The Land-Grab Competition in Judea/Samaria

The Land-Grab Competition in Judea/Samaria
February 17, 2011
by Hillel Fendel, Israelnationalnews.com

(Israelnationalnews.com) IDF Central Command officers ­ whose
jurisdiction includes Judea and Samaria ­ say that in the coming
months, Arabs will step up their efforts to take over lands in the
region. Similarly, they predict, land disputes will occur more
frequently ­ and all this, the Arabs hope, will help them grab more
land for the state they would like to unilaterally establish later
this year.

Correspondent Haggai Huberman reports that army officers describe the
situation as a “competition” between Jews and Arabs as to who can grab
more land. The PA is reportedly making efforts in many directions to
prepare for the establishment of a state ­ including fighting
terrorism, building their infrastructures and institutions, and
cracking down on law and order.

Jews Fight Back, Despite Odds
The land-grab competition cards are stacked against the Jews, for
Arabs build wherever they want with barely any fear that their
construction will be considered illegal, and even less concern that it
will be razed. Despite this, Jews are fighting back where they can. In
the Shomron (Samaria) and Binyamin, efforts are being made to save
Jewish state-owned lands, though the organizers do not wish to discuss
them in detail. "Suffice it to say that we are saving thousands of
dunams throughout the Shomron," one source said, "firstly by
protecting against Arab infiltration, and secondly via Jewish
farming."

In Gush Etzion, Women in Green has succeeded on its own in redeeming
40 dunams (10 acres) of land in Netzer, between Alon Shvut and Elazar
­ and has plans to redeem another 70. “But the problem is, of course,
money,” says Nadia Matar, co-organizer of the efforts.

“In 2008,” she told Israel National News, “[PA chairman] Mahmoud Abbas
publicized his plan to take over all of Judea and Samaria by planting
a million saplings. A year and a half later, [PA prime minister Salam]
Fayyad said they would plant ten million. A few days ago, Aaron Lerner
of IMRA disseminated a speech by Fayyad in Tul Karem in which he said
straight out that the war at present is for Area C.”  [Area C, as
defined by the Oslo Accords, is the area of Judea and Samaria that
remains under total Israeli control; Area A is under total PA control,
and Area B is controlled militarily by Israel and administratively by
the PA.]

Fayyad also called in his speech for increased Arab farming of these
areas, “as well as international help with the specific purpose of
creating a state of Palestine, Heaven forbid,” Matar said.

“We have been fighting this fight in Netzer for the past two years,”
she added, “and we call on everyone to save all State-lands in Area C
that have not yet been stolen by the Arabs. We have many people who
want to help, including from the Galilee, but this work needs to be
funded ­ tractor work to clear the area, planting, connecting to
water, etc. Every dunam [quarter-acre] costs $3,000 a year for water,
upkeep, saplings, tractors, and the like... Most of the lands that are
still available ­ that have not yet been stolen by the Arabs - are in
mountainous areas, and much tractor work is necessary to straighten
it.”

“This is work that the government should be doing ­ saving State-owned
lands for the future of the Jewish People. But in the meanwhile, we
have to depend on good Jews to help fund us.”

"Every town and community should get a map of the State-owned lands in
their area," Matar says, "and should organize themselves, go out,
guard the area, plant it, and then work the land. Otherwise, Heaven
forbid, our Jewish areas will become isolated enclaves and we will be
choked in a sea of Arabs. We have to recognize our power to change
reality; we can do it!”