In 1916, Daher Nassar, a Christian Palestinian farmer living south of Bethlehem, made a move considered more than unusual at the time. He bought a 42-hectare stretch of farmland on the slopes and valleys of Wadi Salem, and formally registered the purchase with the Ottoman authorities, who then ruled the region.<\/p>\n
A few years later, after transferring the title to his son, Nassar did something even more extraordinary. He re-registered the deed under each successive administration \u2013 the British mandate, then the Jordanian government, and finally, after 1967, under Israeli occupation.<\/p>\n
Today, that ageing, yellowing document is one of the family\u2019s few shields against the loss of their land \u2013 a plot that lies near the town of Nahalin in the so-called Area C of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, coveted by settlers and by far-right Israeli ministers<\/a> eager to see it annexed. In 1991, the Israeli authorities began a legal battle to declare the Nassar family\u2019s farm Israeli \u201cstate land\u201d, a precursor to claiming it for occupation.<\/p>\n A map of the West Bank.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI received this land as a gift,\u201d says Daoud Nassar, 55, Daher\u2019s grandchild, who now owns the farm with his family. \u201cMy grandfather gave it to my father, who gave it to me and to my brothers and sisters, and we intend to pass it on to our children, and to their children after them. For us Palestinians, the land is a gift \u2013 and a gift cannot be sold or given away.\u201d<\/p>\n Nestled in the olive-clad hills of the Judean desert, the Nassar farm survives without direct access to water or electricity \u2013 both were cut off by Israeli settlers in 1991 \u2013 with the family living partly in underground natural caves. It is the only place they are able to live, because since 1967 when the land was designed part of Area C, under full Israeli military and civil control, any structure \u2013 permanent or temporary \u2013 requires an Israeli permit. Almost none are granted.<\/p>\n In this way, the family resists Israeli occupation while hemmed in by five illegal settler outposts \u2013 one built right up against its boundary \u2013 and locked in a 34-year legal battle with the army, forced to water each olive tree by hand, carrying two glasses of water at a time.<\/p>\n To date, the legal battle between the Nassar family and the Israeli government is one of the longest-running cases in the history of the West Bank<\/a>, and the longest among those still pending.<\/p>\n \u201cUnder Ottoman reign, Palestinian farmers and land owners did not register many of the lands, or reported reduced areas in order to avoid taxes, relying instead on oral traditions and local village records,\u201d says Sliman Shaheen, a legal expert in land-related and demolition cases in the West Bank, who provides consultations to human rights organisations.<\/p>\n \u201cThe central regime was not very strict in supervising the accuracy of the reported areas and was interested mainly in collecting tax by expanding agricultural land thus allowing for more tax collection.\u201d<\/p>\n As a result, Israel used the absence of such continuous registration to classify land as \u201cstate land\u201d and take control of it, especially in Area C of the West Bank.<\/p>\n An international volunteer works on the Nassar family\u2019s farm. Photograph: Alessio Mamo\/The Guardian<\/p>\n \u201cIn the start of the 1980s the Israeli authorities started to use \u2018state land\u2019 declarations, in which above 900,000 donams (about 900 sq km) of lands were confiscated as state lands, under the commissioner of the governmental property,\u201d says Shaheen. \u201cOfficial data obtained from the Civil Administration through freedom of information requests, show that only 0.7%<\/a> from state lands were allocated to Palestinians, while 37% of these lands were allocated to settlers.\u201d<\/p>\n Shaheen says the few Palestinians who brought cases before the objections committee \u2013 a military-run body that hears appeals against planning decisions \u2013 encountered an unfair process, with hearings conducted by IDF judges and no Palestinian representation.<\/p>\n Although the Nassar family had duly registered their land, in 1991 they were served with a notice from Israeli authorities declaring the farmland \u201cstate land\u201d, making it vulnerable to occupation.<\/p>\n \u201cSince then, we started a legal battle, which is still ongoing,\u201d says Nassar. \u201cWe spent decades in front of a military court and years in front of the supreme court. We have registration documents from 1916 during the British mandate period. And then the Jordanian period and then even after 1967, after Israel occupied the West Bank. And ruling after ruling, the Israeli army is still appealing and asking us to re-register the land year after year.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDaoud\u2019s case is unique,\u201d says Shaheen. \u201cIf someone has a Jordanian tabu [title deed] his ownership rights are considered definite even under Israeli occupation.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the Israeli supreme court ruling on at least two separate occasions that the Nassar family\u2019s land could not be expropriated, the Israeli military has continued to appeal in an effort to strip the family of the farm, which lies in an area deemed strategic by Israel.<\/p>\n