العربية
HE
العربية
HE
For the past 18 months, since October 2023, the military has sweepingly barred access to nearly all Palestinian farmlands beyond the Separation Barrier. Tens of thousands of West Bank Palestinians are being denied access to their own lands trapped inside the Seam Zone enclaves – inside the West Bank, between the Separation Barrier and the Green Line Border. This is the case even for people who on the eve of the war held valid permits to enter the Seam Zone pursuant to a military permit regime, having undergone all of the necessary individual security checks. The ban constitutes a severe, disproportionate and protracted violation of the farmers’ rights to livelihood, freedom of movement and property, and is contrary to the State’s express undertaking before the High Court of Justice (HCJ) over a decade ago to minimize to the utmost the damage to Seam Zone farmers’ fabric of life, based on which the High Court of Justice (HCJ) upheld the route of the separation wall, cutting well into the West Bank.
On May 23, 2024, HaMoked submitted a renewed petition for the cancellation or at the very least, the mitigation of the sweeping ban. In its response of June 25,2024, the State informed of the planned opening of 5 of the dozens of agricultural gates installed in the Separation Barrier, to allow the entry into the Seam Zone of the small group of farmers whose crops require daily cultivation. From the response, it seemed this was the first stage of a multi-stage plan that would progress “subject to a periodic situation assessment” to allow farmers to enter the Seam Zone as before. On the basis of this “changed circumstance” the State argued that the petition should be dismissed.
However, in its additional responses, the State continued to focus on the putative opening of a few more gates for the entry of some 500 farmers, and kept ignoring the petition’s demands. Therefore, in a response of September 22, 2024, HaMoked asserted that it saw no point to allow the State to submit yet another response dealing with a negligible number of farmers.
HaMoked added that olive season harvest was about to start, and therefore, there was an urgent need to allow the thousands of farmers who own olive groves (which constitute some 95% of the agriculture in the Seam Zone) to access their lands for the necessary preparatory works and the harvest itself. In a further court response, HaMoked stated that it did not object to the State updating one more time so long as the response include an update regarding the cancellation of the sweeping restrictions on all farmers.
Meanwhile, the olive harvest season began and ended with severe limitations on access of farmers to the Seam Zone to pick their olives this second year running.
In its response of January 8, 2025, the State no longer treated the sweeping ban on farmers’ entry to the Seam Zone as a temporary policy. It was announced that the second and final stage of the plan was to transform the sweeping entry ban into a permanent ban applicable to the vast majority of farmers. This, on the new claim that olives are a “seasonal crop”, despite the fact that the military has previously stated that olive groves require year-round cultivation, including two cycles of tilling during the months of October to March. Now, in the words of the State:Farmers who own seasonal crops may file requests for entry into the Seam Zone during the relevant season and if necessary the appropriate agricultural gates would be opened, and all as was done, for example, during the olive harvest season. It should be noted that most seasonal crops in the Seam Zone are olive trees… [emphases in the original].” The State repeated its claim that the petition should be deleted due to the factual changes in circumstance, as “919 active daily agricultural permits [were issued] for entry into the Seam Zone for agricultural needs” and 8 gates had been opened for the purpose.
In its response of January 23, 2025, HaMoked emphasized that the plan which the State previously presented as temporary and “dynamic”, implemented following the Hamas massacres of October 7, an emergency circumstance over which they had no control, had been turned into a permanent arrangement. This essentially constitutes the cancellation of the permit regime as upheld by the HCJ, which was the basis for the Court approving the separation barrier route inside the West Bank. The State no longer made any pretense that the harm to the farmers was minimal and proportionate even in theory. HaMoked argued that it was unacceptable that such a harmful policy imposed following an unprecedented and extreme security situation would be left in place even after the situation had fundamentally changed, including the cease-fire and the return of hostages, and added: “Could it be that while protracted and bloody wars begin and end, the only thing that cannot be altered or mitigated under any circumstances is the ban on access of West Bank farmers to their olive groves?!?”
HaMoked also noted that the State exempted other groups of Palestinians from the restrictions on movement inside the West Bank, including laborers who were allowed back into Jewish settlements and factories as of December 2023. HaMoked stressed that the State did not present any argument to justify the decision to render the farming entry ban permanent, problematic especially given that the ban is sweeping and not imposed on an individual basis. Moreover, HaMoked clarified that in practice, the ban does cause agricultural damage to the olive groves that are left unattended for prolonged periods, leading to fires in summer, among other things, and also material and physical harm to the banned farmers, as their absence from their lands leads to harvest thefts and to plots being invaded and taken over by settlers, who have turned them into landfills and pastures.
HaMoked asked the Court to schedule a hearing at an early date. However, the Court set the hearing for September 2025 – thus leaving in place for many months the continued sweeping violation of the rights of thousands of farmers to freedom of movement, property and livelihood in their own country.
