Jordan Valley lands handed to Israeli colonists

Ramallah: Palestinian landowners are preparing to sue Israel and some of its colonists over the redistribution of huge plots of land along the West Bank-Jordanian boundary in the Jordan Valley areas to Israeli colonists.

Israeli occupation authorities have been removing previously installed landmines from the land to make it suitable for growing wheat and watermelon.

“The Israeli occupation forces have already handed hordes of colonists 16,000 acres of land on the Palestinian-Jordanian border,” said Arif Daraghmah, an expert in Israeli colonial activities and head of Al Maleh Village and the Bedouin areas in the Jordan Valley areas in an interview with Gulf News.

“Five thousand acres of illegally seized lands have already been committed and handed over to the International Zionist Movement in an official order issued by the Israeli Civil Administration which controls Zone C of the West Bank and runs the Palestinian related affairs in Zones A and B.”

He explained that since Israeli forces occupied the West Bank in 1967, Israeli troops have been in control of all border areas including 157,000 acres of agricultural land which Israel had mined.

“They have been removing those mines and handing over all the clean areas to Israeli colonists for agricultural purposes instead of retuning those lands to their actual owners who have official documents to prove their ownership,” he said.

He stressed that Israel has been violating international law by not returning those lands to their legitimate owners. “International law stipulates that once security missions are completed the seized lands should be returned to their legal owners,” he said.

The Jordan Valley areas have been a key area of dispute between the Palestinians and the Israelis in the peace negotiations.

Israel insists on preserving the border areas, which separate the West Bank from Jordan, on security grounds. Palestinians do not want Israeli soldier to be kept in those areas but have agreed to have international forces enter them to maintain security.

Israel had also offered to rent those areas from the Palestinians for 99 years.

“Israel has started taking over the entire area in a step by step policy which will result in colonists controlling the land in no time,” said Majed Masharfah, who heads Jericho’s Governor’s Office told Gulf News. He said that the Jordan Valley areas are contained in the Palestinian governorates of Jericho, Tubas and Nablus.

He said that the Palestinian owners of those lands were farming their lands under Jordanian sovereignty until the year 1967, and that after 1994, the land was officially handed over to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) to return to the original owners. In the interim period, the Israeli military controlled the land and banned the landowners from it.

Since 1994, the land has remained unusable because of the mines.

“Palestinians were shocked when they suddenly found Israeli colonists farming their own lands after the Israeli mine removal,” he said.

Daraghmah said that the Palestinian landowners have official documents to prove their ownership of the lands and will sue the Israeli occupation forces and the Israeli government.

“The ownership of those lands is undisputed and the owners are coordinating with the Legal Department at Tubas Government to take legal action,” he said.

He said that the only hindrance which faces the owners of the lands is the high fees they are required to pay at Israeli courts. “The owners, however, will pay to prove their ownership of the lands,” he said.