In a decision handed down on Sept. 9, 2009 in response to petitions submitted by ACRI on behalf of local residents, Israel’s Supreme Court ordered the State to dismantle and reroute sections of the Separation Barrier that cuts through lands of the villages Far’oun, Hirbet Jabara, A-Ras, Tzur, Jayyus and Falamiah, effectively returning 6,000 dunams of land to the Palestinian side of the Barrier. The current Barrier route bisects a total of 25,000 dunams of Palestinian lands in the area, separating residents from their lands and preventing them from accessing their principal source of income. With this decision, the Court accepted the petitioners’ main assertion, ruling that serious flaws marred Israel’s determination of the Separation Barrier’s route; instead of the originally stated goals of defending Israeli security concerns, the Barrier’s route has often followed the interests of expanding Israeli settlements and new neighborhoods that have yet to be built.
The lands in question (in the region between Qalqilya and Tulkarm) are considered some of the most fertile areas in the West Bank. They include primarily agricultural lands worked by local Palestinians year-round; these lands are a source of income for about 90% of the population of the villages in question. Additionally, this area is rich in subterranean water aquifers and includes a number of wells that serve the region’s water needs.
By building the Barrier through these lands, the State of Israel appropriated 25,000 out of a total of 37,000 dunams of the villages’ lands effectively aggregating them to the Israeli side with the purpose of providing as much area as possible to accommodate the expansion of the Israeli settlements Sal’it and Tzufin, as well as annexing Palestinian wells and agricultural lands. The village of Hirbet Jabara has remained on the western (Israeli) side of the Barrier in a closed Israeli military area around the Green Line. In this area, Palestinian movement is severely limited, and Palestinian residents require residence permits to live in their homes. In addition, residents are subject to stringent security checks each time they return home; they are forbidden to receive guests and are unable to move a significant portion of the agricultural-related goods and machinery required to tend their land.
The revised route handed down by the Supreme Court is the route originally proposed by the Israeli government. The route still causes significant harm to the Palestinian population, leaving 19,000 of 37,000 dunams (approximately 50% of the villages’ lands) on the western (Israeli) side of the Barrier, and leaving the Palestinian population there subject to Israel’s draconian permit and passage rules. It is widely understood that the Barrier route in this particular area has been set by Israel to accommodate the expansion of the Israeli settlements of Sal’it and Tzufin with no relation to the reason the State gave in justifying the building of the Separation Barrier: state security.
These petitions were combined with another petition submitted in the name of the villages in question (excepting A-Ras and Tzur). The latter contested the legality of the current passage arrangements. According to ACRI’s petitions, these arrangements do not adequately protect residents’ right to access their lands on the western side of the Barrier. The petitioners included demands for 24-hour access through the Barrier’s crossings.
The Court-sanctioned revised route in the northern part of the region returns the village Jabara to the Palestinian side of the Barrier. This ruling has the immediate result of rescinding the town’s status as part of a seam zone and affords the Palestinian residents freedom of movement within the West Bank without having to cross through gates in the Barrier or being subject to daily military checks.
However, regarding freedom of movement across the Barrier, the Court did not take a principled stance against the current arrangement, nor did it rule, as the petitioners demanded, that the current arrangement is both inappropriate and dysfunctional. Furthermore, the Court stated that until the proposed revised Barrier route is completed, it cannot determine whether residents of the villages will be adversely affected and therefore the IDF’s Military Commander of the West Bank must evaluate the gates’ location and passage hours in the future.
The Court accepted ACRI’s petition on behalf of the villages Hirbet Jabara, Tzur and A-Ras and ruled that the Jabara gate is to remain open until the Barrier is dismantled and rebuilt, overruling the State’s request to close this gate. The Court additionally awarded the petitioning villagers NIS 20,000 compensation in court expenses.
