Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Palestine: HISTORY and LAND THEFT in DEIR BALLUT

International Womens Peace Service | 09.01.2004 07:46 | Social Struggles | World

Deir Ballut is an extremely fertile area, with large tracts of waterlogged land being used as the main growth area for summer crops for the entire Salfit region.


Before the Nakba of 1948, the village owned 40 000 dunums of land (or about 100 000 acres). Some families still have papers proving that they own orange groves which are now situated in 'Israel'. Salfit municipality has documents dating as far back as 1903 proving that the land belongs to Palestinians.

In 1967, 20% more of Deir Ballut's land was confiscated into Israel.

The Oslo agreements of 1993 which divided the West Bank into Areas A, B and C caused a huge problem for Deir Ballut and the two nearby villages of Azzawiye and Rafat. The three villages together own 370 000 dunums of land but about 80% of the land falls into Area C, which is under Israeli control. In Deir Ballut, only the village itself plus 150 dunums of land remain in Area A. The concept of Area C seems to be interpreted very broadly by the Occupation Authorities to the extent that Area C land is said by them to be 'Israeli land'. There have been several instances where the villages have been told to stop building or not to build because the land is said to belong to Israel. For example, before the Oslo agreement many families received permission to build homes in the villages and then suddenly after Oslo the same families were told that their houses were illegal since they were built without permission! In Azzawiye, only 50% of the 1000 houses in the village are 'permitted' and in Rafat, only 150 of the villages 350 homes are 'permitted'. In Deir Ballut, 100 houses fall into Area C and are not 'permitted'.

The villagers feel that the Area A, B and C system and the permit system amounts to a policy of forced transfer.

In 1993, the IOF cut down about 700 olive trees on Deir Ballut land, saying that this was Israeli land.

On 17 November 1998, Israeli authorities demarcated the land for a new bypass road that now cuts through land of the Palestinian villages Broqin, Kufur Adeek, and Deir Ballut. The road links the settlements of Ma'ale Labona, Ele and Shilo and is 7180 metres long. The construction of the road involved the confiscation of 1150 dunums of land, of which 600 dunums were olive groves.

In 1999, the extremist Jewish group Habad celebrated the establishment of the settlement of Har Zahav, built on stolen Deir Ballut land. Later on, on October 19th, 1999 the IOF used force to disperse hundreds of Palestinians who attempted to tear down a fence which the army had put up around the land of Jbara Youssef, an elderly farmer who died when he heard that his land was expropriated.

On January 14th 2000, settlers from Eli Zahaf (protected by IOF troops) uprooted 200 olive trees in Deir Ballut.

On July 5th, 2003 an armed settler-colonist shot dead 2 sheep and stole 60 sheep from a Palestinian shepherd.

Most recently, the IOF stopped Deir Ballut, Azawiye and Rafat from building an agricultural road to connect the villages, saying that they had already informed the Mayors not to build on 'Israeli land'. The Mayors then demanded to know how much land the Occupation Authorities consider to be 'Israeli land' and were shocked to discover that 345 000 dunums out of 370 000 dunums is either said to be 'Israeli land' or 'Area C'. The three villages only have the right to build on 25 000 dunums, according to the Israeli Occupation authorities.

Despite the disruption to freedom of movement, before the second intifada, Deir Ballut residents survived through a system whereby the men worked in Israel and the women farmed the 150 dunums of land with alternate seasons of summer crops (onions, cucumbers, tomatoes) and winter crops (wheat), and worked producing olive oil. A busy market existed on the road to Ramallah where commuters from all the neighbouring villages would buy vegetables daily. The market has now been destroyed by the checkpoint. Before, three kilograms of cucumbers could be sold for 10 shekels and now they fetch only five shekels – and this price is dropping almost daily.

For a detailed history of land theft and colonisation in Deir Ballut by the Land Research Centre:

"Given the fact that the village is located on the Green Line, it has been a target for a number of Israeli attempts to confiscate and expropriate as much lands as possible. More than 4,000 dunums located west of the village has been declared as State Lands ever since 1967. Furthermore, a colony called Ellie Zahav has been established on expropriated lands owned by villagers"

 http://www.poica.org/casestudies/ballut/



International Womens' Peace Service

IWPS Palestine is an international team of 16 women based in Hares, a village in the Salfit Governorate of Palestine's West Bank, which began for three continuous years from August 2002. IWPS documents human rights abuses, works with the media, and non-violently intervenes in abuses. IWPS engages in acts of non-violent civil resistance to oppose human rights abuses and the confiscation and destruction of land and property of Palestinian civilians. This includes helping remove roadblocks, accompanying Palestinians whilst they farm, accompanying ambulances, taking food and water to those besieged. IWPS supports Palestinian and Israeli peace movements in their civil resistance to end the illegal military Occupation.

Kate Raphael, a lesbian from the Bay Area, was arrested in Palestine on December 31 as part of a demonstration against Israel’s apartheid wall, which is planned to surround the community of Budrus. She was arrested while video-taping the Israeli soldiers who attacked the demonstration. That afternoon the Israeli government ordered the deportation of Kate and three other international activists arrested at the demonstration:

For update on Kate see:

 http://www.quitpalestine.org/

International Womens Peace Service
- Homepage: http://www.womenspeacepalestine.org/

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech