Following ACRI’s submission of two petitions to the High Court of Justice against the route of the Separation Barrier near the Palestinian villages of Falameh and Jayyus, the State announced in June 2008 that it would dismantle 2.4 km of the barrier, thus providing residents with access to some of their agricultural lands.
In 2003, Israel erected a section of the Security Barrier near the West Bank villages of Falameh and Jayyus, effectively cutting residents off from 8,600 dunams of their agricultural land. ACRI immediately submitted two petitions to the High Court on the villagers’ behalf against the route of the barrier in this area, demanding that the barrier be re-routed so as not to cut them off from their agricultural lands – their primary source of livelihood.
In place of the existing section of the barrier, the State committed to reconstruct a longer section of the barrier. The IDF Chief of Staff said that he had agreed to dismantle the barrier in the area because he had discovered, as claimed by ACRI in our petition, that the route had been determined to accommodate the expansion of the nearby settlement Tzufin, and not to increase Israelis’ security. Despite the change, residents will still be forced to obtain military permits to access 6,000 dunams of their land – making it difficult at best to farm the land and earn a regular salary.
Although ACRI is encouraged by the State’s decision to change the route in favor of the residents of Falameh and Jayyus, we maintain that the State must re-route the barrier along the Green Line, making the residents’ land contiguous to their villages once again. In addition, the State’s announcement remains theoretical, and it has not implemented several similar Supreme Court rulings involving the re-routing of the barrier.
