News Release

Palestinian Farmers bulldoze Apartheid Wall to reclaim
Orange Groves


Assisted by activists from the International
Solidarity Movement including Britons, Palestinian farmers from the villages of Zeta and Atil today bulldozed 8 roadblocks erected around the foundations of the new Apartheid Wall which separates them from their farmland. The
removal of the roadblocks enabled more than 50 farmers
to harvest their crops for the first time in weeks.

Construction of the new wall known as the Security
Fence, but dubbed the “Apartheid Wall” by Israeli and
Palestinian human rights groups, began earlier this
year in the northern West Bank. Instead of following
the “green line”, the official border between the
Palestinian territories and Israel, the wall will run
inside Palestinian territory effectively annexing a
further 10% of the West Bank. The 8m high concrete
wall, which will be some 350km in length when
complete, will leave whole cities such as Qalqylia cut
off from the rest of the West Bank and leave villages
such as Zeta without the farmland upon which their
existence depends. Approximately 900 of Zeta’s 2000
dunnums (1 dunnum=1000m2) of land will be destroyed or
isolated by the wall.

This is a double blow to the villagers of Zeta. In
1948, the newly formed Israeli state took their land
by force. Farmers were then forced to purchase new
land from a neighbouring village. Now that land is
effectively being annexed by the Israeli government,
leaving villagers once more destitute. The land around
Zeta is some of the most fertile in the West Bank.
Around 60% of the fruit and vegetables consumed in the
West Bank are produced in the greenhouses and fruit
groves of the Tulkarem/Qalqilya area.

An ISM spokesperson said “Israel’s Apartheid Wall is
yet another device to camouflage the theft of yet more
Palestinian land and leave Palestinians to “live like
dogs” in Israeli general Moshe Dayan’s famous phrase.
Today’s action shows what can be done by Palestinians
with limited international support. But without major
and sustained international pressure, Palestinians
such as the villagers of Zeta will once more become
the victims of Israel’s criminal state.”

Tomorrow activists will attempt to keep open the roads
unblocked in today’s action enabling more farmers to
reach their lands.

The ISM activists involved in today’s action were from
the UK, Sweden and the US.

Chris Dunham +972 67657262

photo to follow - 70 year oldPalestinian farmer
celebrates removal of roadblock and access to his land