Far’un – We arrived at the municipal building at 10:00.

We met the council secretary and the comptroller.  Most of village business is apparently conducted in the more accessible office in the center of the village.

We asked the comptroller to describe the permit situation and passage through the gates.

As of today 218 applications had been submitted – 91 were approved, 13 denied; the remainder haven’t heard.  Those are only applications from landowners; applications from workers are being submitted now (780 applications were submitted in 2013 and 454 approved).  He says this year’s number is smaller than last year’s because some landowners have a two-year permit.

Far’un has some 3000 dunums on the other side of the fence; they use Gate 708.

Almost no permits are granted for laborers who don’t own land except during agricultural season, and even then the number is very limited and based on an estimate of how many are needed depending on the size of the holding.

So that’s why fewer are applying – they’ve become used to restrictions of their freedom of movement and don’t expect much from us or from others.

With regard to the gates – the only gate open is 708, three times a week during the entire year.

New Jubara gate/gate 746.  It hasn’t opened at all; farmers whose lands are on the other side of Jubara must still walk kilometers on foot to reach them.

Jubara.  After the route of the fence was changed and the village included two landowners still had 70 dunums in the seam zone.

Gate 746.  It hasn’t opened at all this year.  They hope it will open for the olive harvest.

We met a farmer who ten years ago leased land from the owner who lives in Tulkarm.  He grew za’atar, investing some NIS 200,000 in the land and crop.

The Jubara gate hasn’t opened all year, the permit the farmer, Nabil Ouda, obtained was for the Far’un gate, ten kilometers from his land.  Za’atar must be irrigated daily, which he was unable to do because of the distance; it dried up and all his investment was lost.  He sued in the Supreme Court but apparently lost because the Civil Administration responded that he had in fact been defrauded by the landowner who knew of the impending change in the route of the fence but didn’t tell him about it when they signed the contract.

He asked for our help.  We spoke to Safa, from DCL Qalqilya, who said he hadn’t heard about it and suggested that the man contact him; he’ll see what he can do.

We’ll follow up, but at the same time we shouldn’t get people’s hopes up because the army will probably argue that it won’t be able to open every gate because it must establish priorities.