Deir al-Ghusun - Two main problems: Electricity and permits

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Observers: 
Ziyona Snir, Mikki Fischer (reporting) Translator: Charles K.
Jul-4-2017
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Morning

Two main problems:  Electricity and permits – because Israel, via the army and the Civil Administrationinfo-icon, is responsible for every single aspect of the Palestinians’ lives.

10:30  It was 31 degrees centigrade when we arrived in the town of Deir el Ghusun.  There was no electricity in the entire town, nor, of course, in the municipal offices.  B., who’s in charge of permits and other matters, received a constant stream of angry phone calls from residents complaining about the situation.

B. told us that Deir el Ghusun, with 14,000 inhabitants, receives only a 50 ampere supply of electricity for the entire town.  For the past two or three years that’s been insufficient during the hot summer months, so the municipality provides electricity to one area for two hours, then switches to another.  That also affects neighborhood water supply, because the main water pump is run by electricity.

He listed the damages:  food spoiling in refrigerators, laundry, washing dishes, the children and elderly suffering greatly from the heat and shortage of water.

We were offered juice – because if there’s no water they drink juice, but they were, unfortunately, joking – you can’t shower in juice.  It’s too sticky…  And what happened today?!  Because of the continual alternation of electricity supply among neighborhoods in recent days, the main power line failed and they’re waiting for the Israel Electric Company, who’s responsible for the main cable supplying electricity from the Hadera power station, to repair it, and they’re apparently waiting to coordinate with the army…because Israel rules their lives down to the last detail!!!!!  He says the town has already submitted multiple requests to increase the electricity supply by 10 amperes, and they’re willing to bear the not-inconsiderable expense of NIS 200,000, but the electric company isn’t willing, apparently because the needs of Israel and the settlements take priority…?!

One resident arriving to complain about the electricity stoppage said that all six localities in the area, including Zeita, Athil with 16,000 inhabitants, Illar, Seida and two more receive a total of only 198 amperes, and all have to make do with only a few hours of electricity a day during the summer months.  While the settlement at the end of the power line – Avnei Hefetz, probably, and perhaps others – doesn’t suffer a shortage of electricity…the air conditioners are working, there’s water in the faucets…the chosen people!  The Palestinians begged us to contact the authorities so they’ll solve the problem…

They’re in D-E-S-P-A-I-R.

Then we heard about the permits situation (which really should be known as “the restrictions situation”) – on the day the strike ended in the last week of May, 2017, he submitted 150 permit applications, most from landowners and members of their family, and a few from workers.  He was forbidden to submit applications from workers and lessees, even though the greenhouses require young, strong workers, not family members who are children or women who have to work in town or at home. 

As of today, he said, only one reply has been received, by the owner of a greenhouse who managed to reach the window (literally) of the Israeli DCL in Tulkarm and obtain permits for two workers, although he submitted applications for seven. 

But that wasn’t the end of the problems.  Four days before Ramadan ended and Eid el Fitr began, the Israeli DCL returned all the applications without having processed them, and R. was asked to resubmit all 150 because the form had been revised – one line had been changed – Item no. 15 was added – grazing in the seam zone.  So he had to fill them all out again, call in the applicants to sign them again and make them pay NIS 20 for each new application.

We didn’t manage to get to Athil, but he told us they’d submitted 100 applications to date, and haven’t received any response.  We’ll have to find out about the other localities.

 

12:45  Athil agricultural checkpoint – 609.  It opened, 7 tractors returning, and about 25 farmers who still have permits.

The owner of the greenhouses says this is the high season for cucumbers and tomatoes, and the two workers he managed to get after much effort can’t pick them all.  He’s afraid he’ll lose part of his crop if he doesn’t get the other five workers.  He said they told him the land is registered also in the name of his mother and brothers, who haven’t worked for years, and never relinquished their right to the land.  This time he was told to present contracts proving he leases the land from them, but even though the documents had been submitted to the DCL, the five additional workers haven’t been approved.  Bureaucracy in the service of the occupation!!!!

R., the owner of 18 dunums of greenhouses and groves, also arrived at the checkpoint.  For the past two months he’s been trying to renew permits for himself, his wife and his five children, and he’s being sent back and forth between the Palestinian liaison office and the Israeli DCL, and doesn’t receive any answer.

About a month ago I also received a reply via Whatsapp from Eyal Salman, who’s in charge in Tulkarm, that they know about R.’s application, and it’s being processed.  The head of the DCL himself promised a month ago to reply quickly – but quickly never came.  For over a month no soldier or officer in the Tulkarm DCL has deigned to answer – not the phone, not to an text message, etc. – radio silence!!!

Meanwhile R. can go through the Irtach checkpoint, because he’s older than 55, but he spends NIS 50 a day to reach the greenhouses on his land.  NIS 1500 per month.

It seems he won’t make any profit.  He’ll just be able to hold on to his land, because there may already be, lying in some drawer, the plan to use the bureaucracy to make Palestinians abandon their lands, so that after three years Israel can categorize them as state land and take them over.

Here’s to the end of the occupation, to peace and to equality for all the inhabitants of this land.