HaMoked to the HCJ: Palestinian farmers must be allowed to harvest their olives inside the Seam Zone; the State must not be allowed to delay until “after the holidays” and focus on the exceptions rather than the rule

Since the outbreak of the war in October 2023, for almost a year now, the military has barred access to nearly all Palestinian farmlands beyond the Separation Barrier. West Bank Palestinians are being denied access to their own lands trapped inside the Seam Zone enclaves – inside the West Bank, between the Separation Barrier and the Green Line Border – contrary to the State’s undertaking before the High Court of Justice (HCJ) over a decade ago and in protracted and disproportionate violation of their rights to property, livelihood and freedom of movement inside their own country. The ban is based on a sweeping security claim, although these are people who, on the eve of the war, held permits to enter the Seam Zone for agricultural purposes, after undergoing all of the necessary individual security checks. With the olive harvest beginning in October – the most important event of Palestinian agriculture and a source of livelihood for tens of thousands of families - these farmers face the very real fear that they will be denied access to their olive groves in the Seam Zone and lose an entire year’s crop. 

While HaMoked’s renewed petition focuses on the illegality of this sweeping ban and the violation of the rights of tens of thousands of people, the State’s response focuses on the exceptions rather than the rule. The State has repeatedly updated the Court on the implementation of the plan announced in its response to HaMoked’s first petition in the matter, to allow access to some 500 farmers who crops require daily cultivation and whose access is arranged via 5 out of the dozens of agricultural gates installed in the Separation Barrier. On the basis of this “changed circumstance” the State argued that the petition should be dismissed. 

In its response of July 2, 2024, HaMoked clarified that it stood by its demand to re-allow the entry of all farmers into the Seam Zone and not merely those who cultivate their lands daily. However, yet again, in its September 5, 2024 response, the State ignored the petition’s main demand and announced that after the Jewish High holidays, it would consider opening five more gates, over which matter it requested to update the Court after the holidays, in mid-November 2024.  

Therefore, in a response of September 22, 2024, HaMoked clarified that it sees no point in the submission of yet another State response dealing with the putative opening of a few more gates, as this would constitute a needless delay in the review of the petition. HaMoked argued that the State continued with the sweeping ban policy and misdirecting the proceedings to the minor issue of the opening of a small number of gates – through which, only a negligible number of farmers would be allowed to enter the Seam Zone, as indicated, among other things, by information HaMoked received from the head of the Palestinian DCO. HaMoked stressed the urgency in allowing as soon as possible the entry of thousands of farmers who own olive groves for the current harvest season and that the proceedings must not be delayed until November 2024, as sought by the State. 

The Court ordered the State to submit a response by September 29, 2024.