Far’un
Agricultural CP Fara'un 708
At 8:30 one of the farmers got in touch with me from the Fara'un 708 agricultural CP. The soldiers were again late this morning and opened the CP at 8:15 instead of at 7:00. The farmers decided they were unwilling to accept the army's excuses – there was no vehicle, security cargo, they got up late, and an abundance of others excuses.
They decided unanimously to go on strike and not enter their lands in the seam area on that day. They also complained that the CP was opened only three times a week and demanded that it be opened daily. According to them, the DCO officers or the Authority people didn't come to them, but they were told by telephone that on Thursday that "order would be re-established" and the gate would be opened as usual….
Only a week ago, on Tuesday, May 5th, many of them were not allowed to pass through the CP, at first because apparently their clothes were not clean, and later because they "didn't complete the cycle" – i.e. they didn't return on the same day by the agricultural CP, and were suspected of having stayed in Israel. This I was also told at the DCO operations room. The farmers claimed that this was nonsense, and that the soldiers just don't register them in an orderly way. And indeed, from watching them, it is not at all clear how the soldiers are able to register the passage – they seem to be typing the names on their smartphones. The farmers lost a workday on their lands and were forced to waste a whole other day and go to the DCO to initialize their authorisations…
The seasonal CP Tlat
This week a farmer from Tlat, who owns 200 dunams in the seam area, called me. Two weeks ago the inhabitants of the village submitted, via the Palestinian linkage, a request to open the CP at Tlat, so they could perform the seasonal jobs before summer – weeding, pruning, thinning and plowing, which help improve the soil, strengthen growth, as well as help prevent summer fires.
Until today they have not received an answer. He asked for our help. At the DCO all is quiet, no reaction. The operations room of the DCO doesn’t deal with the issue and from the phone calls to the DCO officers, who have expressed willingness to help when we met them, there was just an answering service, after a busy or call-waiting signals! The Palestinians are insignificant, and so are we.
O C C U P A T I O N!!!! And it seems we have not yet reached its bottom…
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Far'un CP
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Far'un CP
A checkpoint near the Palestinian town Far'un, which is located near the Green Line, about 4 kilometers south of Tulkarm . About 5,000 residents (2018) 2,000 people moved abroad and their homes were left empty.
When the separation barrier was built in the early 2000's, about 4,000 dunams owned by the village were separated from the local farmers. In 2009, following a petition by the residents, the Israeli High Court ordered a change in the route of the fence. In May 2011 work began, and in 2013 it was completed. Following the movement of the fence, 1,400 dunams are located within the village area and for the 2,600 dunams remained in the Seam Zone behind the Separation barrier. The can arrive to these only through Far'un agricultural checkpoint 708.
MachsomWatch have been in touch with the village farmer since the early 2000s - visiting and documenting the checkpoint and the township . Over the years, the opening frequency of the checkpoint has changed from time to time: sometimes 3 times a week, sometimes twice a week, and sometimes it closed completely for a certain period without explanation. In addition - the checkpoint is opened usually only twice a day and this makes it difficult to cultivate, because the farmers are not able to stay in the fields all day. Throughout the years there were many delays in opening times the checkpoint and the farmers sometimes have to wait hours until they can go to work their plots.
The most difficult problem is the limited number of permits approved by the Civil Administration for the transition to tillage. Many landowners have problems with lands that are not registered in their name but in the name of a deceased father. Registering is very expensive if the father had several sons and daughters to whom the land belonged after his death. They have no money to transfer their father's land in their name. Before the walls, block settings and gates that do not open, they divided the plot they inherited and had no problems processing. Today everything is complicated. Plots that have not been cultivated for several years may become state lands and pass to the settlers, residents of the seam area.
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