Palestinian farmer Daoud Nassar has been fighting for his farm near Bethlehem for decades
"We grow grapes, olives, figs and almonds here," farmer Daoud Nassar proudly says while watering a newly planted olive tree. The farm of about 42 hectares lies on a hill southwest of Bethlehem, in the so-called Area C of the occupied West Bank that is under Israeli control.
According to human rights organizations and the UN, Israel is taking more and more Palestinian land. Earlier this year, the government introduced new plans to make land in Area C that is not officially registered available to the Israeli state. Many Palestinian residents cannot prove that the land is theirs because they never registered their land.
Daoud Nassar, on the other hand, does have the ownership papers for his land but has been involved in legal battles for 35 years to register his land. "We are the owners," Daoud says. "But we feel like refugees on our own land."
Ownership deed
Daoud's grandfather bought the piece of land over 100 years ago and registered it with the Ottoman authorities, who governed the region at the time. The family also has an ownership deed from the British mandate period and documents from the time when Jordan ruled the area.
Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel has occupied the West Bank. The military authorities declared the Nassar family's land state land in 1991.
Daoud has now traded the jerrycans of water for a spot in the shade a bit further away. "We have all the papers," he says. "Yet it has not succeeded to re-register the land with the Israeli authorities."
'Expanding settlements'
Half an hour's drive away, in East Jerusalem, lawyer Sani Khoury has his office. He represents the Nassar family. He pulls a black archive folder from a messy cabinet and takes out a yellowed document. "These are the British registration deeds from 1924 and 1925, proof that the Nassar family owns the land," he says while placing the two documents on the table. They are copies of the original.
Khoury explains that in the translation from Arabic to English, one of the names of the land boundaries was incorrectly transcribed. According to him, that is the argument used by the Israeli authorities to invalidate the ownership papers.
Nevertheless, the Israeli Supreme Court declared in 2006 that the land is not state land and that the Nassar family must re-register it. But Daoud has not succeeded in doing so to this day.
According to Khoury, the reason is clear. "I do not want to go too much into politics, but Israel's policy is of course aimed at expanding the settlements. And there is a settlement near the farm they want to expand, and therefore they want to take over Daoud's estate."
Daoud's farm is indeed surrounded by settlements and outposts, which are illegal under international law. One of those outposts lies directly next to the farm's fence. It started a few years ago with two mobile homes. Nowadays, there are about 25, estimates Daoud.
Military purposes
According to Daoud, the settlers have also built unpaved roads on his land, further down in the valley. Here too, Daoud and his lawyer have gone to court.
According to Daoud and his lawyer, Israel has now designated the road as a military road. According to lawyer Sani Khoury, this is a bigger problem than the lack of registration.
"The army can seize land if they invoke security," he explains. "So even if Daoud manages to register the land, they can take it on security grounds."
The Israeli organization Peace Now also writes in a recent report that such orders are used, among other things, to legalize roads to settlements and outposts retroactively.
Daoud is aware of this but remains determined to register his land. "The struggle is of course not over yet, but it would be a step in the right direction, after 35 years."
Israeli response
NOS asked Cogat, the Israeli government agency responsible for the occupied territories, about the ownership of the land, the ongoing lawsuits and the constructed road, including the exact coordinates of the location.
In a response, Cogat states: "The constructions referred to in your request were built in violation of the law on land subject to a military order signed by the military commander prohibiting construction activities. Therefore, enforcement procedures are being carried out."
COGAT does not further elaborate on the constructed road or the enforcement procedures. Questions about the ownership of the land and the ongoing lawsuits remain unanswered.