Agricultural Development in the West Bank (ص 60)

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Agricultural Development in the West Bank (ص 60)

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tion lies at
addition to its economic significance, the land ques’
the heart of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
i absorbtion
It is evident that Israel is working towards eventual
of all West Bank land within its borders as part of Eretz Israel.
The evidence in this regard is overwhelming. A particularly
dramatic document is the newly released "confidential" Droblis
Plan which calls for the addition of 46 settlements (16,000 families)
in the west Bank at the cost of IL 32 billions (see map on next
Page for the cluster grouping of existing and suggested settlements).
It is clear from this map that Israel's settlement policy is
Motivated more by annexation hopes rather than by the claimed
security hazards.*
Qnversely, Palestinians consider their sovereignity on the West
Bank and Gaza Strip as the minimum that they might agree to in the
context of a political settlement.* With Israel having control of
the occupied territories since 1967, it has been concerned with
realising its long-term aims. This section discusses some of the
measures employed in this regard and their ramifications on the
West Bank agriculture.
Post-occupation trends in land use
Analysis of secular trends in land use reveals that significant
transformations have taken Place since 1967, Table (III-3)
Presents a summary of these trends as derived from Israeli
Statistics,
(i rnemerennneniia
1,
Jerusalem Post, May 8, 1981, p 1.
10
A particularly worrying fact for Palestinians in the vest
Bank,
where de facto land use is more Powerful than legal claims, is
to see that less than one third of its land area is under
cultivation. Still worse, Table (111-3) indicates a drop of
some 50,000 donums in the area under cultivation during 1966-78.
In fact the actual drop in area under active cultivation is
certainly many times larger, since official figures make no
reference to vast areas of deserted tree orchards which, nominally,
are still in production.
Table (III-3)
Trends in land use, 1966-1978
(thousand donums)
19681978
Total area $572 5572
Uncultivated for all reasons 3889 3937
% of all are 69.8 70.7
Area under actual cultivation 1683 1635
% of total area 30.2 29.3
Area under irrigation 5? 90
% of cultivated area 3.3 5.5
Source: Mose Levi, Judea and Samaria Agriculture, (Beit
Fil: Department of Agriculture in the Military
Administration, 1978), p 8.
Surprisingly, Table (III-3) shows a rise of 55 percent in the area
Under irrigation. Although there is no accurate data, the
researcher belicves that, based on his own field work, the
Physical area under irrigation has probably stayed about the same.
The drop in area caused by the decline in the number of artesian
Wells and closure of large stretches in the Jordan valley is just

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Agricultural Development in the West Bank

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المنشئ

Hisham Masoud Awartani

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