Among the hills in the valley southeast of Nablus lives a community of around 28,000 Palestinians, residents of the small towns of Beit Furik and Beit Dajan. The area can be accessed through a single checkpoint, often manned not just by the Israeli army but also by settlers. Both towns are surrounded by settlements: the three largest rise on the surrounding hilltops, interspersed with military outposts. At least three other, smaller settlements made up of mobile homes have also sprung up without warning, sometimes just a few hundred meters from Palestinian houses.
The area is divided according to the Oslo Accords: the urban centers fall under Area A, part of the agricultural land under Area B, and most of the territory under Area C. The latter area, covering roughly 16,000 dunams (1,600 hectares), has been entirely seized by settlers and the military since October 7, 2023, depriving Palestinian communities of most of their farmable land.
“Israel has an internal law according to which if Palestinian land is not cultivated for more than ten years, it’s declared state land and confiscated. The problem is that settlers often prevent us from reaching it for long periods of time, so it remains uncultivated not by our choice,” explains Fares Nasasrah, mayor of Beit Furik. “Very often they don’t even respect the ten-year deadline, or they don’t consider animal grazing as a legitimate use of the land,” he adds.
This was the fate of Area C, which included the surrounding hills where shepherds used to graze their flocks and collect akoub, a wild plant used in traditional Palestinian cuisine. Beyond losing their main source of subsistence, over the past two years the towns have also lost jobs: thousands of residents who previously worked in Israel are no longer allowed to enter the Jewish state.
To endure, the municipal council created a circular economy system based on cultivating fields that were previously used only for seasonal harvests, such as wheat,…
Auteur: Annaflavia Merluzzi
