By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Middle East
RAMALLAH, Palestine – Palestinian farmers can now cultivate land that was the former site of the Homesh settlement in Samaria, after a ruling issued by the Attorney General’s office last week.
The ruling followed a June decision by the state to cancel the 1978 military land seizure order, which took land from residents of the Palestinian village of Burka for the creation of a Nahal Brigade, soon after the settlement of Homesh on the Samaria hilltop in the West Bank was created.
Since the disengagement, Homesh – and the former Samaria settlements of Sanur, Ganim and Kadim – have been closed military zones. Access had been blocked to Palestinians and Israeli settlers. Now, as a result of the court ruling, Palestinians can enter Homesh, but Israeli citizens are still barred from entering the site.
Settlers and right-wing Israeli activists and politicians have pressed to resettle the Homesh settlement over the past eight years. Over the past several years, Israeli settlers have received temporary permission from the IDF to hold certain events at the former Homesh settlement. For example, last Passover, settlers held a holiday festival. Politicians have also visited the site, including Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon, who visited in 2009 as vice premier, where he called for Homesh to be resettled.
The Israel government dismantled Homesh and three other West Bank settlements in 2005. The settlements were dismantled in connection with a wider withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. However, until the court ruling, the government refused to allow the original Palestinian landowners from the local farming community to reclaim their land.
The Israel’s Supreme Court upheld a petition by the Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din requesting the closed military zone be ended and the land returned to the Palestinians. On Thursday, farmers from the village of Burka were allowed to return to their land for the first time. Some Palestinians were reluctant to attempt to return. “I’m afraid to go there because the settlers are armed,” said Hassan Ashqer, a middle aged man who owns land in the former settlement area.
Palestinian rights lawyers are optimistic that the ruling will set a precedent that shows that Israel’s settlement policy can be reversed and Palestinian landowners can reclaim their land. “Once the owners are able to take back possession of their lands…it will be the first precedent ever [in the West Bank] in which an area used for settlement activity is being cultivated again by the Palestinians.”
For more information, please see:
Al Jazeera – Palestinians Win Settlement Land from Israel – 3 October 2013
Fox News – After long legal battle, Palestinian farmers reclaim land they lost to a settlement – 3 October 2013
The Daily-Beast – Court Rules Settlement Land Belongs to Palestinians, But Victory is Hollow – 25 September 2013
Jerusalem Post – A-G: Palestinian farmers can return to Homesh – 16 September 2013
