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SHEIKH IJLEEN (Gaza Strip): Omar al-Najar sat in the dirt and gazed mournfully at his grapevines, severed when Israeli army bulldozers rolled on to his ancestral land and uprooted his plants and those of his neighbours.
“Sorry, my father. I have wasted the land,” cried the Palestinian farmer, hitting his head with his both hands in sorrow over the loss of his crops on the Gaza Strip land which had been in his family for generations.
“My fields are 70 years old. Older than their fascist state,” he said bitterly, referring to Israel.
Palestinian officials say life is becoming more difficult as people struggle to feed their families in an economy ravaged by conflict.
World Bank figures show more than 50 per cent of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip survive in poverty on $2 a day.
Agriculture has been devastated. Palestinians say thousands of trees and groves have been uprooted in what the Israeli army calls “engineering works” meant to deprive gunmen of cover.
Palestinian farmers say they are being subjected to collective punishment and are losing their livelihood founded on land passed down through generations.
Recently, five Israeli armoured bulldozers entered Palestinian-ruled Sheikh Ijleen in Gaza and destroyed acres of olive trees, lemon trees and grapevines, residents said. The village is located near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim.
BATTLE ZONES: Netzarim is surrounded by agricultural fields, making it an easy target for gunmen and attackers, the Israeli army said.
In two years, 78 mortar shells, five anti-tank missiles, shooting, grenades and 50 explosive devices have been used to attack Netzarim, it said in a statement.
Video footage sent by Palestinian militants to international news agencies shows fighters firing mortars from farm areas.
In Sheikh Ijleen, villagers said they did not know of any attacks launched from their village or that any of the fields had been used as cover for shooting at Netzarim.
But they still get caught in the middle. Some farmers have deserted homes and fields. Others return only occasionally.
Palestinian human rights groups said Palestinian farmers have been killed while working in their fields in areas next to Netzarim and more than a dozen other Gaza Strip settlements.
More than one million Palestinians live on 60 per cent of the 360 square kms land in the Gaza Strip among about 7,000 settlers in settlements protected by army bases.
Agriculture represented 30 per cent of Palestinian national income before the uprising against Israeli occupation began in September, 2000. Palestinian environment authority head Youssef Abu Safiyah said it has fallen to seven per cent.
An agriculture ministry survey showed $520 million in direct losses in the sector, including destroyed livestock herds.
Abu Safiyah said at least one million olive trees and 200,000 date trees have been uprooted in Gaza and the West Bank. He accused Israel of stealing date trees and replanting them inside the Jewish state. The army did not comment on the charge.
Palestinians are close to their land, considering farming and ownership as conferring honour and dignity. Some say they prefer to die on their land than to abandon or sell it.—Reuters
