REPORT: Agriculture as a means of land-grab
27 January 2014
From Kerem Navot’s report “Israeli Settlers’ Agriculture as a Means of Land Take-over in the West Bank”
The Zionist ideal of Jewish agriculture in the Land of Israel reached the occupied West Bank within months of the end of the 1967 War. Eventually, agriculture became a central means by which the settlement movement (with the overt or tacit approval and direct or indirect support of the state) staked a claim to and consolidated control over large areas of the West Bank. The first Israeli West-Bank settlers viewed agriculture as a means of solidifying Jewish settlement in the West Bank for three main reasons:
Ideological/ religious – Agricultural activity bolstered the claim that the Israeli settlement in so-called “Judea and Samaria” constituted a return to the “Land of the Fathers” and to the times when agriculture was a source of livelihood for the ancient Jewish communities in the region;
Economic – Agriculture was considered an economic base on which the first settlements could subsist and develop, though with time, agriculture became less significant as a source of livelihood for the settler population;
Territorial – Agricultural activity was a key means with which to expand the territory of the nascent settlement enterprise.
In recent years, there has been a significant growth in the area cultivated by Israeli settlers throughout the West Bank. Today, over 93,000 dunam of Israeli agricultural activity takes place in between the military posts, civilian outposts, settlements, and bypass roads in the West Bank. This area is much larger area than the actual built-up area of the settlements and outposts (which constitute about 60,000 dunam, not including the Israeli neighborhoods in East Jerusalem). Moreover, the most rapid growth in agricultural areas is occurring around settlements that were originally established as suburban communities and where no substantial agricultural activity took place in the past.
This activity is part of a widespread and well-funded strategy, whose explicit goal is to expand the territory controlled by Israeli settlers throughout Area C.
in full: http://rhr.org.il/eng/2014/01/report-agriculture-as-a-means-of-land-grab/