
much land as possible, and of confining the Palestinian people
in a large prison. It continues to extort our agricultural land
and water resources by constructing the Apartheid wall on the
Palestinian owned land in flagrant violation and challenge of
the ICJ Advisory Opinion of 2004 placing the Palestinian
agriculture sector in grave jeopardy.
According to the international records and
statistics, Israel controls and besieges more than 50% of the
West Bank. It controls 89% of the water resources (both ground
and surface) available for the use of Israel and Palestine.
Israel has accommodated more than 450,000 Jewish settlers in the
heart of the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem among more
than 2, 5 million Palestinians. It persists on the construction
of network of bypass roads and tunnels for settlers' use only.
The World Bank's report of May 2007 stated that Israel's barrier
and system of roads and zoning restrictions were aimed at
"protecting and enhancing the free movement of settlers and the
physical and economic expansion of the settlements at the
expense of the Palestinian population."
The
Palestinian people are at a critical juncture; Israel continues
its ethnic cleansing policies, which were started in 1948 when
it has expelled 726,000 Palestinians and destroyed and
depopulated 531 villages then. And now it is seriously
threatening the whole Palestinian national existence in the OPT.
If the international community fails to stop Israel, the whole
"peace" process launched by the international community in 1991
on the basis of two- state solution will be in grave jeopardy.
Because there won't be any land left for the Palestinians to
establish an independent sovereign sate alongside Israel. Thus,
the Israeli Palestinian conflict will persist and the
Palestinian wound will remain open. Therefore, global solidarity
and support with our people is decisive now to enable our
struggle for freedom, justice and durable peace to prevail.
We are very pleased to know that a special
attention will be given to the devastated situations of Africa,
thanks to the initiative of the G8 presidency, in your pursuit
to fight poverty and fatal diseases in this continent. Though,
we believe that the first serious step in rescuing the crumbling
economies and people's lives there is to liberate Africa's
natural resources and allow African countries to have full
control over them.
We appeal to you to pronounce a firm
position against the continuing atrocities of confinement,
community demolitions, dispossession, forced expulsion, and
deprivation of means of survival committed by the Israeli
occupation authority against our people. Your silence in some
cases and involvement in others is encouraging Israel to
continue its crimes of wars in blatant defiance of the
International Humanitarian Law and the Fourth Geneva Convention
of which you are high contractors.
We hold you responsible for enabling our
people to exercise our basic rights most importantly our right
to access to and control over our land and resources which we
are entitled to in accordance with the relevant international
legitimate resolutions and the International Humanitarian Law.
So as our people can advance the wheel of sustainable
development ensured by the United Nations Millennium Declaration
(MDGs) adopted in September 2000 in which you committed nations
worldwide to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty
and setting out a series of time-bound targets, with a deadline
of 2015.
Endorsement:
-
Palestinian Agricultural
Relief Committees (PARC)
-
Palestinian Farmers Union (PFU)
-
Rural Women's Development Society (RWDS)
-
Youth Development Association (YDA)
Top
Agriculture
Sector Through 40 years of Occupation
Why this report:
The
Palestinian people in the OPT, in the Diaspora and in Israel
along with the solidarity movements across the world commemorate
the fortieth anniversary of the longest enduring Israeli
occupation ever occurred in contemporary history of humanity.
We deemed it
important to issue this report out of our national role in
enhancing Palestinian peaceful resistance, steadfastness,
independence and nation building, in order to (1) shed light on
the repercussions of the Israeli occupation's various policies
and measures on agriculture and on all walks of the rural life
during the past 40 years. (2) To pressure all parties concerned
to prevent further devastation in this sector, and (3) to
mobilize political and financial support for the sector.
We realize
the importance of the agricultural sector in supporting and
maintaining the Palestinians' political, national and morale
existence due to the fact that this sector comprises the third
contributor to the GDP additionally to the generation of
employment - particularly female - besides the provision of food
and livelihoods.
Introduction:
The Zionist
Movement entrenched its project in Palestine on three major
mechanisms; control of land, control of labor, and control of
the market. These tools are still effectively embedded in the
continuing aggressive policy against the Palestinian people and
their national existence. Furthermore, the policy of land
expropriation has been entwined with the policies of all
successive Israeli governments and has lead to consecutive
catastrophes and expulsions of the Palestinian people.
Ever since 1948, Israel destroyed and
depopulated 531 Palestinian villages and towns¹
the majority of which formed centers of
the Palestinian agriculture. Almost 726,000².Palestinians
were deported partially to the West Bank and Gaza Strip whilst
the other part ended in the Diaspora living in refugee camps
depending on international assistance provided by the UN
agencies, particularly UNRWA. Those who earned their living from
agriculture prior to 1948 forcefully turned to another life
style and a different livelihood. Then, Israel expropriated more
than 80% of the territory of historical Palestine estimated as
26,323 square kilometers³.
Israel persisted with its same policy of
land expropriation after occupying the rest of the Palestinian
lands in the West Bank including East Jerusalem and the Gaza
Strip in 1967. It destroyed and depopulated many villages such
as O'mwas, Yalo and Lattron and extended its control and
jurisdiction to an additional 6,020 square kilometers.
Agricultural indicators:
The amount
of farmed land in the WBGS is estimated as 1,488 square
kilometers, which comprises 25.2% of the total size of the WBGS5
.10.6% (158.2 km2) of the total agricultural land is
irrigated and it is distributed as follows: 5.7% in the West
Bank and 72.6% of Gaza's farmed land. In comparison, the
irrigated farmed land in the Israeli settlements constructed in
the OPT comprises 70% of the total farmed land despite the fact
that Israeli agriculture contributes only 2% of the GDP,
whereas, the Palestinian agriculture reached up to 12.4% of the
GDP in 2004
It is,
however, worth noting that agriculture's contribution to the GDP
has fluctuated over the years; it has been influenced by the
Israeli policies and system. In 1967, for example, the
contribution of agriculture was nearly triple the aforementioned
percentage.
Agricultural produce such as olives, olive
oil, vegetables, fruits, and cut flowers comprise 25% of total
Palestinian exports
.
Furthermore, agriculture generates a good
percentage of employment. As of September 2006, 14.4% of the
total labor force in the OPT (men and women) were employed in
agriculture
,and 32.5%
of the female labor force worked in agriculture in 2004.
Palestinian
people place a special importance in resorting to the land and
agriculture during difficult times and economic crisis although
they have limited access to it. They cultivate the land with a
variety of crops and raise animals using the accumulated know
how inherited from their parents, grandparents and ancestors.
This has been part of their steadfastness and fight for
continued existence against Israeli continuing policies and
measures. Agriculture was and is still the major dynamic
mechanism to ensure food security and livelihoods for the
Palestinian people.
Israel realized the centrality of
agriculture in the life of the Palestinians and it targeted this
sector as part of its plans to annex the Palestinian economy to
its own economy and market mechanisms. Israel’s policies aimed
to destroy all potential elements of the productive process, and
transform Palestinians from active producers to passive
consumers.
Since 1967, Israel has focused its
policies and measures on creating facts on the ground and
irreversible realities by implementing a series of military
orders and administrative measures backboned by the force of the
occupation army. These policies and orders have been aimed at
altering the pre-1967 master plan of the OPT and creating a new
geopolitical and economic map. The first and foremost order
pertinent to the Palestinian land was freezing the land
registration process in 1968, which enabled Israel to start the
process of land expropriation and the construction of Jewish
settlements on the confiscated land claiming the land to be
either no man’s land or state land. It is worth noting, however,
that Israel confiscated land which Palestinian owners presented
well documented papers proving their ownership right for.
On the other
hand, Israel started a series of deliberate actions to destroy
Palestinian agriculture and transform farmers and peasants to
“black” laborers working mainly in Israeli agriculture and in
the construction sectors. As such, Israel’s purpose was to
neutralize and expel the Palestinian farmers from their land and
shake their belongingness to the larger Palestinian picture.
Additionally, Israel transformed the Palestinian market to the
second largest consuming market of Israeli products after the
United States.
Israel’s annexation policies:
Israel
consistently followed a policy of controlling and annexing as
much Palestinian land and resources as possible, confining the
Palestinian population in separate and isolated ghettos, and
obliterating the agriculture sector through (1) control of the
arable land and pastures, (2) control of water resources, (3)
construction of Jewish settlements, (4) fragmenting the OPT by
the closure and siege regimes, and (5) installing the Apartheid
wall.
-
Land expropriation and settlement
construction: The
construction of Jewish settlements in the OPT including
occupied Jerusalem comprised the pillar of the Israeli
policy to control Palestinian land and natural resources. In
addition to inhibiting Palestinians’ individual and
collective access to these resources, the Israeli policies
aimed at fragmenting the territory and isolating
communities, therefore preventing any territorial
integrity. All this had a very clear purpose: creating an
irreversible reality that would inhibit the establishment of
an independent Palestinian state in the OPT with full
control over its land and resources. This is best proved by
Israel’s intensification of settlement construction after
signing the DOP
in 1993. Israel since then fattened
the existing settlements with hundreds of thousands of
housing units additional to building new settlements and
outposts.
According to the Israeli CBS, there
are 247,000 settlers living among 2.5 million Palestinians
in the West Bank excluding Jerusalem
, and another 190,000 settlers in and
around occupied Jerusalem according to Peace Now
The
Israeli announced intention to have further land
confiscation is to facilitate and ensure the safe and free
movement of the Jewish settlers in the OPT by constructing a
huge network of bypass roads and tunnels for the sole use of
settlers with a total length of 4,177 km. The settlement and
road networks were built on land meant for the natural
growth of the Palestinian population, as well as on
cultivated land.
On the
other hand, building permits for Palestinians in all zones
A, B, C have been controlled by Israel, which has the right
to issue or refuse house permits. As such, Israel issued
house demolition orders against tens of thousands of
Palestinian houses in the OPT, particularly in occupied
Jerusalem.
Jewish settlements have placed the
agricultural sector and Palestinian farmers in great
jeopardy. Over the past 40 years, well armed settlers have
committed crimes and bloody attacks against unarmed
Palestinian farmers and rural families. For example, they
have killed 66 farmers (men and women) during the period
2000- 2007
. Moreover, settlers commit many
sabotage acts especially at acute times of cultivation and
harvesting such as burning down the crops, cutting off the
trees, and stealing the harvest. During the period 2000-2006
settlers uprooted more than 2 million trees and captured
77,000 dunums of land
In Gaza, 13% (36,852 km) of land has
been leveled since 2000
. It is worth noting that settlers’
crimes have been committed with a great assistance from the
Israeli military forces who either kept silent or were fully
involved in these sabotage acts.
-
Control
of water resources:
Israel controls 89% of the water
resources that are available for the use of Israel and the
OPT. It controls 90% of the surface water and 65% of the
water from the Jordan River with the rest in the control of
the surrounding Arab countries (Jordan, Syria and Lebanon)
; leaving the Palesintians with none.
Furthermore, Israel fully controls four major underground
water basins in the east, west and north of the West Bank,
as well as the coast of the Gaza Strip. Palestinians are
allowed to consume only 245 million cubic liters of water a
year. The individual Palestinian consumes about 105 cubic
litres compared to more than 400 cubic litres of water used
by the Jewish settlers even though they use the same water
resources.
Nearly 10% of the people of the West
Bank in 220 population communities do not have access to
fresh water as there is no water network infrastructure
reaching to their communities. They have to buy water from
brokers at a price five times higher than the price others
pay for water supplied by networks (15 NIS compared to 3
NIS). This has placed the Palestinian farmers under Israel’s
mercy in using their own water resources, and has severely
limited the cultivation of their land.
Israel has also imposed many
restrictions on the drilling of wells and on the
installation of grey water treatment stations to produce
alternative irrigation water. The aim has been to keep the
control of the water resources in Israel’s hand and to
create more obstacles for the Palestinian agricultural
sector. Additionally, Israel has followed a systematic
discourse of massive destruction of water infrastructures;
it has levelled 33,792 dunums of irrigation networks in the
OPT, 2,529 dunums of which were in Gaza, besides destroying
1,362 water cisterns and tanks, 35 of which were in Gaza. It
has also destroyed 979,230 meters of major water pipes
throughout the OPT, 68,155 of which was in Gaza during the
period 2000- 2007.
-
Closure
and siege:
Israel imposed a general closure on
the OPT in March 1993 through which it restricted the
movement of people between the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and
between them and occupied Jerusalem, in addition to
restrictions of movement between the OPT and Israel
. Consequently, Palestinian workers
(male and female) could not reach their work places; out of
146,000 workers who used to work in Israel (116,000 from WB
and 30,000 from GS) only a few tens of thousands received
work permits on an irregular basis.
Since 2000, Israel has tightened its
closure regime depriving Palestinians of their livelihoods.
Israel has erected permanent check points, some of which
have been transformed to well equipped and manned terminals,
in addition to temporary check points, road blocks and
gates. The latter were installed on the Apartheid wall and
some were identified as agricultural gates. The Israeli army
controls all these points and have placed the Palestinians
entirely under their mercy. Farmers and peasants have had
the hardest time ever in their life time. The Israeli
soldiers have been know to deliberately close these gates
and deny farmers access through the check points at the most
acute times of the agricultural cycle particularly, at
harvest times. Farmers have not been able to take their
harvest to the market which has caused double losses for
farmers who have spent a lot of money on cultivation and
production inputs. This is apart from the fact that farmers
have to buy food from the market to meet their household
needs and thus assuming more financial burdens.
An OCHA report indicated that the OPT
witnessed an increase in the number of check points and
road blocks by 44%, reaching up to 547 check points during
the period November 2005 and November 2006.
The World Bank was subject to Israeli
criticism after it published a report which stated that the
restrictions imposed on people’s movement including the
wall, check points and the bypass road network aimed at
protecting the Israeli settlers and enhancing their economic
growth at the expense of the Palestinian people.
The report also stated that Israel is extending its policy
of movement restriction and siege to almost 50% of the West
Bank, which has been fragmented to 10 economic enclaves. The
World Bank also attributed the economic problems
particularly the rise of the unemployment and poverty levels
among the 2.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank to the
Israeli “security” measures. In another report, the World
Bank stated that the continuing closure and siege will place
the Palestinian subsistence agriculture in grave jeopardy.
The World Bank representative in the
West Bank and Gaza Strip, David Craig, said that the
Palestinian economy can only improve if an integrated
economy is established and the freedom of movement is made
possible.
The Palestinian socio-economic
situation has dramatically deteriorated since 2002, when
Israel started to construct the wall and the associated
regime, which has fragmented the West Bank territory to
isolated ghettos and enclaves. Consequently, the GDP
decreased by 30% and poverty increased by 30% during the
period 1999- 2004.
Subsequently, the US, Canada and most European powers
imposed a severe, inhumane regime of sanctions against
Palestinians under occupation following the formation of the
democratically elected Palestinian government in April 2006.
In the words of the UN Special Rapporteur, John Dugard,
sanctions were imposed on the occupied rather than the
occupier, the first time an occupied people has been so
treated.
In
parallel, Israel withheld the Palestinian tax revenues
collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority and
estimated as 600 million US$ a year. All these situations
led to extreme misery and an excessive economic crisis that
places the entire Palestinian Authority and economy under
great threat of collapse.
Despite of the establishment of the
temporary international mechanism (TIM) to channel aid to
the OPT, and in spite of the increase in the size of the
international humanitarian aid, the humanitarian situation
continues to deteriorate as has been stated by the
international aid organizations. For example, Oxfam
International stated in its recent report that its and its
partner organizations’ projects in water, agriculture and
health sectors are placed in jeopardy.
On the
other hand, the international embargo, and the TIM bypass
the Palestinian institutions, particularly ministries,
undermining these these and stripping them off their roles
and responsibilities. They also paralyzed and inhibited the
Palestinian institutions from facing the recent challenges
particularly the general strike initiated by various
branches of the 152,000 civil servants sector which is
employed by the Palestinian Authority. Consequently, nearly
one million people have severely suffered from this general
strike.
An UNRWA
report stated that the number of the Palestinian in acute
poverty (living on less than 50 cent) has risen up to reach
more than one million.
-
Policy of separation and racial discrimination:
At a time when the world, particularly
Germany, celebrated the collapse of the Berlin wall in 1989;
and the people of South Africa defeated the Apartheid regime
in 1994 with the full support of the international
community, Israel continues to initiate discriminatory
policies and regimes against the Palestinian in the OPT. One
of its major projects is the Apartheid wall, which Israel
started to construct in 2002 in the West Bank including
occupied Jerusalem and is expected to be 730 km long upon
its completion. The wall will rob 46% of West Bank lands, in
addition to isolating 10% of the West Bank and 28.5% of the
Jordan Valley territory.
It will isolate 97 villages and communities of 372.999
people
:
-
56 communities in the east located
between the wall, the settlements and the bypass roads
with an estimated population of 361,679.
-
8 villages of 5015 people located
between the wall and the Green Line.
-
14 villages of 6305 people placed
under threat of depopulation.
Israel has intensified its closure
regime controlling people’s movement by establishing nearly
73 gates out of which only 38 gates are working now.
Through controlling these gates, Israel denies farmers and
peasants access to their farms west of the wall unless they
are issued special permits for this purpose. Yet, Israel
imposes a severe regime on permit issuance; it requires
farmers to provide legal documents that prove their
ownership of the land. On many occasions, farmers have been
turned down and thus been unable to access their lands for
cultivation and harvesting. This has led to the emergence of
the landless farmer phenomenon.
A survey of 57 Palestinian communities
around the wall conducted by OCHA in 2006 found out that 6
farmers out of 10 could not reach their land because of the
wall. It also indicated that 60% of the rural families have
been entirely isolated and separated from their land. In the
meanwhile, Israel provided permits to only 40% of rural
families to access their land, and 30 out of 57 communities
could not reach their land in a direct and systematic way.
The survey stated that the 57 communities complained about
the unsystematic opening of the agricultural gates (26
gates) which were open only 64% of the planned time schedule.
Israel’s construction of the wall
continues in flagrant violation of the advisory opinion of
the International Court of Justice of July 2004. The wall
has fragmented the West Bank including occupied Jerusalem
into separate and isolated ghettos that inhibit the
socio-economic and territorial integrity on a future
Palestinian state. It has also separated Palestinian family
members and prevented Palestinians from reaching their work
and health and education facilities. This is apart from its
psychological impacts and other damages to be collected and
assessed by the UN Register of Damage.
The Apartheid wall is destroying the
wide agricultural productive and social structure in the
rural areas transforming it to landless hired labor force,
which means creating belts of neo-slavery around the wall in
the 21 century.
The Israeli government has also
decided to establish industrial zones around the wall. The
assistant to the “Defense” Minister, Afrayem Sneih,
announced that 3 industrial zones will be established on the
sides of the wall and 2 others will be established within
the territory of the settlements. He added that these zones
will be a joint venture with Palestinian businessmen. It is
expected to employ thousands of Palestinians by broker
companies, which will deduct large amounts reaching to 37%
of the workers’ total wages. If this plan is implemented, it
will bring a catastrophe to the Palestinian people because
it will (1) underpin the wall and maintain it for ever in
defiance of the ICJ Advisory Opinion and the UN resolution,
(2) fatten a very thin class of the Palestinian private
sector at the expense of the Palestinian higher interest,
and (3) since these industrial zones are border projects,
there won’t be a Palestinian official censorship in terms of
environment protection and workers’ safety and rights. No
one knows what type of industries and businesses will be
launched in these zones.
-
Annexation and subjugation:
The
consecutive policies by the successive Israeli governments
over forty years of occupation have aimed to subjugate and
annex the Palestinian agricultural sector to the Israeli
economy. Palestinian agriculture relies on Israel for
production inputs including seeds, seedlings, fertilizers,
pesticides irrigation networks and equipment, green houses,
know how, infrastructure and services such as grading,
filling, storage, marketing and transportation.
In
addition, Israel continues to dump its agricultural and non
agricultural products in the Palestinian market.
Consequently, prices of Palestinian produces keep falling
below the cost price. This coincides with the declining of
the purchase power among the Palestinians due to the
continued economic crisis caused by the Israeli tight
closure regime and the imposition of the international
blockade on the Palestinian Authority.
Israel,
as an occupying power, is responsible for improving the
living conditions of the Palestinian people. However, it has
systematically neglected the vital services and
infrastructures of the OPT particularly the agricultural
infrastructure. Agriculture has been left with no budgets
and financial support, no improvement of the existing under
developed infrastructure, poor technical and administrative
cadre, etc. All of this besides Israel’s control of the
terminals and outlets has led to an extremely weak
agricultural sector and many of the export oriented produce
such as citrus, vegetables and cut flowers have been
drastically affected. The Palestinian export of fresh
produce has fallen to one third.
Israel has left a weary sector through
all of its measures and policies, however, the Palestinian
Authority has also not given proper attention to it; very
tiny financial support has been allocated to the sector,
and insufficient planning has been conducted leading to an
imbalance between offer and demand. Therefore, the
agricultural sector has continued to be weak and under
developed.
The Israeli persisted policies have
not only undermined the sustainable development process in
the OPT, but also inhibited agricultural organizations and
institutions from planning and implementing projects of
medium and long term impacts. Many of these institutions
have suspended their long term projects and focused on the
relief and humanitarian aid projects that meet the practical
(not the strategic) needs of the people. As such, their
performance has dramatically fallen behind.
The impact of Israeli occupation on the socio-economic structure
rural areas:
The pursuit for containing
agriculture, being the core of the rural economies and the
pillar of the Palestinian economy, was the target of the
Israeli policy toward the agricultural and rural sector.
Israel has followed a clear policy according to which it
connected the Palestinian agriculture to Israel's interests
in terms of focusing on globally sold crops and
transforming farmers to "cheap" laborers in the Israeli
market. Consequently, the wide social and productive class
of farmers and peasants has decreased drastically, and vast
parts of this class have been pushed to the "border" labor
market to work in industries devastating to the environment
and the human being. Thus, Israel has transformed rural
areas to a social and demographic "natural reservation".
The
Palestinian rural areas and the agricultural sector have
become a garbage dump as Israel leaves the sewage and solid
waste of the settlements to run in to the Palestinian land
and particularly farmed land.
On the
social level, the Israeli policy has enhanced passive values
and trends such as exclusion, isolation, and egotism. It has
also encouraged conservatism and tribalism among the rural
people.
Over the past forty years, the Israeli
coercive and devastative policies have persistently
destroyed the local human and natural resources of the
agricultural sector through:
-
Expelling farmers and
stripping them of the tools and mechanisms that
comprised farmers' cultural and socio-economic
environment, and transforming them to a reserve
labor force after they were productive and proactive
elements in achieving social and food security.
Palestinian farmers, as such, have become part of
the market mechanisms.
-
Tearing of the social
consistency in an attempt to tear of the collective
consciousness and solidarity by isolating a wide
sector of farmers from their national and social
context when they were separated from their land.
-
The dysfunction of the
environmental system in the rural areas as a result
of the continuing destruction of the Flora and Fauna
of the OPT and to dump solid and chemical waste as
well as settlements' sewages in the OPT.
-
Exhausting the demographic and
economic structure of the rural areas and placing
alternative Israeli demographic and geopolitical
master plans and zoning.
Recommendations:
In light
of the aforementioned facts and challenges facing the
Palestinian agricultural sector, and based on the
internationally recognized human rights based approach to
sustainable development, we wish to put the following
recommendations:
-
Enhancing the status and role of
the rural and agricultural sector in the Palestinian
national policies.
-
Enhancing the strategic function
of the agriculture sector in producing and reproducing
the social capital and food security.
-
Activating the popular national
and international effort in resisting the wall and
pressuring Israel to abide by the Advisory Ruling of the
ICJ regarding the illegality of the wall and the call to
stop the construction and dismantle the parts that were
built.
-
Pressuring the international
community to lift its blockade and sanctions against the
Palestinian people.
-
Lobbying the Palestinian
Authority, the civil society organizations, and the
international community and donors to support the
agricultural sector by increasing their budgetary
support and pressuring Israel to lift its unfair siege
and closure.
-
Introducing remedy interventions
and good governance practices in the institutions
involved in agricultural and rural development.
-
Introducing new strategic plans,
which would take into consideration medium and long term
goals and decreasing the number of short term projects
so as to push forward the wheel of sustainable
agricultural development.
Conclusion:
The Israeli unbending pursuit to wipe
the agricultural sector out of the Palestinian economy, and
to dismantle the tight ties between farmers and their land,
did not succeed to obliterate the historical entwined
twinning between farmers and their land. Despite of the
severe policies and measures against this sector, farmers
have persisted on working the land and challenging poverty
and starvation in a very courageous manner. They have been
able to create a resisting paradigm based on solidarity and
support spirit and on the fact that their will of life
cannot be defeated.
-
Palestinian Agricultural Relief
Committees (PARC)
-
Palestinian Farmers Union (PFU)
-
Rural Women's Development Society (RWDS)
-
Youth Development Association (YDA)
Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International
Affairs (PASSIA) Diary 2007, page 308
Ibid
PCBS, Labor Force, July-Sept.
2006.
Cited in the Palestinian Human
Rights Center, PASSIA Diary 2007
PASSIA Diary 2007, page 303
OCHA, Barrier Stops Palestinian
Accessing Land, November 2006.
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