Eventually this area, comprising more than 14,000 dunums (14 km2) of land, was declared an Israeli nature reserve in 1983.160 This designation means that Palestinian owners are no longer permitted to freely farm the land.161 Since 2011, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority has prohibited farmers from planting anything on their land in Wadi Qana. This Israeli agency was also responsible for uprooting and confiscating Palestinian trees in the area. Furthermore, it has been documented that Israeli colonizers in the surrounding outposts such as Alonei Shilo and El Matan are directly releasing their wastewater into the valley.162 Due to the designation of the land as a nature reserve and the wide range of restrictions imposed with regards to the use and access of the land, inhabitants of Wadi Qana were pressured to move to Deir Istiya. These policies of denial of use and access to land have led to high unemployment rates in the agricultural sector in Deir Istiya.163 Testimony 1 “I am a 60-year-old farmer, married, and I have five sons and one daughter. We moved from our home on the main road of Deir Istiya six years ago [2001] out of fear of living there, and now we are also being denied access to the home we are living in now. We feared for our sons because of the violence from the colonizers and the Israeli soldiers.164 Although Israel did not order us to leave, they made it so hard for us to be able to reach our home. My parents built the house back in 1975 and we had a building permit back then. Today building in this area is forbidden, because it’s categorized as Area C. Forcible Transfer I used to work here in Deir Istiya but I had to move from my old home to this other area of the village. I would never sell my home there for anything, but we lost some of our land in the area because Israel wanted to build a by-pass 160 B’Tselem, “Wadi Qana – From Palestinian agricultural valley to settlements’ tourism park,” 23 April 2015,available at: http://www.btselem.org/area_c/wadi_qana [accessed 22 September 2017]. 161 Ibid. 162 Ibid.; B’Tselem, “Settlers’ walk today in Wadi Qana, where the authorities are displacing Palestinian farmers who own the land”, 23 April 2015, available at: http://www.btselem.org/area_c/201504_ wadi_qana [accessed 22 September 2017]. 163 UNOCHA (oPt), “Settlement expansion around an Israeli-declared ’nature reserve,’" The Monthly Humanitarian Bulletin, 31 October 2014, available at: https://www.ochaopt.org/content/settlementexpansion-around-israeli-declared-nature-reserve [accessed 22 September 2017]. 164 The subject of the interview feared that colonizers might attack Palestinian children by running over them with cars. 58