Palestinian farmer Idris Abdallah Jbara despite being in his 70s moves between his olive plants touching them tenderly and kissing them a goodbye as his tears fall over his plants after being uprooted by the Israeli settlers’ bulldozers who live in the nearby Leshem settlement which is located in Bab Almarj area to the east of Deir Balout village to the west of Salfit.
Jbara still has the documents which prove his ownership of the land in Bab Almarj area. He complains about the lack of official and popular Palestinian support against the Israeli occupation authorities to challenge confiscation warnings and notices that mercilessly take away his ancestors’ lands.
Land confiscation
Jbara told the PIC: “Days ago I was surprised to find an eviction notice in my land whose total area is 82 dunums which is an agricultural land planted by olives and almonds. The notice effectively orders my eviction from the land after claiming that it was a state land within 45 days in order to expand the settlement of Leshem which is expanding everyday at the expense of the land of the village of Deir Balout”.
He adds “A while ago they uprooted and confiscated the land of Bab Almarj area and after that they returned back asking for more lands handing an eviction notice of 11 dunums more and today they handed over an eviction notice of 82 dunums and every day we have more eviction notices.”
Jbara is worried that bulldozing lands will extend to his house which is located at the roundabout of Deir Balout near Leshem settlement noting “With the continuing confiscation of lands Israeli settlers might take over my lands claiming it is located near Leshem settlement and a military post and tower especially that there is nothing that could stop the occupation from confiscating more lands.”
Olives at risk of being uprooted
With his heart full of sorrow Jbara said the continuing Israeli confiscation and uprooting of olive trees in his lands endangered his house from all areas especially after confiscating 82 dunums which makes 60% of the total area of the land and his inability to stop Israeli settlers from uprooting trees and confiscating his land. He also pointed out that the Israeli authorities have ordered him to uproot 200 olive trees or else they would uproot them at his own expense.
For his part researcher Dr. Khaled Ma’ali sadi that the Jerusalem Centre for Legal Aid and Human Rights had obtained a ruling from the Israeli Military Appeals Committee to cancel the military order to evict the land of Idris Jbara from the village of Deir Balout to the west of Salfit in 2003 following a year and a half of legal work after the family had received an eviction order.
Ma’ali noted that Leshem was built in 2013 on the lands of Rafat Deir Balout and Kufur Al-Deek and Sarta villages to the west of Salfit.
He noted that the Israeli occupation confiscated 15000 dunums of the Deir Balout lands in 1948 and isolated 8000 dunums of the village’s lands following the construction of the Separation Wall which crosses through the lands of the village with a total surface of two kilometers.
He underlined that the settlement of Leshem just like the settlement of Buduel is taking over more lands from the village of Deir Balout on daily basis.
