INTRODUCTION

All Palestinian villages in the West Bank have been touched by the Israeli military occupation and its land confiscation policies, both used to colonize Palestinian land with Israeli Jewish citizens. From 1977, when the intensive settlement of the West Bank began, until the present day, the Israeli government's settlement program has resulted in the confiscation of more than 70% of Palestinian land. Underlying the human tragedy involved in this systematic theft of land and the oppressive policies employed to carry it out is the Israeli long-range objective of establishing permanent control over the West Bank. Indeed, the unrelenting confiscation of Palestinian land even as this report goes to print demonstrates that the latest "peace process" under the Oslo Agreement is nothing but another step towards solidifying Israeli control of the West Bank. Foreign Minister Peres confirmed this last month when he told reporters that Palestinians will gain control of only 17% of the West Bank and the remaining 83% will remain in Israeli hands.

In the two years since the signing of the Oslo Agreement in September 1993, more than 166,534 dunams or over 41,600 acres (1 dunum = 1/4 acre or 1000 meters squared) of Palestinian-owned land have been confiscated and Jewish settlement activity has increased dramatically. The results of this usurping of Palestinian land have been catastrophic, both for the Palestinian aspiration to build a viable state and for fostering the peace process. In light of Israel's continuous and aggressive land confiscation policies, the groundwork for good faith negotiations and mutual recognition established by Oslo has disappeared. And so, the human tragedy of the dispossessed continues without any sign of reprieve and the vicious battle for land that has scarred this region for many decades continues unabated.

LEGAL BACKGROUND

When the Israelis occupied the West Bank and Gaza, they amended the local land-ownership law (in violation of international law) by issuing new regulations and military orders unfavorable to the indigenous Palestinian landowners. The military authorities set up a new convoluted land-ownership registration procedure which discouraged Palestinian enrollment but facilitated Jewish settlers to register fraudulent documents. The establishment of such a complex legal system also enabled the Israelis to invent many different "legal" justifications to confiscate the Palestinian land to build Israeli settlements.

Today, confiscation of land takes place by military order issued by Israeli military commanders for the region. Palestinians can appeal the confiscation order to an Israeli military objections committee composed of employees of the Israeli occupation authorities, including Jewish settlers.

Several different "legal" rationales are used to justify land confiscation: state land, military purposes, security reasons, public use, and absentee property. These "legalisms" represent a clear violation of international law, since the sole purpose of confiscation of Palestinian land is to limit or deny the right of the Palestinian indigenous population to own and use its land.

Under the international law of occupation (the Hague Regulations and the Fourth Geneva Convention), a military occupation is considered temporary. Therefore, the occupying power is prohibited from confiscating the local population's property for permanent use. The property rights of the local population are to be preserved without exception. Confiscation is acceptable only in the most extraordinary circumstances where no other location can suit the security needs of the occupier, or for public use for the indigenous population (i.e. to build a military outpost or a hospital). When the military occupation ends, the "temporary" military-occupier must dismantle its bases and outposts and return all the seized property to the local population. In the same spirit of "temporariness", the permanent settlement of the occupier's civilian population in the occupied territory is absolutely prohibited.

Accordingly, in this light three of the methods employed by the Israelis to confiscate land directly contravene the spirit and the letter of international law.

State land: The declaration of West Bank land as Israeli "state land" is the most blatant of these contradictions. The military occupier is not the "state" -- rather a temporary presence, and thus has no legitimate authority to take permanently land from the indigenous population and declare it state land.

Absentee Property: For the same reason the Israeli absentee property law has no validity in the West Bank, because the Israeli presence is not as a conqueror (thus becoming a permanent presence) but as an occupier. In fact, under international law all "absentee landowners" are considered only temporarily absent and will be able to regain their land once the occupation ceases.

Public use: This is also a misnomer. More than 90% of land confiscations in the West Bank facilitates the building of roads, and the installation of sewage and electrical systems -- carried out to assist and expand the Jewish population in the settlements. This supposedly temporary "public" comprises less than 10% of the entire population residing in the area.

At this time there are approximately 150 Jewish settlements in the West Bank. The settler population numbers now at about 140,000 Israeli Jews, not including the Jewish settlements in Occupied East Jerusalem. Current construction will allow for the addition of some 120,000 settlers, so that by the end of the five year interim period called for by the Oslo Accords the settler population will double in number. The Israeli negotiators are exploiting the large presence of the Jewish settlers to achieve their ambitions of maintaining control over the West Bank. They are using the long-term security requirements necessary to protect the supposedly temporary Jewish settlers to perpetuate their control. This includes the building of the "by-pass" roads to justify their continued control of 83% of the West Bank. The message is clear - there cannot be a genuine peace while settlements and their corresponding security requirements remain in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

CASE STUDY - JEENSAFUT VILLAGE

Jeensafut village, and villager Abed Allah al Bashir's ongoing and sometimes successful struggle to protect his land, portrays the unending battle to protect lands from Jewish settlements. Land and Water Establishment has conducted various studies in this area, in particular focusing on the battle waged by Al Bashir to protect his land.

Jeensafut village is located about 15 kilometers east of Qalqilya, on the main road to Nablus and near Al Funduq, Kufur Laqif, Deir Istia and Immatein villages. Jeensafut has a population of about 2000 people, and a land area of about 1300 dunums of land. Agriculture remains the primary source of income from olive trees, grains like wheat and barley, vegetables and thyme.

Agricultural practices in the area remain undeveloped because of the chronic shortage of water, due in part to Israeli refusal to allow the villagers to dig wells. Wells dug by the Israeli Civil Administration are reserved exclusively for Jewish settlement use. Because of the difficulty in maintaining a viable agricultural economy, many of the young men have left their families' land to find work in Israel. In addition, settlers routinely refuse villagers access to their agricultural lands which are located close to settlements, and attack villagers while working. The result of these oppressive policies and settler aggression is that approximately 4000 dunums of the village's agricultural land remains unused.

Jeensafut village itself, however, is a small village of old stone houses, and unpaved and narrow roads. The village council, elected during the Jordanian administration, has been prohibited by the Israeli authorities to develop the village, improve its infrastructure, or offer even rudimentmunicipal services.

What now distinguishes this village from others is its perseverance in defending its lands against the settlements which surround the area. The battle to save their land began in earnest after the election of Likud in 1977, after which all six Jewish settlements in Jeensafut's vicinity were established.

The three Jewish settlements located to the west of Jeensafut, on the main Qalqilya-Nablus road, were established on lands from Jeensafut each within several years of the other. Karnei Shomron, with a population of 4500 (according to statistics compiled in 1992) and the most aggressive of the three, was established in 1978 on 50 dunums of Jeensafut land. Ma'aleh Shomron and Ginot Shomron were established soon thereafter, first as "neighborhoods" of Karnei Shomron and then as new settlements. The settlers from this cluster prohibit, through intimidation, local Palestinians from using village land located close to the settlement's periphery.

Emmanuel, a large Jewish settlement located on the southern boundary of Jeensafut, was established in 1983 on 400 dunums of land from nearby Deir Istia village. In 1992, this religious settlement numbered 4200 people. The settlers from this settlement have equally damaged the agricultural lands of Deir Istia and Jeensafut, uprooting olive trees and destroying agricultural land to build water pipes to serve (exclusively) the settlement. In March of 1994, the Israeli Authorities built a road 12 meters wide for the convenience of and use by the settlement through the lands of Jeensafut, resulting in the destruction of hundreds of olive trees.

Yakir, with a population of 470, and Nofim, population 220, are Jewish settlements located to the south west of Jeensafut, on lands from Deir Istia. These small religious settlements, established in 1981 and 1986 respectively, are responsible for much of the aggressive activity in the area.

These six settlements together surround Jeensafut from the west, south and east. The north of Jeensafut is circumscribed by the main Qalqilya-Nablus road, and thus growth of Jeensafut has become an impossibility. In addition, waste from the settlements and the factories located in the area have created an environmental hazard for the region. The settlements dump their waste in Qanah Valley, previously one of the richest agricultural areas of the region. Today, the water in the valley has become too polluted to be used any longer.

Land and Water Establishment, in their work in the defense of human rights, have taken several cases in the area in protection of the environment and lands of the Palestinian people.

THE STRUGGLE OF ABDULLAH AL BASHIR

The struggle of Abdullah Al Bashir epitomizes the ongoing battle that Palestinians have been forced to fight to protect their lands. But his struggle is different, both more personal and more tenacious than most. He has paid a high price to wage this battle. Insofar as he has been successful, and maintained some degree of personal integrity throughout an Occupation that corrupts and dehumanizes, he represents the struggle of all Palestinians to defend a way of life and a dream of nationhood.

Al Bashir was born in 1939 in Jeensafut village, is widowed and has 13 children. He inherited a large tract of land from his father, and was eventually able to buy more land to help support his children. He worked his land as his only source of income, until he opened a shop in his village.

TROUBLE BEGINS - ROAD CONSTRUCTION:

Despite the military occupation, Al Bashir lived a relatively ordinary life until 1979. On 6 May 1979, he received notice that the Israeli Military Governor had authorized the construction of a road through his lands, to connect the Qalqilya-Nablus road with what would soon officially become Emmanuel settlement. The construction of the road uprooted some 100 olive trees belonging to Al Bashir, at an estimated loss of $25,000. The Military Admin-istration offered compensation for his losses, but accepting compensation for an illegal act of property destruction by the Military Authorities would have legitimized the authority of the Israeli military to carry out its policies. Al Bashir, like most, refused the compensation and continued in his battle to protect his land.

THE FIGHT AGAINST CONFISCATION:

In light of what followed, Al Bashir told LAWE that the road was not the worst disaster for him. In 1981, the Israeli military issued an order to confiscate 2.3 dunums of his land, known as Ras Amir-Al Thuhour. This land was registered under Jordanian financial record number 20 plot 11, but was being confiscated to build a new road to service a new factory (Aderit) built in the Karnei Shomron settlement's industrial zone.

Al Bashir began his protest in earnest. He stood in front of the bulldozers working on his land and engaged in other forms of protest against this theft. The settlers, who exercise almost total control over the areas in and around their settlements (and who also operate almost with impunity), tried several different methods to diffuse his protest against them. They offered him a share in the Aderit factory, offered to grant him the building license which had been refused by the Israeli Military Administration, to supply him with the water he needed to work his land, or even to appoint him foreman of the 200 employees of the factory with a life-time salary.

The settlers were lead by Moshe Zar, an extreme-right religious nationalist settler and a member of the outlawed Jewish underground (he and the other members of this group were jailed for the bombings of several elected officials in the Occupied West Bank, including the mayor of Nablus Mr. Bassam Alshaqa'a, who suffered the loss of both his legs). Moshe Zar has lead this fight to take Al Bashir's land from the start, and has continued the same kind of illegal, violent and extortionist methods until the present day. But the value of land in Arab society cannot be underestimated, and Al Bashir remained steadfast despite all the threats, intimidation and bribes. He decided to take his case to the high court.

Lawyer Felicia Langer agreed to represent Al Bashir, and to take the case to the Israeli High Court. She not only successfully proved that the land was rightfully Al Bashir's, but showed that there had been a "mistake" in the skeleton (zoning) plan for the settlement and that the 2.3 dunums were wrongfully included in the settlement's plans. The Israeli High Court ruled in Al Bashir's favor and informed the Defense Minister and the Military Commander for the West Bank, on 22 April 1981, that the skeleton plan had been wrongly interpreted and that the land rightfully belonged to Al Bashir.

After the decision was handed down, and during the process of re-instating the land to Al Bashir, the settlers renewed their attempts to bribe Al Bashir to give up his land. The Israeli military authorities even offered, in order to preserve Al Bashir's reputation, that he could claim the land had been confiscated and thus receive compensation. He again refused, stating: "If you offer all that you own I will refuse. And if you give me a golden mountain I will also refuse".

Fifteen months later, in July of 1982, 50 armed settlers from Emmanuel settlement used 8 bulldozers to confiscate and destroy the land of Saif Bahlul, also from Jeensafut village. His land is located close to Al Bashir's land.

At that time, when Al Bashir heard the news that bulldozers were working on Saif's land, he went immediately to the site and with Saif stood in front of the bulldozers. They began throwing stones until the settlers returned to their settlement. The next morning he and Saif went to a lawyer to register a claim against the settlers. While they were registering their complaint, the settlers uprooted some 900 trees from Al Bashir's land. On that same day the residents of Jeensafut village protested at Al Deeb mountain, where the bulldozers were working. Foreign press covered that protest.

Al Bashir, Bahlul and Hussan Abd Al Ajabar (whose lands were also affected) then requested a lawyer to take their case to the high court to stop the settlers' destructive and illegal activity on their lands. In the meantime, settlers offered Al Bashir 40,000 Jordanian dinar (at that time, the exchange rate was approximately $3.7 US to 1 Jordanian dinar) to drop the case. He again refused.

After 2200 olive trees had been uprooted and the fences destroyed on Al Bashir's land, the Israeli High Court again issued an order for all Israeli companies to stop working on the expansion of the settlement, and to stop the work specifically on the lands of villagers from Jeensafut village. A report compiled by the Tulkarim agronomist and agricultural engineer Tawfiq David Amer showed that the settlers had destroyed 700 olive trees on the area number 11, plot 4, owned by al Bashir, which comprises about 80 dunums. The financial losses for Al Bashir were put at about 20,000 Jordanian dinar, and losses due to the destruction of his fences and the replacement of his olive trees totaled about 9400 Jordanian dinar. No compensation was ordered for him by the court, and his losses were mounting.

Al Bashir spoke to Land and Water Establishment on 29 October 1994, and explained that since 1982, after most of his trees were destroyed by settlers, his income has been dramatically reduced. In 1994 the income he gained from his remaining olive trees stood at 2500 dinar, with a loss of some 4000 dinar. He estimates that over the 12 years since this one catastrophic day, his losses have totaled about 35,000 dinars. He said he became so experienced in defending his land that other victims of settler aggression have come to him for advice. During this year the Israeli authorities also tried to expel him from the country, also unsuccessfully.

PRISON:

On 25 March 1983, Moshe Zar, the settler who previously had been so provocative and aggressive towards Al Bashir, was reportedly the victim of an attempted murder near the Karnei Shomron settlement. The weapon used corresponded to a 9 mm gun owned by Al Bashir and was recently sold by him to the person accused of the crime. Al Bashir was taken to prison the same day.

In court, Al Bashir testified that he was unaware of the gun's intended use when he sold it. In June 1983 the court sentenced Al Bashir to 10 months in prison for possession of an illegal weapon, according to article 59 A of the Defense Emergency Regulations of 1945, and the Israeli military order for Security Regulations, 1970.

Even while imprisoned, the settlers continued in their efforts to convince Al Bashir to sell his land. Settlers threatened him with violence once he would be released. Forty days before the end of his imprisonment, Al Bashir was interrogated again, along with the person convicted to trying to kill Moshe Zar. After this interrogation he was charged with a new crime - encouraging the same person to kill a Palestinian collaborator. This new charge carried with it an additional 30 months in prison and 24 months probation, but 13 additional months passed without a hearing or a trial.

On 28 February 1985, the Israeli military court held its session in Nablus, during which Al Bashir was accused of encouraging other people to kill Sadiq Balil, a speculator who had tried to make Al Bashir sell his lands. Sadiq Balil came to testify against Al Bashir. There were many irregularities in the testimony of both the one originally accused of the attempted murder (who later changed his story to include Al Bashir's encouragement to kill Sadiq Balil) and of Sadiq Balil himself. Advocate Felicia Langer argued Al Bashir's case on the grounds that the testimonies were irregular, but the court rejected her arguments and sentenced Al Bashir to 30 additional months in prison.

During his trial, the judge asked Al Bashir why he was so adamant about refusing to sell his land. Al Bashir responded in the same manner he had responded years before when his trouble started - that his life was deeply connected to his land, and that nothing could ever induce him to sell it.

During his years in prison, Al Bashir developed a knee problem which was not treated until 1995. He now walks with a cane.

LAND FRAUD:

Fraudulent land documents have consistently been used by settlers to illegally obtain ownership of Palestinian lands. Either by using a "front" (a Palestinian speculator) or by simply forging signatures, Jewish settlers have obtained a significant amount of land owned by Palestinians. Particularly in regions with many settlements, this method was frequently employed to undermine the legitimate Pal-estinian claims to their land.

There have been several attempts to fraudulently obtain Al Bashir's land. Al Bashir, by the mid-1980s, had become very unpopular among the settlers of this region, but particularly to Moshe Zar.

In 1985, while Al Bashir was still in the prison in Nablus, his family learned that Moshe Zar had shown a falsified land-sales contract to the court in Nablus, bearing Al Bashir's name. Zar said he wanted to register the land in his own name.

Al Bashir of course denied ever selling his land, and claimed that the document was falsified. His family hired a lawyer to defend this claim, Advocate Hussam Fattuh, to object to the registration (claim number 85/767). On 9 November 1985 the District Court in Nablus held a session but Zar's lawyer did not appear. The judge accepted the case anyway, and set a new date for 6 February 1986 to hear the case. On this date as well the lawyer representing Moshe Zar did not appear, and so the judge threw out the case and Al Bashir successfully canceled the falsified contract through a court order of default.

Before the February 6 court date, Moshe Zar offered a deal to Al Bashir. Zar would pay 80,000 Jordanian dinar to Al Bashir, and would guarantee an early release from prison as soon as he accepted the deal. Al Bashir, again, refused this "deal" and remained in prison until the end of his prison term.

When Al Bashir was finally released, he found that his family had been forced to sell all their livestock, the shop which they owned in the village, and to borrow 3000 dinars to pay for court and other costs. His fight to save his land, and to disprove false claims against him, were taking a heavy financial and personal toll.

UNABATED SETTLER HARASSMENT:

On 9 April 1988, Al Bashir initiated registration procedures in Tulkarim for his land number 20, plot 11, also known as Ras Amir. This was the same land on which the High Court had ruled on 22 April 1981 in favor of Al Bashir's ownership. After the land was registered and declared in the newspapers, Moshe Zar and the Israeli Haminota company made two objections concerning the registration. Amir Yofee, the Haminota representative, claimed that the company owned the north-eastern part of this property, near the main road, and that several large areas did not belong to Al Bashir. Moshe Zar claimed that Al Bashir's papers were falsified, and showed Central Court documents from Jerusalem against Al Bashir and Mahmoud Abu-Saa'id. Zar also claimed that Al Bashir improperly claimed the land that lay on his borders.

At this time Al Bashir's wife became very ill. When Al Bashir informed her of the new developments, she became very nervous and sick. He took her to the hospital immediately, and she died a few weeks later. She left Al Bashir a widower with 13 children.

On 14 June 1993, a hearing was held in response to the objections raised by Zar in 1988 to discuss ownership of this plot of land. The accountant for the Qalqilya financial department, Al Bashir and his lawyer, Moshe Zar and his lawyer, and the Director of Absentee Property attended the hearing. The committee mediating the case at this time failed to come to a decision, and did not schedule another hearing. Al Bashir's case at this time, like in the past, was strong. Several years prior to the hearing, in 1991, he had discovered that a Palestinian speculator was attempting to sell his land to an Israeli company. Al Bashir knew this speculator, and asked him if he was involved in this transaction. The speculator said no, and testified to this during the hearing in 1993.

Around that time, Zar sued Al Bashir and Abu Sa'ad for damages resulting from the assassination attempt, although he himself had not suffered any personal or bodily injury and Al Bashir had been uninvolved in the case and unfairly implicated. On 13 December 1992, the Central Court in Jerusalem ruled in Zar's favor and, although both had already spent time in prison for this crime, Moshe was awarded 510,000 NIS (3 NIS = approximately $1 US) - 75% to be paid by Abu Sa'ad and 25% by Al Bashir. Al Bashir also had additional costs for his lawyer and court fees, for a total of 137,500 NIS. The decision was frozen until the beginning of 1995, and Al Bashir still refuses to pay this amount.

SETTLER AGGRESSION GOES ON...

But Al Bashir's story does not end there. On 25 February 1995, Moshe Zar again took action against Al Bashir's land. He ordered bulldozers to go to Al Bashir's land and begin construction of a road. This attempt was again thwarted by Al Bashir, as he had already won the court case proving ownership of his land.

In addition, Zar resubmitted the civil lawsuit against Al Bashir for damages, this time claiming 3 million NIS and portions of Al Bashir's land: Jabal Al Deeb, with an area of 130 dunums; Ras Amer; and Dugur, with an area of 42 dunums near Emmanuel settlement. The court, however, denied Zar the right to confiscate Al Bashir's land, and upheld its original decision awarding Zar "only" 510,000 shekels.

CONCLUSION

Al Bashir has been successful in resisting nearly every kind of extortion, fraud and bribery in the defense of his land. The extremes to which he went to defend his way of life reflect the profound relationship of Palestinians to their land, and the strength of one individual in defying the most corrupt and brutal policies of Israeli military occupation.

Al Bashir's courage and persistence is exceptional. In the face of such relentless aggression and harassment, it is unlikely that all the Palestinian people can sustain the battle for their land indefinitely, as Al Bashir has. Palestinian ownership of land must be preserved and defended, particularly at this time of the "peace negotiations", as the only viable means of a peaceful resolution in this area.

Unfortunately, the future does not look bright. The meager 17% of West Bank land ceded to the Palestinians in the last round of peace talks, and the Palestinian negotiators' willingness to allow the Israelis to confiscate more Palestinian land to build roads for the exclusive use of the Jewish settlements (also known as by-pass roads), are steps backward for the Palestinian people and their struggle to preserve their land and to maintain some hope of territorial integrity.