Ali Daoud a worker in the agricultural nursery for more than 15 years in Qalqilya in the northern West Bank does not feel at peace because of the Israeli settlement scheme that threatens Qalqilya nurseries with extinction. Daoud along with other workers have been fighting to stop this scheme for months before the Israeli courts.
Qalqilya is the main center for nurseries in the West Bank and it produces more than 80% of the agricultural seedlings in the West Bank but all this is threatened with extinction due to the Israeli settlement drive.
Late last year the Israeli occupation authorities issued a decision regarding a new Israeli plan to expand the settlement Street (531) for 200 million shekels. This practically means destroying Qalqilya nurseries theft of lands and imposing a new annexation.
Daoud estimates that one of the aims of the Israeli settlement plan is to demolish the nurseries of Qalqilya because they are superior to Israeli nurseries in terms of quality and price. “We have become accustomed that any economic sector that competes with the Israeli one is destroyed by the occupation measures” he added.
Salah Al-Khawaja a resistance activist affirms that the decision aims to link settlements to 1948 occupied lands through a highway.
He underlined that this plan would expose the majority of the Palestinian nurseries on the two sides of the street to full destruction and would cause them heavy losses.
He pointed out that these nurseries are the largest employer of the Palestinian workforce in the Qalqilya area from which thousands of Palestinians live with annual revenues amounting to about 150 million shekels.
Ahmed Eid the director of Qalqilya Agriculture says “There are 53 nurseries in Qalqilya which produce about 80 percent of the Palestinian seedlings production and create hundreds of permanent and seasonal jobs.”
Eid added “Most of these nurseries are located behind the Apartheid Wall on areas ranging from 1000-1500 dunums. Despite all the suffering that this entails for the workers it is still a vital sector for the agricultural sector of Qalqilya province.”
He indicated that the annual production of these nurseries amounts to more than ten million seedlings. This means that the Qalqilya nurseries are the basis for Palestinian agricultural production he said adding that the consumption of these seedlings is distributed between the West Bank and the 1948 lands and abroad.
Lawyer Wi’am Shbeita who is following up with the legal team the nurseries file before the Israeli occupation courts notes that what is going on is a scheme that contravenes international law. He also warned that the width of the lane designated for the road is about 165 meters while the width of the current street is 30 meters.
Shbeita added that this road is used by Jewish settlers from the settlements of Kereni Shomron Tzofim and other settlements while the Israeli occupation army prevents Palestinians from passing through this road except after obtaining permits from the Civil Administration.
He cautioned that even the decisions of the Israeli Supreme Court forbid the confiscation of Palestinian lands with private ownership to establish settlements on them. This means that what is happening contravenes the Israeli occupation’s laws that are always praised.
Lawyer Shbeita stressed that this case has a human aspect other than the legal one considering that these nurseries are a source of livelihood for hundreds of families who have been working in them for decades wondering about the consequences of demolishing this agricultural and economic component.
