Kufr Thulth

10.00 Kufr Tulth’ 

A planned meeting with the head of the village opened with a presentation of the progress of computerizationlth and communication in the village and the possibility of executing the bureaucratic activities through the computer. Also the front of the municipality is undergoing renovation and already looks in shape and polished.

The head of the village is angry and bitter and despairing as a result of the occupation. He is not allowed to visit his family in Jaljulia, he was prevented from reaching his lands which are on the other side of the fence even when there was an enormous fire on about 5 dunam. He says that the village has about 6000 dunam on the other side of the fence. About 60 people have been refused permits and he showed us a list as an example and we proposed to try to deal with it through the DCO.

One of the villagers who joined us says that even though he has a permit he cannot get to his lands which are next to Alfei Menashe settlement, he has to travel by car because the only other way is to enter the area of the settlement. During the last year he has been unable to get a permit to travel by car and therefore he had not been able to pick his olives. Another said that he has not been allowed to take ordinary manure and new plants to his lands.

The treasurer of the village presents a list of 6 paragraphs which are truly not new but always painful:

1.Most of those who are not given permits are the workers who are needed to carry out agricultural work. The amount  of permits are in ratio to the size of the land but the old people and the women can't carry out these works.

2.The agricultural gates are not opened at the times which have been promised and in some cases are not open at all.

3.There is more difficulty in obtaining permits for passage of cars. We were shown a permit for the passage of a car from last year which this year has been refused. Also tractors have difficulty getting permits.

4.The seasonal gates do not give the necessary time for all the agricultural work during the year.

5.A person who has two separate areas of land which are also far apart on the other side of the fence can get a permit for only one area and for one gate.

6.The regulations regarding the passage of materials, manure, implements does not make it possible for these items to be taken to the lands.

11.55 Mas’ha.

In answer to our question about the olive harvest we were told that out of 750 requests only 150 were given. They say that there was a refusal of 60% of the requests.

M.M.A. has a wife and grown up children in Kfar Kassem and in the past he had a permit to visit them. Today because he was caught there without a permit he is designated as a security risk by the Secret Service and all his requests for permit to work his land are denied.

Besides that the Palestinians show us a pamphlet which the PA put out where it states that the seasonal gates are to be open between the dates 1.10-31.11…..This in regard to gate Hani and gate 1534. They complain that gate 1534 (Mas-ha north) which were always open during this entire period have been closed for 3 weeks and since then each day 3 people are waiting there. We phoned the DCO and the head of the Matak and they claimed that they had conducted a survey and no people had passed through the gate for a while and therefore it had been decided to close it and this without informing the villagers or the PA. Now of course the Palestinians have to prove that this is not so, to turn to representatives of the PA and to ask to open the gate and the expected answer which we expect would be that they should wait for the plowing season because there is nothing for them to do there after the olive harvest, not weeding, not pruning and not……not……not and since when is a Palestinian allowed to rest or to divide his days so that sometimes he may choose not to come to the gate for a few days. (It is hard to check who is in the right here)

At both villages in answer to our questions there has been a worsening of the situation with permits for carrying out the goals of opening the gates at the appointed times.