01-07 October 2012 - orsam

Farming Under Occupation
Beit Ummar used to be known as the fruit basket of Palestine.
Nestled in the Hebron Mountains, the old Beit Ummar was covered in olive orchards and trees
bearing brightly colored lemons, plums and dates. Lush, leafy vineyards wound their way through the
meandering mountain roads, bearing robust grapes often used for the stuffed grape leaves or sweet
grape syrup that the region is renowned for.
The orchards and vineyards are still there, but they are no longer vibrant with color. Like a
photograph that has been leached of its saturation, the once abundant orchards and fruit trees bursting
with hues of bright yellows, rich reds and warm, deep purples are now ragged, parched and covered
in dust.
Just across the way, a similar farm doesn't appear to have these problems. The leaves of the trees are
still lush and green as the branches hang heavily with fruit. Signs of thirst or stress from the dry,
desert climate are absent.
But this farm isn't Palestinian. It's Israeli—and the people who will reap this harvest are not
Palestinians, but Jewish settlers in the neighboring Israeli Settlement Karni Tzur.
Unlike the Palestinian farmers, these Israeli farmers have access to the necessary water resources to
irrigate their crops. While state-of-the-art irrigation technology nourishes these crops, and ensures
their abundance and profitability, Palestinians must rely solely on inconsistent rainwater for
irrigation. This is because Israel, not Palestine, controls the vast majority of water resources in the
West Bank.
Ironically, the political enabler for the Israeli control of Palestinian resources is written into the
alleged Peace Process. Since the Oslo Accords in 1993, Israel/Palestine has been administratively
divided into three sections. Most of the farmland and water resources of the West Bank fall under
Area C—meaning that the Israeli Defense Force maintains complete control of the land and
resources, despite the fact that they are in the West Bank, meaning that these resources are
technically Palestinian.
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