Palestinian farmers and Jewish settlers: Unlikely allies against extending separation barrier

Palestinian farmers in Wadi Fukin village near Bethlehem are living in fear of army plans to build a security fence through their community’s lands, a move they see as an economic death sentence.

“It is all people are talking about, all they are thinking about. People are asking, what is our future with this fence?” Ishaq, a middle-aged farmer, told The Jewish Independent.

He and a second farmer, Tariq, spoke inside a drab structure that lies along a twisting road past the village’s stucco houses. They are using pseudonyms out of fear of both the army and the Palestinian Authority.

Wadi Fukin, a village of about 1500 residents, is in a valley between the expanding illegal settlement of Beitar Ilit and the Jerusalem suburb of Tzur Hadassah, which is just inside Israel’s pre-1967 borders.

The village’s residents already felt boxed in, but now with the fence plan the feeling of being “jailed” is becoming even more acute, said the farmers.

“What really makes us afraid is the feeling that Israel does not want us to be here, that they just want Tzur Hadassah and Beitar Ilit,” Tariq said.

In late December, Major-General Yehuda Fuchs, who is in charge of Israeli troops in the West Bank, issued an order seizing 84 dunams of private property in the village for construction of a fence and a patrol road.

Left to their own devices, these Palestinians, who have no political rights under Israeli military rule, would have zero chance of stopping this project.

But they have an unlikely ally: Jewish settlers who also oppose the fence. The settlers view the new section of the fence as a dangerous precedent for a border that would deprive the Jewish people of the rest of the West Bank, which they refer to with the biblically-resonant term Judea and Samaria.

“We are against any separation fence. They say it’s a security fence but it’s actually a political fence that will create two states. It’s immoral to make political facts like this,” says Amichai Noam, deputy director of the Kfar Etzion field school, which is situated in a settlement.

Settlers opposing the fence enjoy the backing of ruling Likud party MK Ariel Kelner, who is calling for the Knesset foreign affairs and defence committee to discuss the project, claiming it will cut off settlements of the Etzion Bloc, south of Jerusalem, from Israel’s capital.

The IDF spokesman says the project is needed “to thwart terrorist attacks, strengthen defence and prevent illegal passage of infiltrators and weapons into Israel’s homeland.” It is part of an effort to fill in gaps in the West Bank separation barrier that were seen as security lacunas after a surge in Palestinian terrorist attacks in spring 2022, including a lethal shooting attack in a Tel Aviv pub and a hatchet onslaught in the ultra-orthodox community of Elad.

Wadi Fukin has faced settler vandalism, but the farmers stress they have not had any problems emanating from the field school, and blame settlers coming from more distant extremist communities. Etzion bloc settlers are considered to be moderate.

Some critics see a dark side to Israeli field schools in the West Bank, viewing them as part of an effort to sanitise and normalise the occupation by projecting an environmentalist and nature-loving colouring to a racist project.

But for Wadi Fukin Palestinians, the Kfar Etzion field school is now perhaps their main hope for stopping the threat to their water sources and pasture land.

"There’s a common interest with the settlers that there not be a fence and a road,” Tariq said. "These settlers are not crying for us. They don’t want a fence for their own reasons. But maybe this will help us. Settlers have power and can influence [things] more than us.”

If the fence goes ahead, 10 large families would lose access to pasture land and a system of irrigation canals used by the villages farmers could be destroyed. These losses would destroy the livelihoods of Palestinian families.

Environmentalists also see up to 4000 years of agricultural tradition hanging in the balance. Wadi Fukin is part of the same ecosystem as the nearby village of Battir, which is protected as a UNESCO world heritage site. EcoPeace Middle East is mounting a legal challenge to the fence project, as it successfully did to a barrier project in Battir 16 years ago.

“We’re not belittling the security concerns, but they can be met by other means,” says EcoPeace’s Israel director Gidon Bromberg. He stresses that cameras are used in Battir and sensors could also be considered for Wadi Fukin.

“We are talking about an example for humankind of how agriculture developed in a mountainous area. In the case of Wadi Fukin, it was by capturing the spring water through little dams and channelling the water from the dams to fields. Here we have an extension of the same territory as Battir and it should be equally protected,” Bromberg said.

“Building even a dirt road would disrupt the pathway of rainwater that recharges the springs and result in much less water being available, if not completely destroying the spring. That would take away the livelihoods of these farmers who maintain the cultural landscape. In other parts of the world, farmers are given extra money to maintain cultural heritage and here we destroy livelihoods and cultural heritage,” Bromberg said.

The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel has also weighed in, stressing among other things that a fence would block and further endanger land used by deer and other wildlife.

Neither the farmers nor the settlers believe that security is the real reason the army wants to extend the wall. “There are no security problems here,” Tariq said. “Maybe a few thieves pass through occasionally, but they are not from Wadi Fukin. It’s really just about taking our land.”

Noam, from the field school, believes the fence is a waste of money. “It’s the operations of the army, the police and the Shin Bet inside Judea and Samaria that provide security. The fence is the golden calf of Israeli security.”

Noam paints a nearly idyllic picture of the status quo in the area the army is setting its sights on. “What’s happening today is that it’s basically a joint Jewish-Palestinian park,” he says. “No one directs it, but Palestinians work in the fields and Jews come for tourism every day and respect the Palestinians. People meet and good things happen there and there is vast tourism potential.

“I would want the nature to be safeguarded, the tourist paths to be completed and the farmers to be supported to continue being traditional agriculturalists because this is something that can’t be taken for granted since it isn’t economical,” he said.

When Noam recently organised a protest tour to the fence vicinity, he invited Wadi Fukin farmers. But they stayed away, unwilling to be associated with the settlers.

The IDF spokesman’s office did not reply when asked for its response to concerns by Wadi Fukin Palestinians that they would be economically devastated by the fence.

But the army stressed the issue of animal crossing would be addressed in choosing the fence route.

“The IDF is aware and working to preserve nature, therefore the constructions are done in cooperation and examination with all relevant parties as well as environmental organisations,” the IDF statement said.

Tsvia Horesh, a music therapist from Tsur Hadassah who has helped Wadi Fukin farmers over many years, said the army’s response was telling. “It’s not surprising, but it’s very sad that that’s the situation, that the animals are more important than the people.”

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Photo: A Palestinian farmer with children in Wadi Fukin (Wikimedia)