Fact-Finding Mission to Palestine
10-20 April 2006

The Arab Group for the Protection of Nature (APN) conducted this fact-finding mission in response to an invitation from TOKTEN, UNDP and PARC as a preliminary step in the framework of the One Million Tree Project aiming at replanting trees in Palestinian areas razed by the Israeli occupational forces. APN delegation visited the following areas:
 

Ramallah and Beireh:
Ramallah, Beireh, Sarda, Abu Gash, Beer Zait, Attarah checkpoint, Al-Mazra’a Al-Sharqieh, Sinjel and Turmus-Ayya.

Nablus:
Lebban Al-sharqieh, Sawieh, Qiblan, Yatma, Eskaka, Yasouf, Zaatrah checkpoint, Huwwara, Bourin, Madma, Aseerah, Tell, Surrah, Bathan, Nasarieh, Hamra checkpoint and Froush beet Dajan.

Qalqelieh:
Farattah, Jeet checkpoint, Qalaelieh, Jeet, Kufr Qaddoum, Admomeem settelement, Amateen, Jeet checkpoint.

Tulkarem:
Beit Leed, Ramen, Enbta, Kfur Rumman, Noor Shams Camp, Tulkarem camp, Shwaikeh, Enebta, Bazaria, Burqah.

Jenin:
Seelet ALthaher, Alfandqoumieh, Jaba’a, Sanour, Methloon, Aba, Arranah, Jalameh, Jenin, Haifa Street, Kufr Dan, Alyamoun, Alseeleh ALharthieh, Swaitat, Zabadeh, Kfeerat and Seer.

Tubas:
Aqaba, Tubas, Al-Fara’a camp and Al-Fara’a valley.

Jericho:
Jaftlek, Fasayel, Ouja, Dyouk checkpoint, Dyouk, Jericho, DCO checkpoint

Jerusalem:
Hazma and Jerusalem

In addition to Hebron, Naqab, Beir Alsabee, Tabaria, Safad, Yafa and Akka.

Background

Thousands of acres of Palestinian agricultural land have been razed over the years by the Israeli bulldozers, families displaced and vital routes disconnected in the West Bank and Gaza strip as Israeli occupational authorities continue to build/expand Jewish settlements and bypass roads. Nearly 1,350,000 trees were uprooted in the years 2001-2006; most of them were olive trees. The erection of the Israeli Apartheid Wall in the occupied West Bank in recent years has swallowed up and destroyed more Palestinian agricultural lands.

The project, launched by APN founders in 2001, involves replanting trees in Palestinian lands razed by Israeli bulldozers in areas where Jewish settlements and bypass roads are being built and expanded in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Approximately one million trees will be replanted in various locations, including olive, fruits and palm trees. The project will be implemented in five phases and completion is expected in 2007.
 

Partners:
Ministry of Agriculture, Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC), Union Agriculture Work Committees (UAWC), UNDP, TOKTEN, Welfare Association(WA), Al-Ahali and Stop the Wall campaign.

Objectives:
• Investigate and analyze the actual agricultural status in Palestine.
• Focus on the influence of the apartheid wall on agriculture.
• Identify the areas that were damaged the most (emergency plans).
• Encourage networking between partners in the One Million Trees Project inside Palestine.
• Interconnect with partners and other organizations for the purpose of developing the agricultural sector.
• Visit areas planted by the One Million Trees Campaign.

Tasks carried out:
• Hold separate meetings with Al-Ahali Association, Ittijah, UNDP, PARC, Stop the Wall, Welfare Association, UAWC, YFCA and Jerusalem Coordinators’ committee.
• Conduct field trips to meet some farmers benefiting from the One Million Trees’ funding.
• Conduct field trips to the areas in most need for funding.
• Brainstorm with NGO representatives in Jerusalem.
• Meet and brainstorm with representatives of the organizations engaged in agriculture and development besides farmer groups. This meeting took place in Ramallah at PARC premises where APN was honored for its distinctive role in supporting the Palestinian agricultural sector.
• Hold a meeting in Haifa with Ittijah network of NGOs where APN was honored as well.
 

Challenges faced by farmers:
• Israeli occupational orces prevent framers from exercising any activity on their lands, and consequently the Ottoman law is being enforced to confiscate their lands ‘due to neglect’.
• Farmers are not allowed to reach their lands located on the western side of the wall without entrance permits. Concerned authorities do not usually grant such permits to force farmers to relinquish their lands, and accordingly have the right to confiscate them.
• Harmful grass is increasingly growing on the agricultural lands due to the absence of their owners and lack of care presaging inevitable break out of destructive fires during the hot summer.
• The Israeli occupational forces deploy its segregation wall policy to confiscate land and deprive farmers of water.
• Farmers are forcibly made to abandon their lands which started to record low productivity rates as a result of lack of cultivation. As such, the farmers are transformed from independent land owners and producers to subordinate cheap wage-labourers eventually leading to increased unemployment rates.
• Impose many restrictions on marketing opportunities of the Palestinian products in the Israeli local market. Besides, the Israeli Export Council enforces high taxes on export which in turn makes it impossible for Palestinian farmers to export their products. Accordingly, the farmers have no choice but sell their products for very low prices in the Palestinian local markets, thus sustaining huge loss. The ultimate effect is the inevitable point when farmers’ certainty about the worth of the agricultural activity and holding on to their land is shaken.
• Al-Naqab Area poses a very special case where only 7 villages are recognised while 45 others are unrecognised, which means that 24 villages suffer from the deficiency of the service facilities and infrastructure (water, electricity, schools, etc). At the same time, special Israeli committees are presently engaged in attracting Israeli investments to the area by granting Israeli settlers lands for this purpose. These procedures aim at confining the largest number of Arabs on the smallest spot of land and settle the smallest number of Israelis on the largest spot.
                                      

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