Al-Shabaka Policy Brief April 2018

ISRAEL’S RELENTLESS LAND GRABS: HOW PALESTINIANS RESIST By Yara Hawari

Overview of space is integral to settler colonialism through an examination of ’s historic and present-day It has been 42 years since the Israeli police shot appropriation of land, and explores the methods of and killed six Palestinian citizens of Israel as they Palestinian resistance to these practices. It concludes

[email protected] protested the expropriation of thousands of dunums with recommendations for how Palestinians can of Palestinian land by the government. The protests collaborate across the borders that divide them, as well were a result of mass collective action across the part as with third parties, to resist the theft of their land and of Mandate Palestine that became Israel in 1948. This further the quest for Palestinian self-determination and saw Palestinian communities resisting not only Israel’s rights. seizure of land but also its overall policies of erasing the very presence of Palestinians. This day – March Israel’s Land Acquisition Methods 30, 1976 – has since been known as Yom el-Ard (), and is a major event on the Palestinian political The main outcome of settler colonial projects is a calendar and in the collective narrative. The fact that rearrangement of physical spaces and indigenous 2018 also marks 70 years since the Nakba – the loss of people – a rearrangement that is neither peaceful the Palestinian homeland and the creation of the state nor passive, but constitutes a violent restructuring to of Israel – adds to the significance of Land Day this make way for a new society with new social and spatial year. Indeed, “The Great March of Return” organized organization. The Zionist settler colonial project that in Gaza last month was to commemorate this date but established the state of Israel in the place of Palestine also to link it with the right of return of the Palestinian in 1948 is no different. Zionists expelled 750,000 refugees. The fact that triple the number of those killed Palestinians in order to make room for the settler on the original Land Day, were killed this year also colonialists.2 highlights how Palestinian resistance is deemed just as www.Al-Shabaka.org much as a threat as it was over four decades ago.1 One hundred and fifty thousand Palestinians remained on the land, creating a demographic dilemma for the Throughout this history, Palestinians have challenged Israeli state. These Palestinians had to be incorporated Israel’s land theft – theft that, despite the fact that it as citizens but would remain excluded on the basis is a flagrant violation of international law, continues that they were not Jewish. In 1967, the colonization of unabated and is even accelerating. Indeed, with US the West Bank and Gaza Strip saw the absorption of President Donald Trump and his administration more Palestinians, yet rather than annex the territories signaling to Israel that it can annex more land and and grant them citizenship, Israel placed them under build more settlements, particularly through its recent military control. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Palestinians are increasing their resistance. In the early years after 1948, the Israeli state utilized various mechanisms to appropriate land, including This policy brief examines how the domination legislative measures. Most notable was the Absentees’

1. This policy brief has been produced in partnership with the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung. The views expressed herein are those of the author and therefore do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung. 2. This number is an approximation based on oral testimonies and various institutional records and is cited by scholars including Ilan Pappe in The Ethnic Cleansing of 1 Palestine. April 2018

Property Law of 1950, followed by the Land The implementation of the Oslo Accords in the early Acquisition Law of 1953. These laws allowed the state 1990s, which divided the West Bank into Areas A, B and to appropriate land and title deeds from refugees on the C, furthered the expropriation of Palestinian land. Area basis of being absent from the country after November C, which makes up 61% of the West Bank, is under full 29, 1947. The legislation was also applied to those who Israeli military control, including control over security were displaced within the borders of the new state: and civil affairs. Israeli policy in Area C is particularly Rather than recognize these Palestinians as internally aggressive, serving the needs of 325,000 Israeli displaced persons, Israel referred to them as “present settlers while simultaneously disrupting and restricting absentees.” Israel’s main justifications – then and now Palestinian communities. – for seizing the land are the acquisition of it for public use and the preservation of the Jewish character of the state. “Settler colonial projects

This justification was used at the beginning of March [are] a rearrangement 1976, when the Israeli government announced plans to confiscate 20,000 dunums of land under the Developing of physical spaces and the Program for the building of Jewish settlements and military training camps. The Palestinian indigenous people that is mass strike and protests on March 30 mainly took neither peaceful nor passive.” place in six villages in the Galilee that had been placed under curfew – , Arraba, Deir Hanna, Tur’an, , and Kabul – though they also occurred in the In the Jordan Valley, which falls under Area C, Naqab (Negev) and Wadi Ara.3 Israeli police met the communities are particularly vulnerable to displacement demonstrations with serious violence, shooting to death and theft of ancestral lands. The valley is a strategically the six protestors and injuring hundreds more. important area for Israel, predominantly because it acts as both a buffer zone to Jordan and the Occupied Syrian Land Day has become a date in which Palestinians Golan Heights, but also because of its agricultural throughout Mandate Palestine as well as in the richness thanks to its abundant water supply and fertile diaspora organize land-based activities and reiterate land. their existential relationship with the land. The date also emphasizes the concept of sumud (steadfastness) The construction of the Separation Wall in 2002 also as an important part of resistance to Israeli settler enabled Israel to acquire more West Bank land. Built colonization. to separate the West Bank from Israel proper under the guise of Israeli “security,” the wall has laid the Since the occupation of the West Bank in 1967, foundation for the annexation of many settlements. By various “legal” mechanisms and military orders have placing the route inside the West Bank and not along the similarly facilitated the colonization of Palestinian land. Green Line, Israel has de facto appropriated territory. These include the expropriation of land in the name The wall has separated Palestinians and cut off many of security, in which Israel effectively subverts the agricultural communities from their land, and breaks the Geneva Convention, which allows occupying states to geographic contiguity of the West Bank. temporarily confiscate land for security reasons. In this way Israel has seized land for at least 42 settlements, Accelerating Land Theft including the bypass roads that connect them to settlements across the Green Line. An equally devious Today, the expropriation of Palestinian land is mechanism is the use of an Ottoman and British accelerating at an astonishing speed. Political Mandate law that allows the state to confiscate land for maneuverings in Jerusalem have recently highlighted a “public purpose,” despite the fact that the areas seized this crisis as the Israeli government capitalizes on the have habitually been used by Palestinians for centuries US administration’s brazen disregard for international for grazing purposes.

2 3. The protests were mobilized under the leadership of the Committee for the Defense of Arab Lands, which had been established jointly by various student bodies, Abnaa el Balad, and the Communist Party. April 2018 April – practices that affirmPalestinian The ministry aims to consolidate thus 4 In the face of have Nakba, Palestinians this continuous long engaged in acts of termed what some writers have spatial resistance Bab al Shams and Ein Hijleh from across activists 250 Palestinian Approximately “village” ofPalestinian the established historic Palestine Israeli settlement near the illegal Jewish Bab al Shams, of 2013. The location of Ma’ale Adumim, in January land, for Palestinian owned the village on privately was permission received the owner. from the activists which The village also within the E1 corridor, the strip of was Bank in half. cuts the West land that effectively The erected some 25 tents to establish the activists an injunction from and despite receiving “village,” the High Court of the village’s blocked which Justice, the Israeli army forcibly removed eviction for six days, In spite of days. after only two the activists its short a form the villagelife, was of direct action that asserted of ownership Palestinian the land and challenged its ongoing al Shams also highlighted confiscation. Bab the Jerusalem presence in area. Palestinian relatively high concentration of high concentration relatively According Palestinians. Palestinian Galilee has a majority the estimates, to some population. Spaces of Resistance Palestinian on the land and challenge presence and continuity of initiatives Israeli colonization. There are various both past and ongoing, resistance, that incorporatesuch land re-appropriation and steadfastness: a contiguous Jewish presence while minimizing the presence while Jewish a contiguous the demonstrated by presence; this is Arab Palestinian ofdemolition Bedouin villages the basis that they on the state. by are “unrecognized” This appropriation of indigenousthe purpose space for of mechanisms such the settler population through expulsion, physical de jure annexation, as settlements, and denial of found in settler colonial land claims is is occurring it on In Palestine, over. projects the world both sides of and is part the Green Line, parcel of and or al Nakba al Nakba, continuous what is dubbed the mustimirrah. https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/downloads/briefing-paper/ attempts to gain more . of Palestinian land land Palestinian of to bring “growth and prosperity…as it is quite astonishing speed.” astonishing “The expropriation “The expropriation is accelerating at an an at accelerating is palestinians-in-israel-democracy.pdf 4. See Ben White’s report ‘Palestinians in Israel’s democracy: Judaising the Galilee’; democracy: Judaising report in Israel’s ‘Palestinians 4. See Ben White’s The Naqab and the Galilee are particular areas of concern for the Israeli government because of their Meanwhile, in the Naqab, the Israeli government is in the Naqab, Meanwhile, in 2011, Plan, developed implementing the Prawer Bedouin villages and to 35 Palestinian to destroy Israeli appropriate the land to build new Jewish settlements as part of of its Development the Negev Program. The Negev Program of is the brainchild the Ministry of for the Development the Negev and the Developing a successor to the aforementioned Galilee, the Galilee Program, whose land confiscation led to the protests in 1976. The ministryLand Day founded was in 2005 clear that the future of of Israel lies in the development these regions.” The is still Jerusalem postponed Greater bill (which to expand the municipal plans on the table) revealed boundaries of Jerusalem major to include four The major illegaland many smaller settlements. Betar Illit, Ze’ev, Adumim, Givat settlements – Ma’ale and Efrat – are part of from a bloc that stretches bill would the Jerusalem At the same time, to Hebron. neighborhoods from the certain Palestinian exclude including that of jurisdiction, Thiscity’s Aqab. Kufr gerrymandering of borders law and the consensus with regard the consensus and law to Jerusalem. to Aviv from Tel its embassy to move Its decision Jerusalem of de jure recognition is a de facto and the Israel has emboldened This capital. move city as Israel’s city. the over its complete control to cement into Palestinians land while at the same time squeezing In addition to the physical as little space as possible. conquering of attempt to these maneuvers space, on Jerusalem so that the entire city control the narrative becomes unquestionably part of Israel in mainstream international discourse.

Al-Shabaka Policy Brief 3 April 2018 April continuous Nakba.” continuous “In Palestine [land theft [land Palestine “In occurs] on both sides of bothoccurs] sides of on the Green Line…part and Line…part and the Green parcel of what is dubbed the dubbed is what of parcel Using the claim that the village is “unrecognized” and built on Israeli state land, attempts to displace the people of intensified in recent years. Al Araqib have the village destroyed Since 2010, Israeli authorities have usually using bulldozers to raze structures 120 times, residents who try to protect and riot police to remove As an “unrecognized” their homes with their bodies. village, it is also denied the most basic of services. Many of to neighboring moved residents have the some who remain and rebuild their yet there are towns, from the rubble. often using material salvaged houses, They to highlight frequently hold rallies and protests their struggle against displacement and land theft. across the Green Line a similar struggleJust is taking place in the village of Susiya, located in Area C south of Hebron. Shortly after establishing an land, the Israeli illegal settlement in 1983 on Susiya’s Israeli Independence Day under the motto of the motto under IndependenceIsraeli Day “Your to the Iqrith Similar independence Nakba.” is our of the March activism, reversing is a symbolic Return ofact of physical through the original displacement to the site ofreturning, albeit temporarily, destruction. The challenges also Zionist Independence the march of narrative Day a people “a land without a people for presence reassertingwithout a land” by Palestinian prior to 1948. Al Araqib and Susiya village Bedouin located in Al Araqib is a Palestinian Israeli centuries. existed for two the Naqab that has its residents in 1951 for “security” forces first displaced and Israel appropriated the land under the purposes, 45 families In the late 1990s, Land Acquisition Law. the Jewish returned to the land in an attempt to prevent on top ofNational Fund from planting a forest it. protest village 5 5. The village of also forbidden from returning residents were despite a High Court to the contrary. decision Birim is a similar case; the village’s Kufr Another initiative organizes Palestinians’ return organizes to Palestinians’ Another initiative The of March villages. destroyed has mainly Return where most of place in the Galilee, taken the internally held in it was years ago, Two live. displaced Palestinians place at a destroyed and this year it will take the Naqab, village for the Rights near Haifa. Since the Association of the Internally groups Displaced and other organized 1999, it has become a significant the first march It coincides with inside historic Palestine. event However, the decision was blocked by the military by blocked the decision was However, court, maintains that the residents’ return which The third and fourth be a risk to state security. would a steadfast presence generation in Iqrith keep activists set up an encampment in in the village and have an annex of This the village presence is church. maintained despite the military ruling and attempts the Israeli authorities to disruptby arresting them by and uprooting plants. structures, destroying activists, identity The presence asserts activists’ their Palestinian land is and challenges the notion that Palestinian Bank and Gaza Strip. limited to the West Since 2012, young activists have maintained a have activists Since 2012, young land at the site of presence on their physical continuous in village in the Galilee destroyed Iqrith, a Palestinian 1948. The of descendants families from the village are (“present absentees”), internally displaced Palestinians citizenship and meaning that while they hold Israeli from they are forbidden borders, reside within Israel’s returning to their pre-1948 villages and land. Iqrith is forces told case because in 1948 Zionist an unusual its residents that they could return after the fighting. not fulfilled, in 1951 Iqrith’s While this promise was them a High Court decision that allowed residents won to return. Iqrith and the March of Return The following year, the Palestinian Popular Struggle Popular Palestinian the The year, following established a Committee Coordination similar to Bab el Shams at the site of Bab el Shams at similar to Ein Hijleh, a Valley. village in the Jordan Palestinian destroyed managed to stay the activists in which week During the the cleared in the village, panels, installed solar they cultural activities. political and land, and held various the Israeli army dismantled forcibly days, After seven arrestedthe encampment, dozens of and activists, injured many more.

Al-Shabaka Policy Brief 4 that April 2018 April . Efforts be made to must South Africa following the dismantlement South Africa following a wealth ofa wealth documentation already exists Support submissions of reported to crimes war the International Court, Criminal as the such society civil Palestinian one submitted in 2017 by organizations. and formalDemand an extensive into Israeli probe Human the one called for by as such violations, in 2016. Rights Watch used a mechanism Institute and enforce sanctions – its annexation of for against Russia Crimea. would support them, including the UNCCP files, support them, including the UNCCP files, would and oral official Israeli state records, records, UNRWA testimonies. targetedWith such and organized Palestinians efforts, relentless seizure and their allies could obstruct Israel’s of land and secure policies in line with Palestinian in international rights as enshrined law. Palestinian Build cases for property and land restitution Property and land restitution and compensation are an essential part of any future reconciliation process, as seen in of the apartheid regime challenge Israeli property and land theft retroactively should that has occurred since 1948. Palestinians organize a mass effort and formulate to research their claims; Palestinians should also demand internationalalso demand should and third Palestinians as such party support these activities, and protection for anti-bulldozer barriersfunding Palestinian in vulnerable in invested International have actors who communities. has that Israel infrastructure communities in Palestinian compensation. demand financial should also destroyed be and projects must in communities Their investment and demolitions a condition to make coupled with such taxing for Israel. displacement financially Prevent further theft of land Palestinian Third international by states are bound humanitarian violations. all possible measures to suppress to use law The is clear that the displacement of law an occupied the occupier by population and settlement building international all Thus, mechanisms are violations. further appropriation and that can be used to prevent be mobilized. Theseannexation must include but are not limited to: • • • deny Palestinian deny Palestinian on the grounds of

spatial resistance” spatial

“[Three areas are key]to are areas “[Three

stop further incursions on on further incursions stop and build upon Palestinian Palestinian upon build and With popular support, initiatives that physically re-assert that physically With popular support,initiatives land could challenge presence on Israeli Palestinian domination of face challenges Palestinians Yet space. engaged Palestinians this, tackle of To sustainability. to link local in grassroots continue should activities struggles and call for coordination across the Green not only highlight the greater This Israeli would Line. also challenge Israel’s colonization project, but would definition of Palestine and who is what is considered considered Palestinian. Promote grassroots spatial resistance As discussed above, Palestinians have used many ways used many ways have Palestinians As discussed above, stop further incursions on To land theft. Israel’s to resist land and support and build upon Palestinian Palestinian effortsspatial resistance, in three areas deserve focus: Shoring up Palestinian Rights to the Land Rights Shoring up Palestinian As the Oslo Accords placed Area C under Israeli As the Oslo Accords placed Area military control, Israel is able to planning and building requests residents rebuild time Susiya’s each such, As security. they are served once againtheir homes, with demolition on thus far stayed residents have Susiya’s Yet orders. in the most basic conditions to do their land, living a campaign that has also established They have so. attracted the support of Both international activists. steadfastness, Al Araqib and Susiya are demonstrating yet their durability remains uncertain of in the context annexation. accelerating Israeli colonization and

governmentof homes the demolished The families. 60 Israeli demolished but in 2001 rebuilt nearby, residents a series Susiya has faced Since 2011 village. the entire ofto in an attempt the authorities by mass demolitions C. Area over total control Israel’s establish Palestinian land and support support and land Palestinian

Al-Shabaka Policy Brief 5 March 2018 March Al-Shabaka, The Palestinian Policy Network is Network Policy Al-Shabaka, The Palestinian an independent, non-partisan, and non-profit organization whose mission is to educate and human rights foster public debate on Palestinian and self-determination of within the framework be Al-Shabaka policy briefs may international law. reproduced with due attribution to Al-Shabaka, more For Network. Policy The Palestinian or contact information visit www.al-shabaka.org email: [email protected]. us by circulated with due be Al-Shabaka materials may Policy attribution to Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian The opinion ofNetwork. members of individual do not necessarily policy network Al-Shabaka’s reflect the views of the organization as a whole. is the Palestine Policy Fellow of Fellow Policy is the Palestine Yara Hawari Yara She Network. Policy Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian at Politics completed her PhD in Middle East ofthe University focused Her research Exeter. on oral history projects and memory politics, framed more widely within Indigenous Studies. undergraduate taught various courses at the Yara ofUniversity as a to work and continues Exeter freelance journalist, media publishing for various English, Middle East Al Jazeera including outlets, Eye and the Independent.

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