Yousef on his farm in Abasan.
Yousef Shaheen (34) owns a wheat farm in Abasan Village, east of Khan
Younis. On Friday, 1 June 2012, at
around 6:30 in the morning, Yousef got a phone call from a friend saying that part
of his wheat farm had caught fire after one of Israel’s apache’s had fired at
the land: “I rushed to the farm and found Israeli tanks on site, so I could not
do anything about it.”
This is just one of the latest incidents in a series of land razing
incursions conducted by Israeli forces, as part of their illegal policy in
relation to the so-called ‘buffer zone’ along the border between Israel and the
Gaza Strip. The exact areas designated
by Israel as a buffer zone is unknown, but, in May 2009, Israel announced that
the buffer zone would extend 300
meters from the border between Israel and the Gaza
strip, extending into the Gaza Strip. In
reality, however, it can extend up to 2 kilometers. This makes life for Gazans very difficult, as
the width of the Gaza Strip is only about 5 kilometers at its
narrowest point. Incursions into the
buffer zone typically take the form of land leveling using bulldozers or aerial
attacks. Israel’s policy is also
frequently enforced with live fire; as stated by Yousef, “before bulldozing
farms, they open extensive fire without warning. If there are people around, some die and some
are injured.”
At the time of the attack on 1 June, Yousef was at home with his wife
and their 3 children preparing to go to the farm. Their wheat farm consists of 17 dunnums and lies
roughly 500 meters
from the border fence. 7 dunnums out of
the 17 were burnt in the Friday incident. The value of losses incurred is
estimated to be USD $5,500: “This is my land whether it is 500 meters from the
fence or 2 meters
from it. I have earned my living from
this land for 20 years and I will not abandon it.” Yousef further indicates that Gazan civil
defense forces arrived at 7:30 am to put out the fire, but could not proceed
without ICRC coordination with Israeli forces. It was not until later on, at approximately 11
am, that the fire was finally put out.
Yousef points out that this is not the first incursion on his land: “My
land has been bulldozed around 15 times. In early 2009, one of my workers was shot and
killed and another was injured.” He also
had a well and water tank on the farm at one point, both of which were
destroyed in earlier incidents: “If I choose to leave, my land will be turned
into a closed military area, but my presence and that of other farmers makes it
harder for this to happen. I would
rather stay and face the confrontations.”
Yousef is not the only farmer whose life was been devastated by Israel’s
latest attack. In the Friday incident, farmland
and bundles of gathered wheat belonging to neighboring farmers were also burnt,
though Yousef was not sure what the extent is of the total damage from the 1
June 2012 attack.
“It took me six months to prepare
this wheat for harvest and now I have all these losses,” says Yousef, as he
points at a cloud of black ash being swept across the farm by the wind: “I only
have experience in farming. If I leave,
what else will I do? How will I support
my family? This land was left to me by
my father, and it belonged to my grandfather. I will also leave it to my children when I
die.”
The direct targeting of a civilian object
constitutes a war crime, as codified in Article 8(2) (b) (ii) of the Rome
Statute of the International Criminal Court. Similarly, under the Fourth Geneva Convention
Article 53, the destruction of private property is prohibited unless rendered
absolutely necessary by military operations. The subsequent enforcement against private
property in the buffer zone results in Palestinians being unable to use the property
necessary for the production of food, violating numerous human rights
provisions, including the right to adequate food contained in Article 6 of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
To see a video narrative given by Yousef Shaheen please click here.
