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The village of Husan, west of Bethlehem, has been forced to face the problem of settlement encroachment since 1985, when the settlement of Beitar Illit was built directly on village land. Started as a small outpost, the settlement is now one of the largest in southern West Bank, with a population of more than 26,000.

The fence, which surrounds the settlement, encloses a large amount of Palestinian territory, in particular, 35 dunam of land belonging to the Rajee Sabateen family. This land is only one kilometer from the village. The family continued working the land during these years, despite attacks from the settlers and their routine attempts to prevent the farmers from working their land. According to the legal status, the land is still owned by the Palestinian family and they continued for a time to work it despite it being within the defined borders of the settlement.

It was clear to everyone, however, that this situation would not last for long. In fact, two years ago, on 4 May 2005, the Israeli Civil Administration handed the family a confiscation order “for public use,” clearly in order to expand the settlement and prevent the Palestinians from entering in the portion surrounded by the fence. The family immediately brought the case in front of the Israeli Court in Beit El, demanding recognition of their property rights and their right to work the land.

The Court decision was to recognize their right to work their land inside the fence without any harassment from the settlers, and the Court stated that the Israeli Civil Authority had no jurisdiction to confiscate the land for any purpose. During this period, the settlers continued their routine attacks, but at a reduced level of intensity, giving the farmers the ability to work the land and plant olive trees and grapes.

The Court also decided to oblige the settlement council to build another fence, inside the existing fence, to protect this portion of land from the settlers and to allow the Palestinians farmers to work it. The settlement council began the building of this new fence and paying for the material, in addition to paying for the workers and responsibility for eventual damages.

However, during this period last year, the number and intensity of the attacks began to increase, so the family decided to go once again to the Israeli courts, demanding compliance to the preceding decision of the Court, and the always-valid right of property. This time, the Association Saint Eve for Legal Assistance decided to take the case to the Israeli Supreme Court. The Court requested that the association and family present all the documentation regarding the land, the size, and the legal status of the location.

Following this, the Court met and called the owner of the land, the Israeli Civil Authority, a representative of the Israeli Army, the Land Department in Israel, and the Settlement Council, to confirm the legality of all the documents and to qualify the legal status of the land.

On 13 February 2007, the Israeli Supreme Court took its decision, declaring that the land is for the family and that nobody can prevent them the access to it, confirming the decision of the first court about the building of the new fence to protect the area from the settlers.

In January 2007, the fence was finished. But despite the fact that the settlers were paying for building the fence with their own money, they frequently went to the field to uproot trees and to damage the fence in order to destroy the land, or at least to defeat the work of the farmers. On several occasions, during the night when no one could document their actions, the settlers dumped copious amounts of rubbish onto the land. 

Between 4 January and 4 May 2007, the family presented almost 18 complaints to the Israeli Police station in Kfar Etzion, to ask the police to make sure that there is compliance with the decision of the Court regarding the land. The police replied that their station had no jurisdiction there, and that they must go to the Hebron police station, which is actually much further away. Regarding this, Rajee Sabateen stated, “I believe that the police do this to exhaust us and so that they can continue to ignore the issue.”

In addition, the settlers have been setting the land and the trees on fire from time to time. When this occurs, the family must call the Israeli fire brigades to put out the fire, because the Palestinian fire brigades are not allowed to enter the area and the farmers have no way to put the fires out on their own. Consequently, the Jerusalem municipality demanded that the farmers pay 40,000 shekels (US$ 10,000) for the fire brigades, thought the fires were caused by the settlers and not the farmers.

In order to clarify the situation and understand why they were asked to pay for something that they didn’t do, the family requested a meeting with the municipality. Following a meeting with the fire brigades’ office in Jerusalem, the Israeli Authority decide to ask to the owner of the land 26,000 shekels, of which 50 percent would be paid by the owner and the other 50 percent by the municipality.

This amount of money is still too much for the Sabateen family to pay, and merely results in the Israeli Authority’s abetting of the settlers actions. The Sabateen family now not only has land surrounded by two fences, which is frequently damaged by the settlers, but also a debt of almost 13,000 shekels to the Jerusalem municipality.

A similar case occurred in the Tulkarem region this past Sunday, 6 May, when a settler from Enav, very close to the town of Ramin, decided to burn 80 dunam of planted land belonging to Palestinian farmers. In this case, the farmers were lucky, because the fire brigades coming were Palestinians and they did not ask for any payment from the farmers.

It is quite clear that whenever the Israeli Authority appears to benefit the Palestinians in any way, its actions are always within the main strategy of the occupation system, which works to destroy the dignity of the Palestinians and their links to the land.

Further, it is clear that Israel is facing an ever-increasing lack of democracy, where decisions of the juridical power are not put into effect by the authorities supposedly designed to implement them, as in the case of the police, who are supposed to control the actions of the settlers.

In addition, the separation of the settlers from the rest of the population in Israel is quite clear and is creating a space of self-exclusion, where this population does not have to respect the laws of the state, where they have a free hand to do as they please without worry about being pursued, or at least without being asked to pay for the consequences.

The Palestinian population is quite used to this and to being forced to paid for something it has not done, as the collective punishment by Israel is almost normal in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The real question, however, is how long are the Israeli people willing to pay for the arbitrary decisions of a small minority of the population of the country?

Because the present situation is one in which the settlers not only have to pay less taxes, not only have nearly free schooling and services, not only require a large amount of money for their security, but also are absolved of responsibility for their actions, while the rest of the Israeli population pays. For how long is the Israeli population going to ignore that? For how long will the Israelis ignore their worsening economic situation and quality of life?

This lack of democracy is becoming so evident in the actions of Israel against the Palestinians that even within Israeli society, some people are beginning to recognize it. However, how long do we have to wait before the Israeli population begins to understand the meaning of “social responsibility” and do something about this situation?