The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has built the separation wall in order to isolate the Palestinian citizens impose restrictions on their movements and prevent them from communicating with their brethren in 1948 Occupied Palestine.
The construction of the separation wall started on the 23rd of June 2002 when Ariel Sharon served as the 11th Prime Minister of Israel. 3.4 billion US dollars were allocated to build the wall between the occupied West Bank and 1948 Occupied Palestine.
On the 9th of July 2004 the International Court of Justice in The Hague deemed the building of the apartheid wall illegal demanding that Israel must immediately halt the construction of the wall.
“The separation wall near Tulkarem governorate and adjacent to the green line area is built with a length of 32 kilometers” Director of Land Research Center Mahmoud Al-Saifi said adding that the wall penetrates through 6 kilometers of the borders of al-Raas and Khirbet Jibarah villages in the governorate.
According to Al-Saifi the wall penetrates the borders of 17 villages destroying 6043 dunums of the Palestinian lands and razing 63000 citrus and olive trees in addition to 80 houses. He stressed that the wall also isolates 16.4 square kilometers and five artesian wells in the Palestinian lands of the Tulkarem governorate.
Al-Saifi noted that 6700 dunums of isolated lands are agricultural lands while 7900 dunums are forests and open spaces adding that 190 dunums are urban areas while 570 dunums are seized by the wall in addition to 1030 dunums confiscated in favor of Sal’it settlement.
After constructing the separation wall the IOA announced the Palestinian lands isolated by the separation wall whether residential or agricultural as Israeli military zones that Palestinians cannot reach unless by Israeli permits.
The wall has 12 gates nine of which are used by the Palestinian farmers who have isolated lands. Some of the gates open daily others weekly and others only in some seasons such as the season of picking olives.
Palestinians are granted permits to reach their lands under three conditions after they provide ownership certificates of the isolated land in addition to a map for the land. Sometimes the IOA does not allow Palestinians to reach their lands even after they get permits as a prelude to confiscate such lands. Moreover sometimes the IOA refuses to issue permits for Palestinians who have met all the conditions.
