Despite court ruling, soldiers ban farmers from land

Despite the fact that an Israeli court had ruled in favor of Palestinian landowners against attempts by Jewish settlers to take their land, settlers, protected by soldiers, Wednesday prevented Palestinian farmers from reaching their agricultural land east of the town of Yatta, north of Hebron, under the pretext the land is an Israeli military area, according to a local activist. An Israeli court had issued a ruling last year ordering return of the land to its Palestinian owners. Ratib al-Jabour, coordinator of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements in southern Hebron, told WAFA that settlers from the Israeli settlement of Susiya prevented farmers from harvesting their land planted with wheat and barley. He said soldiers protected the settlers as they pushed the farmers out of their land in an attempt to force them to abandon their land in order to seize it for settlement expansion.