An Israeli group by the name of Yesh Din has successfully fought a legal battle to restore settlement land to Palestinian farmers.
The farmers lost their lands to an Israeli settlement built in the 1970s in Homesh. In 2005, Israel dismantled Homesh as part of a larger withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
After winning the case, farmers from the village of Burka returned to their land for the first time in more than thirty years.
Fathallah Hajeh says he “never felt such joy.”
Since capturing the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem in the 1967 war, Israel has built settlements over lands taken from Palestinian farmers. The settlements now house more than half a million Israelis.
Even as senior leaders Israel and Palestine attempt to negotiate a peace deal, the Palestinian President Mr. Mahmoud Abbas has urged the international community to prevent Israel from building more settlements.
On its website, Yesh Din says that it is a"volunteer organization working to defend the human rights of the Palestinian civilian population under Israeli occupation."
