Following HaMoked petitions: Israeli military re-opened five Separation Wall gates to allow farmers entry into the Seam Zone

Since the start of the war in October 2023, the military has banned West Bank Palestinians with agricultural entry permits from entering the Seam Zone – i.e., West Bank areas trapped beyond the Separation Wall, in which Israel imposes a draconian permit regime. Following the first High Court petition HaMoked filed on this matter, in late November 2023, the State announced, among other things, that the ban would no longer apply to farmers cultivating labor-intensive, commercial crops  (hothouses and vegetables), who would receive “personal-needs permits in the appropriate cases and after individual consideration…”.

However, this exemption, which was to apply to a small minority of farmers, was not actually implemented, and so HaMoked began filing individual petitions to the Jerusalem Court of Administrative Affairs, in view of the severe and growing damage suffered by these farmers whom Israel prevented from accessing their untended plots. On June 16 2024, the State responded in three of these petitions that as of June 23, 2024, the entry of the petitioners would be allowed daily, two or three times a day, via Attil gate, one of the agricultural gates installed in the Separation Barrier.

Concurrently, in response to HaMoked’s renewed High Court petition to revoke the sweeping ban on the entry of farmers to their lands trapped inside the Seam Zone, the State announced on June 25, 2024, it had decided to gradually allow the entry of the small group of exempted farmers via the Attil, Shweika, Far’un, Falamy, and Habla-North gates, and that these gates would be opened two or three times per day. Thus, after over ten months that a sweeping ban was imposed, Israel has allowed a small number of farmers to return to their lands inside the Seam Zone in order to rehabilitate their plots – and their source of livelihood.

* Farmers reported to HaMoked that the Attil and Far’un gates have only re-opened Sunday to Thursday, but not on Fridays and Saturdays, thus preventing daily watering and care of crops, as required. This hampers their ability to restore their agribusinesses. Therefore, on July 16, 2024, HaMoked wrote to the military to demand these gates be opened 7 days a week.