Israeli Violations of Agricultural Land in the Gaza Strip 1948-2019: A Study in urban Planning and Land use

The Israeli occupation of Palestine in 1948 is considered one of the most dangerous occupations in history. Since the establishment of the Israeli occupation state, it has systematically carried out different kinds of attacks and violations of the Palestinians' lands in general, and the land of peasants in the Gaza Strip in particular. This study sheds light on the Israeli attacks targeting the agricultural land in the Gaza Strip between the years 1948-2012. First, it discusses the geographical features of the Gaza Strip, and then it historically traces the Israeli attacks against the lands of the Palestinians in the Strip from 1948 to 2019. Third, the study describes the methods used by Israel in carrying out its violations of agricultural lands. The study also discusses the challenges facing Palestinian farmers, particularly razing their lands by Israeli army bulldozers in addition to the problem of water shortage and salinity. The study further details the Israeli strategies to destroy the agricultural sector in the Gaza Strip, the results of Israeli violations on agricultural lands, and the obstacles facing farmers due to these attacks. The study concludes that the Israeli attacks have resulted in impeding the growth of the agricultural sector and that Israel has put in place several policies to seize control of the agricultural lands in the Gaza Strip. The study recommends developing agricultural policies to reflect Palestinian needs and priorities, pay due attention to livestock production, and develop the transport, water and electricity infrastructure so as to improve agricultural production in the Gaza Strip.


I. INTRODUCTION
Highlight Since its establishment in 1948, the Israeli occupation state has systematically carried out various kinds of aggressions and violations of the Palestinians' lands in general, and the land of peasants in the Gaza Strip in particular. These violations are part of an overall Israeli strategy aiming at consolidating Jewish Zionist presence in as much of historic Palestine as possible and to leave the Palestinian people on as little of the land. Israel is primarily a colonial state built on Palestinian land and imposed by military force in violation of numerous United Nations resolutions. Hence the existence of the Zionist state has required adopting all kinds of oppressive practices and violations to buttress its occupation.
Violating the rights of the Palestinian farmers is obviously one of the pillars of the ongoing military occupation. These violations have been a main cause of pain and suffering for Palestinian farmers. Therefore, it is of crucial importance that we address this problem and show the facts and realities relating to the Palestinian rights generally and the Palestinian farmers particularly. Numerous United Nations resolutions along with human rights reports and nongovernmental organizations amply criticized the illegal Israeli practices toward the rights and property of the Palestinians in general including the farmers in the Gaza Strip.
Therefore, the present study highlights the significance of one of the most serious issues in the Zionist-Palestinian conflict, which has recently been heightened during the last military offensives on Gaza, from geographical and human rights viewpoints. It aims to expose the Israeli policies targeting the rights of the Palestinian farmers and highlight the impact of such policies on the agricultural sector in the Gaza Strip.

II. METHODOLOGY
The study aimed to answer the following questions: 1 To answer the study questions, the researcher used a historical approach to trace the escalation of the Israeli violations against the Palestinian farmers in the Gaza Strip. Next, he adopted a descriptive approach to show the results of these ongoing violations and finally he took an objective approach to explain the Israeli measures actions against the Palestinians farmers.

III. THE GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES OF THE GAZA STRIP
1) The Gaza Strip is an enclave territory of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It was named so as a military term, and not as a distinct geographical province, after signing the Egyptian-Israeli armistice agreement in 1949 following the 1948 War. It is part of the Palestinian coastal plain characterized by its topography and climate (1).
2) The rectangular-shape strip is about 45 km long that extends from the north to the south, and between 6-12 km wide from east to west, with an area of 360 km². It is located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea that borders Egypt from the southwest, and the Occupied Palestinian Territories of 1948 on the east and north. This has given the Gaza Strip an important geographical location throughout the ages.
3) The Strip's terrain is generally flat, about 20-40 meters above sea level. In some locations, it reaches 85 meters at Tal Al-Muntar area to the east of Gaza City and about 70 meters near Beit Hanoun in the north. Gaza Valley dissects the Strip from the south of Gaza City. This is also important in that this belt is one of the major areas for supplying the aquifers with nearly 60% of Gaza's underground water.
The Gaza Strip has a Mediterranean climate, although it is affected by semi-desert climate prevailing in the north of the Sinai Peninsula, and it is generally characterized by moderate climate as the average annual temperature is 20°C, and the amount of rainfall reaches a rate of 374 mm.   • Source: Ministry of Agriculture 2008.
• Table 4 shows the total number of the uprooted trees in the Palestinian territories which about 2129716 trees including 5.9% olive, 3.7% palm trees, 65% citrus, 9% almond, 1.2% grapes and 15% fruits and 0.6% forest trees. From the above it is clear that there is a fierce war on citrus, which is the only competitor to Israel's citrus production (7).
•  Table 5).  Source: Analysis of the researchers based on the geological data of the US Geological Survey.

Israeli violations against the Palestinian farmers after 2012 Israeli military offensive on Gaza
According to a report ( The report also observes that hundreds of Palestinians were displaced from their lands near the Israeli borders and hundreds of houses and thousands of agricultural donums were demolished and razed to the ground under alleged security reasons (see picture 2). Finally, it warns of the ongoing confiscation by Israeli occupation forces of the right to life and security of the Palestinians, especially those living in the border areas in the east and the north.
The excessive use of force is one of the cornerstones of the Israeli strategy to perpetuate its military occupation, which is based on the principle of full readiness and possessing large force as powerful deterrent to protect Israel and prevent carrying out any military action against it. The use of force this is often called Israel's "punish and deter" strategy. Here you are some examples: The use of threat to impose conditions of temporary mutual adjustment with the aim of addressing its demands and conditions. Following the "limited reprisals" policy that embodies the practical implementation of the concept of military threat and moving from the dormancy stage to the actions stage. It also embodies the idea of having the adequate amount of force to take revenge on their opponents.
• Israel is constantly trying to permanently acquire the most highly sophisticated weapons and to achieve qualitative and quantitative superiority in military power. • Raising the level of combat readiness through increasing the level of leadership quality, organizing the armed forces and transforming the economy in favor of the military effort. • Finding the necessary pretexts for the use of force against the Palestinian farmers by deliberately misleading and falsifying facts and evidence in order to evade its responsibilities before the international community. • Exaggerating the threats and losses caused by some incidents taking place in Israel or on the borders with the Gaza Strip, linking it to the security and safety of Israel. Israel, in that regard, often fabricates incidents so that they can easily create and influence the international public opinion to rationalize their crimes and aggressions against Palestinians. • Israel is always trying to depict the Gaza Strip as the side which wages the war first, and Israel retaliates in self-defense against the Palestinian aggression. That is how Israel justified its wars on Gaza in 2008 a Recommendations: • It is necessary to accomplish many procedures to remedy the damage to the agricultural sector and to repair and rehabilitate agricultural lands and facilities in order to keep the development of agriculture on the right track for the Palestinian development priorities. This requires the following: • Reconsideration of the national policies to reflect the Palestinian needs, realities and priorities, especially since many donor countries, institutions and funds, on top of which is the World Bank, have begun to reconsider agriculture as a top priority. • Modernizing and developing the agricultural policy and the operational program and adopting it as a mandatory framework and reference, particularly in light of the significant rise in the prices of Israeli products. • Reconsideration of the ways the mechanisms of action are coordinated, and the allocation of aid, support and funding by private national institutions and donor countries to rehabilitate cultivate agricultural land and damaged facilities. • The need to form groups to supporting the agricultural sector groups in order to attract more internal and external support. • Paying due attention to livestock production by providing veterinary and health services and improving animal breeds in terms of productivity and disease resistance, and the provision of green and concentrated feed and pasture. In addition, farmers should be encouraged to invest in this area by facilitating the establishment of barns for livestock production. • It is necessary to improve the transport, water and electricity infrastructure so as to improve agricultural production and its contribution to cover the local food needs as well as exporting surplus, especially in the peak productive seasons, for example, Olive oil.