Agriculture is one of the most important elements of resistance that Palestinians have. In this new policy brief from Al-Shabaka, Vivien Sansour and Alaa Tartir explain the role of community in helping farmers stay on their land rather than submit to the industrial zones that will end their way of life and destroy their natural and economic resources.

Multiple attempts and policies to practically eliminate Palestinian farmers have been underway since the beginning of the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.

Today, Palestinian farmers face an additional threat: Land confiscation by the Palestinian Authority in order to build industrial zones with international sponsorship, claiming this will help farmers and create job opportunities.

Reports have warned that industrial zones – a tool of the traditional top down neoliberal development approach that is revered by international financial institutions – will bring benefits for Israeli businesses while destroying farming families and the most fertile stretches of land in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Palestinian civil society and non-governmental organizations have a special responsibility to act in defense of Palestinian farmers against the policies of both Israel and the “state” of Palestine.

Note by author: In the brief they examine farming communities near Jenin and Jericho. I have spent many days in the village of Al-Jalameh outside of Jenin, in the fertile Marj Ben Amer plain, the historical breadbasket of Palestine. I have talked to farmers who have lost their land and have seen with my own eyes the fertile land that has been taken from local farmers first by Israel confiscation and occupation and later by the PA for these sham industrial zones.

Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network. Read the entire brief here.