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Kufr Jammal - report in Corona days

Place: Kufr Jammal
Tags: Palestinian farmers Updates during Corona
Observers: Nina Sebba; Translator: Judith Green
Mar-30-2020
| Morning

Report in Corona days

Phone call from Kufr Jammal

I spoke now, on the morning of Monday, 30.3,20 with Z. from Kufr Jammal.  He was very happy to receive a call.  The whole family is in their house in closure, as is the whole village.  The grocery store is functioning and also the distribution of gas continues, but the checkpoint to the fields is closed.  That means that there is no harvesting of the za’atar and tomatoes and the rest of the crops that are grown in this seam zone between the fence and the Green Line.  This is a loss for them of income;  very soon they will have to start watering and, if they don’t, all the planting in these fields will go to waste.

  • Kufr Jammal

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    • Kufr Jammal This village, rising about 200 meters over sea level, is located about 14 kilometers south of Tul Karm town and about 17 kilometers from the Mediterranean Sea. The families living there since the mid-18th century number about 3,000 persons at present. The village has lost thousands of dunams of its northern and western lands due to the construction of the Separation Barrier, leaving the lands themselves behind the barrier. After the Israeli Supreme Court ruling in 2011, the barrier was moved to the west and many farmlands were returned to their owners. It is a quiet village, its relations with the nearby settler-colony of Sal’it are favorable, and many of the villagers work in the colony’s industrial plants. Farmers cross the agricultural checkpoint close to this settler-colony in order to tend their fields unhampered. However, there are numerous acts of harassment and disorder taking place when the village farmers cross the other agricultural checkpoints: gates do not open at hours suitable to the farmers’ needs, and for a short period of time only; the Civil Administration usually prevents all kinds of crops except olives; tractors and other farm equipment are forbidden entry; only a single permit is issued per family, and occasionally such permits are confiscated and their re-issue is delayed – the common excuse is usually “security reasons”. How do the villagers make their living? Holders of work permits inside Israel travel at 3 a.m. to Eyal Checkpoint near Qalqiliya town in order to make it on time to their workplace at Sal’it (close to their village) and elsewhere. Owners of vegetable patches who hold permits are allowed to reach their fields beyond the Separation Barrier through the distant Falamiya Checkpoint. Importantly, fields returned to the village show amazing improvement intending, irrigation and farming variety – and instead of the neglected olive tree groves that were accessible only to holders of transit permits through agricultural checkpoints usually closed, farming has now flourished. (updated Jan 2021)  
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