RAMALLAH, Monday, August 12, 2019 (WAFA) – Israeli forces ordered the closure of an agricultural road in Umm Safa village, located to the northwest of Ramallah.
Head of Umm Safa Village Council Marwan Sabbah told WAFA that he received a notification from Israeli military informing him that an agricultural road that was opened with support from the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture will be closed.
The road, which extends for 2.5 kilometers, is used by local farmers to access their olive orchards which cover an estimated area of 2,000 dunums.
Under the Oslo Accords, an agreement made 25 years ago as the first step towards self-governing Palestinian state alongside Israel. the Palestinian Authority was given ed control over 16 percent of the village’s total area, classified as Area B, while Israel maintained control over the remainder 84 percent, which is classified as C Area.
Sabbah added that Israel has been banning any Palestinian construction and land reclamation in Area C, including the renovation of the local cemetery.
Israeli refuses to permit virtually any Palestinian construction in Area C, which constitutes 60 percent of the occupied West Bank and falls under full Israeli military rule, forcing residents to build without obtaining rarely-granted permits to provide shelters for their families.
In contrast, Israel much more easily gives the estimated 550,000 Jewish Israeli settlers there building permits and provides them with roads, electricity, water and sewage systems that remain inaccessible to many neighboring Palestinians.
K.F.
