Hebron – The Palestinian Mansiyya family owns hundreds of dunams (a dunam equals a thousand square metres) of land east of the town of Al-Dhahiriya in the south of the occupied West Bank, and for days it has been waging a field confrontation with Israeli settlers to prevent its seizure.
Nayef Mansiyeh, one of the land owners, told Tel Aviv Tribune Net that the occupation has been preventing them from accessing their lands since October 7, 2023, but they were surprised a few days ago by a settler plowing it with an agricultural tractor, so they went to the competent Israeli authorities to file a complaint to no avail.
He added that the landowners went together to their lands and plowed them, but the occupation army quickly expelled them from them, so the settler returned to plowing them again despite planting them with wheat, without the 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 to thousands of dunums of agricultural and pastoral land, 70% of which is in the eastern West Bank.
Agricultural settlement
In recent years, researchers have noticed an Israeli trend to grow grapes in the Hebron Mountains, adding to other projects that devoured the lands of the West Bank governorates to cultivate them in a way that suits their environment, such as dates and citrus fruits in Jericho, the Jordan Valley, and the northern West Bank.
In parallel with the spread of pastoral settlement outposts, Rajeh Al-Talahma, a field researcher at the Land Research Center (non-governmental), says that the past few years have witnessed a noticeable spread of settlement vineyards in the Hebron region.
He adds that these farms constitute another invasion of the West Bank, in addition to the urban and pastoral settlement invasion, “as part of the war on the Palestinian identity with its various components, including the agricultural identity.”
He explains that grape farms have become spread across hundreds of dunams of land on the outskirts of Hebron Governorate, especially in the southern and eastern towns, pointing out “the plundering of the West Bank’s waters for the benefit of these farms, and the competition to preserve their national product, which is culturally linked to it.”
He said that all the farms are built on Palestinian land that was seized by military orders and then transferred to settlers.
According to the data of the Palestinian Grape Council for the year 2021, Palestine produces about 50 thousand tons of grapes annually, about half of which are produced in Hebron.
On the other hand, Rajeh Al-Talahmeh refers to fighting any Palestinian reclamation of West Bank lands, especially in uninhabited agricultural areas classified as “C,” uprooting trees, burning farms, and destroying fields “as part of the approach of tightening the noose on Palestinian agriculture as one of the components of steadfastness.”
Area C constitutes about 60% of the area of the West Bank, which amounts to about 5,660 square kilometers, and is subject to complete Israeli control.
Destruction in the West Bank
In conjunction with the war of extermination in the Gaza Strip, agriculture in the West Bank incurred losses amounting to tens of millions of dollars.
Regarding the direct agricultural damage to the agricultural sector in the West Bank since October 7, 2023, Ministry of Agriculture data indicate that 8,218 farmers were affected, while the value of direct agricultural damage amounted to about 76 million US dollars.
This damage included burning, crushing, and uprooting olive trees, stealing olive fruits, preventing farmers from reaching their fields, targeting water sources, confiscating agricultural machinery and equipment, bulldozing agricultural lands and roads, and stealing and killing 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 points to the occupation’s tendencies aimed at uprooting the Palestinian farmer from his land and leaving it up for grabs for the herds of settlers.”
According to data from the Palestinian Wall Authority, during the first year of the war, the occupation seized 52 thousand dunums, established 12 buffer zones around the settlements, and uprooted 14,280 trees.
🚨Palestine Online Preparation:
“From planting figs and olives in the field to planting beans and arugula in the tent.” Displaced people allocate a small area of land in front of their tents to grow some crops to meet a small part 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 in the first 12 months of the war amounted to about two billion US dollars.
According to the results of the agricultural census for the year 2020-2021, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics indicated that the total areas planted with horticultural trees, vegetables, and field crops in the Gaza Strip amounted to about 117 thousand dunums.
A report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations published last September stated that 68% of the agricultural land in the Strip was destroyed, and 44.3% of the area of greenhouses and agricultural infrastructure, including 537 home gardens, 484 poultry barns, and 591 barns and sheep farms. And 400 warehouses and agricultural stores, 184 agricultural ponds, and 59 cow farms.
The report indicated the destruction of 2,261 groundwater wells, the main water purification station east of Gaza City, power generators, solar panels, main and secondary water transmission lines, most agricultural roads, packing houses, and olive presses.
Data indicated that the fishing port and about 3,500 fishing boats were destroyed, and 5,000 fishermen were deprived of practicing the fishing profession.
“Our people are steadfast, we are in a valley, and our officials are in a valley.”…
Farmer Amjad Badran, whose agricultural land in Deir Al-Ghusun, north of Tulkarm, was razed by the occupation. He criticizes the lack of interest of Palestinian officials in farmers and their lack of support, at least morally. pic.twitter.com/oJs12DbMSE
– Quds News Network (@qudsn) December 18, 2024
Agriculture and domestic product
The agricultural sector’s contribution amounted to about 7% of the GDP in Palestine, according to data from the Palestinian Ministry of Economy for the year 2021, while the contribution of agriculture recorded about 11% to the GDP in the Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics for the year 2022.
The gross domestic product from agriculture in Palestine amounted to $137 million in the first quarter of 2024, out of a total gross domestic product during 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 about $575 million, distributed 54% for plant production and 46% for animal production.