Deir el Ghusun: a visit to city hall
We came to the Deir el-Ghusun municipality to speak with B., the municipal employee responsible for receiving permit applications and transmitting them to the Palestinian liaison office.
He confirmed the regulation announced by the Palestinian Liaison Office, accepting applications for permits only from landowners, their heirs, sons and daughters, but noted that he also submitted applications for grandchildren and workers in order to see what the response would be from the Israeli DCL.
While there, we also called the central application office in Beit El. We spoke to Lior, who said there’s been no change in the rules for permits and that workers may submit applications using the usual procedure.
We asked that they clarify this to the staff of the Tulkarm DCL and the Tulkarm Palestinian liaison office. She promised to do so and speak to the new permits coordinator there – Yarden, who replaced Dor.
Meanwhile – the occupation expands, the injustices increase – 50 years and a day, and counting – and no end in sight.
Deir al-Ghusun CP (623)
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Deir al-Ghusun CP (623) and 'Atil (609) Here these ‘gates’ agricultural checkpoints - are open all year round, 3 times a day, so the village farmers cross them to reach their 2,200 dunams that were separated by the Separation Fence and left in the seam-zone. the Fence itself grabbed 300 more dunams of their land. Depending on opening times, the area’s farmers use these checkpoints alternately. The Israeli army has threatened with the closure of these checkpoints as collective punishment if any breaks of the fence or climbing over it were detected. The main complaints of the Palestinians here are about not being issued sufficient permits for farmworkers in spite of the large farmlands behind the fence. We have documented several cases of miserable conduct: a fire broke out in one of the storage areas, but firefighters were not allowed to reach it in time. another example: During olive harvest for a few days it is open for all day, but at the same time, they placed concrete blocks against vehicles, prevent basic agricultural work.
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