Hebron – The Palestinian Mansiyya family owns hundreds of dunams (one dunam is a thousand square meters) of land east of the town of Al-Dhahiriya in the southern occupied West Bank and has been waging a confrontation over the land with Israeli settlers to prevent its seizure.
Nayef Mansiyeh, one of the landowners, told Al Jazeera Net that the occupation has prevented them from accessing their land since October 7, 2023, but they were surprised a few days ago by a settler who was plowing them with an agricultural tractor. contacted the relevant Israeli authorities to file a complaint, to no avail.
He added that the landowners went together to their lands and plowed them, but the occupying army quickly expelled them, so the settlers started plowing them again despite the sowing of wheat, without l intervention of the army.
What happened with a forgotten family is a microcosm of what is happening in the West Bank, with the occupation deploying 29 pastoral settlement outposts whose influence extends over thousands of dunums of agricultural and pastoral land , 70% of which are in the eastern West Bank.
Agricultural regulations
In recent years, researchers have noticed an Israeli trend of growing grapes in the Hebron Mountains, adding to other projects that are devouring land in the West Bank governorates to cultivate them in a way suited to their environment, like dates and citrus fruits in Jericho. , the Jordan Valley and the northern West Bank.
Along with the spread of pastoral settlement outposts, Rajeh Al-Talahma, a field researcher at the Land Research Center (NGO), says recent years have witnessed a notable expansion of settlement vineyards in the region. ‘Hebron.
He adds that these farms constitute another invasion of the West Bank, in addition to the invasion of urban and pastoral settlements, “as part of the war against Palestinian identity with its various components, including agricultural identity.”
He explains that wine farms have spread across hundreds of dunums of land on the outskirts of Hebron governorate, particularly in cities in the south and east, highlighting “the pillaging of West Bank waters for the benefit of these farms and competition to preserve their national product, which is culturally linked to it.
He said all the farms are built on Palestinian land that was seized by military order and then transferred to settlers.
According to data from the Palestinian Grape Council for the year 2021, Palestine produces around 50,000 tonnes of grapes per year, around half of which are produced in Hebron.
On the other hand, Rajeh Al-Talahmeh refers to fighting any Palestinian reclamation of West Bank land, particularly in uninhabited agricultural areas classified as “C”, by uprooting trees, burning farms and destroying fields “as part of the approach aimed at tightening the noose”. on Palestinian agriculture as one of the components of firmness.
Area C represents approximately 60% of the area of the West Bank, spanning approximately 5,660 square kilometers, and is under full Israeli control.
Destruction in the West Bank
Along with the war of extermination in the Gaza Strip, West Bank agriculture suffered losses amounting to tens of millions of dollars.
Regarding direct agricultural damage caused to the agricultural sector in the West Bank since October 7, 2023, data from the Ministry of Agriculture indicates that 8,218 farmers have been affected, while the value of direct agricultural damage amounts to approximately 76 million US dollars.
This damage included burning, crushing and uprooting olive trees, stealing olive trees, preventing farmers from accessing their fields, targeting water sources, confiscating machinery and equipment agricultural land, the bulldozing of agricultural land and roads, and the stealing and killing of sheep.
According to the director of planning at the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture, Mahmoud Fatafta, the increasing frequency of violations against agriculture and farms is “a dangerous indicator that underlines the trends of the occupation aimed at uprooting the Palestinian farmer of his lands and to leave them to the land. catches for the herds of settlers.
According to data from the Palestinian Wall Authority, during the first year of the war, the occupation seized 52,000 dunams, established 12 buffer zones around settlements and uprooted 14,280 trees.
🚨Palestine online:
“From planting figs and olive trees in the fields to planting beans and arugula in the tent.” Displaced people allocate a small plot of land in front of their tent to grow a few crops to meet a small portion of their food needs.
Photography: Muhammad Totah pic.twitter.com/wJlwgL17Oi– Palestine Online (@F24online) December 18, 2024
Destruction of Gaza’s agriculture
According to estimates by the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture and the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Gaza’s losses during the first 12 months of the war amounted to approximately two billion US dollars.
According to the results of the agricultural census for the year 2020-2021, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics reported that the total area planted with horticultural trees, vegetables and field crops in the Gaza Strip amounted to approximately 117,000 dunams.
A report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations released last September indicated that 68% of agricultural land in the Gaza Strip had been destroyed, and 44.3% of the area of greenhouses and infrastructure agricultural, including 537 allotment gardens, 484 poultry. barns, and 591 barns and sheep farms, as well as 400 agricultural warehouses and stores, 184 agricultural ponds and 59 cow farms.
The report notes the destruction of 2,261 groundwater wells, the main water purification plant east of Gaza City, electricity generators, solar panels, water transmission lines main and secondary roads, most agricultural roads, packaging factories and olive presses.
Data indicates that the fishing port and approximately 3,500 fishing boats were destroyed and that 5,000 fishermen were deprived of the exercise of the fishing profession.
“Our people are firm, we are in a valley and our officials are in a valley. »…
Farmer Amjad Badran, whose farmland in Deir Al-Ghusun, north of Tulkarem, was razed by the occupation, criticizes Palestinian officials’ lack of interest in farmers and their lack of support, at least moral . pic.twitter.com/oJs12DbMSE
– Quds Information Network (@qudsn) December 18, 2024
Agriculture and national products
The contribution of the agricultural sector amounted to around 7% of GDP in Palestine, according to data from the Palestinian Ministry of Economy for the year 2021, while the contribution of agriculture recorded around 11% of GDP in the Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Economy. Central Bureau of Statistics for the year 2022.
Agricultural gross domestic product in Palestine amounted to $137 million in the first quarter of 2024, out of a total gross domestic product in the first quarter of 2024 in the West Bank of $2.47 billion.
The total value of agricultural production in the Gaza Strip during the year 2022 amounted to approximately $575 million, distributed 54% to crop production and 46% to livestock production.