Israeli security wall disrupts Palestinian farmers in northern town

Published: 2004-01-27

FALAMYEH, West Bank (CNS) -- Firas Shahwan's family has sent his four younger siblings to college with money earned working three acres of land. Now 1.25 acres of the land lie buried underneath Israel's security barrier, which separates Shahwan from the remainder of the farm. The barrier also separates other village farmers from their land. The barrier, which in this area is made up of parallel electric and barbed-wire fences with a dirt road running between them, has gates through which Israeli military allow Palestinians to pass. On a sunny day in late January, Shahwan sat on his tractor, waiting with another dozen farmers for Israeli soldiers to open a gate so they could get to their land. The barrier also has separated Falamyeh farmland from its irrigation source, a well on the village's side of the fence. Some 36 other underground wells in the northern Qalqilyah district have been affected by the fence, said Abdullatif Khaled, 38, a senior groundwater hydrologist with the Palestinian Hydrology Group in nearby Jayous. In other areas underground pipes have been damaged by the construction of the fence, Khaled said.

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