Settlers farming land Israeli army has closed off to its Palestinian owners
Settlers in the northern Jordan Valley are farming large tracts of land owned by Palestinians, who are being denied access to it by a military order. The Palestinians submitted a petition to the High Court of Justice last month asking for the return of their land.
After the West Bank’s occupation in 1967, the Israel Defense Forces forbade Palestinians in the Jordan Valley from encroaching on the Jordanian border. In 1969, Israel issued an order forbidding Palestinians from entering a wide strip of land between the border fence and the Jordan River.
This policy remained unaltered even after the peace agreement with Jordan was signed in 1994. Over the years, and despite the government order not to touch the private land in the area, settlers began to farm it.
Last month, another group of Palestinians, from Tubas, also petitioned the High Court, requesting their land back. The petitioners said they own 800 dunams (nearly 200 acres) in an area they are forbidden to enter, near the Mehola settlement.
They had tried to farm the land last December but a settler blocked their path, they said. The next day, they were told by the IDF that they were forbidden to enter the area. Aerial photographs of the land showed that some 200 dunams (nearly 50 acres) of it was being cultivated for crops.
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