Government Compensation and Agricultural Assistance for Affected Farmers, 2015–2021

-        Episode No. (12)

-        Government compensations for affected farmers

-        How much pleasure one of us feels when he sees farmers reclaiming their land and planting it with various trees and plants, and all kinds of diverse crops, which makes food and provisions available to our families, so there is no hunger... as long as there are farmers who work in a basic agricultural sector..... it is the daily lifeline..! There is no loss of land.. as long as the hands of those farmers.. are free on their land..!

-        They are the farmers who do all that; they face dangers and disasters.. and horrors whether from nature.. or from the brutal Israeli occupation.... And how bitter we feel when we see the atrocity that the occupying settlers commit when they cut and uproot trees, burn them, damage vegetables and crops, and attack the tools of Palestinian farmers that they use to reclaim their land, ..

-        They are the farmers whom the odious occupation even forbade from moving ... stones from one place to another on their lands..!...And these lands classified as (ج) (C), which the occupation claims full jurisdiction over...! constitute about 60% of what remains of the land of Palestine, and they are the only lands suitable for cultivation, and rich in their groundwater and surface water resources.

-        That the dangers and horrors come from the military occupation, and from all the gangs of settler colonists, is to be expected, since their goal is to seize the land after confiscating it, ..and to displace its residents and remove them from their lands..!

-        But who stands with the Palestinian farmer... and helps him reach his land!? We are very saddened .. when we see that the farmer cannot find those who would support him with the hoped-for support, and compensate him for his losses... from natural disasters, and from the horrors of the occupation.. so that he may continue his path...!

-        We rejoiced at the establishment of funds ... such as the "Fund for Risk Mitigation and Agricultural Insurances" whose objectives included helping the farmer, compensating him, and insuring his crops, where Decree-Law No. (12) of 2013 was enacted, and some of its objectives, as stated in the law, according to Article No. 6, were to reduce the magnitude of losses suffered by farmers and the insured... and to contribute to achieving sustainable agricultural development, and to support small farmers in accordance with the provisions of this Decree-Law (12 of 2013), etc.

-        But reality showed otherwise.. for it seems that the main objectives of the fund for which it was established were not achieved as they should have been..!..according to the annual report of the State Audit and Administrative Control Bureau (SAACB) for 2022. But why? There are a number of reasons stemming from negligence, and indifference,, and lack of follow-up and oversight.. (as stated in the referenced report)

-        It is very gratifying to enact a law establishing a compensation fund.. and to set its objectives, the responsibilities of its employees and management, and the organization of work within it. But there were substantive remarks clarified by the Bureau's report in its annual report for 2022. Its report on government compensations and agricultural assistance for the affected between 2015 and 2021 included some of the following observations:

●      Weak government agricultural compensations for farmers, where no compensations were disbursed through the Ministry of Agriculture or the Fund for Risk Mitigation in lieu of political (occupation) damages to farmers, whether in the Gaza Strip or the West Bank, since 2015...!

●      0.3 % only is the share of agricultural compensations that the government provided to affected farmers for the period 2015-2021, of the total documented agricultural damages recorded at the Ministry of Agriculture and the Fund for Risk Mitigation, which amounted to approximately 804,927,615 dollars!

●      Government financing of the Fund for Risk Mitigation, especially concerning agricultural compensations and agricultural insurance programs: the Ministry of Finance did not transfer any financial amounts related to tax refunds and the proceeds of agricultural funds to the financial Fund for Risk Mitigation and Agricultural Insurances, despite the Ministry having collected 11,496,802 shekels from farmers as a tax refund during the period 2019-2022.

●      The Bureau did not find that the Fund for Risk Mitigation and Agricultural Insurances achieved the main objectives for which it was established, since the implementation of an insurance system for agricultural facilities had not begun despite the expiration of the 5-year period for establishing the Fund (Risk Mitigation and Agricultural Insurances) specified by Article 21 of Decree-Law No. 12 of 2013 concerning the Fund for Risk Mitigation and Agricultural Insurances, to prepare and implement an agricultural insurance system..

●      No practical measures were taken to begin implementing the early warning system project, which is considered one of the most important objectives for which the Fund was established..!

●      There is a clear shortcoming in coordination between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Fund regarding the inventory and documentation of agricultural damages..

●      The Cabinet's decision regarding the working mechanism for agricultural compensations is not being adhered to, which led to scattering of efforts with respect to the agricultural compensation process in general..!

●      The Ministry of Agriculture did not comply with the procedures set out in the working mechanism for agricultural compensations, related to the inventorying and documenting of natural damages..

●      There is no database regarding natural agricultural damage data at the Ministry of Agriculture.

●      More than 74% of the political agricultural damages resulting from the occupation, which were inventoried and documented in the field, did not have the necessary data completed to properly document them!

●      A clear delay by the General Directorate of Farmers' Services in entering the data from the paper agricultural damage forms received from the directorates into the computerized program!

●      There are no clear, documented standards in the process of disbursing compensations that took place during the years 2016-2019, and the agricultural damage inventory data provided by the Ministry of Agriculture do not contain verifiable supporting evidence!

●      There is a clear flaw in the process of inventorying and documenting agricultural damages with regard to the storm of 25-12-2019, whether the flaw was in writing farmers' data, or in not following the specific instructions of the inventory and documentation mechanism for agricultural damages approved by the Cabinet!

●      Neither the Ministry nor the Fund prepared follow-up reports for the assistance provided to affected farmers to establish agricultural and developmental projects, to ensure that the farmer implemented all the conditions related to the assistance.!

●      A response was given to the Bureau's report ... and the recommendations will be taken up, according to the texts of the Bureau's report!!