Restrictions Land Confiscation on Use and Access Introduction 69 of these cisterns and cesspools were “all in violation of the status quo”235 and a violation of the Court’s order of 29 March 2000 (HCJ 1199/99 and 517/00). In essence, the Israeli Supreme Court froze the status quo. On 16 January 2013, the petitioners filed their renewed petition.236 The recent petitions and responses are currently awaiting the adjudication of the Israeli Supreme Court. In addition to this, Palestinian owners of property located in the vicinity of Israeli colonies are restricted in accessing their property. Human Rights Watch provides that “…the Israeli military requires many Palestinians to obtain military ‘coordination’ in order to access their olive groves and other agricultural lands where those lands are located near settlements.”237 Especially blatant in this context is the “special security area” plan, under whose framework Israel has surrounded 12 colonies east of the Annexation Wall with rings of land that are closed to Palestinian entry. Palestinian farmers seeking access to these lands must cope with a complex bureaucracy and meet a number of conditions. The conditions are as follows: 1. 2. 3. Civil Administration recognition of ownership of the land (one-time condition); Obtaining a set date for entry dictated by the Civil Administration; Consent of settlers to enter the land.238 In addition to that, after signing the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (Oslo II). September 1995, the Israeli Military issued an order declaring the municipal areas of the various colonies as closed military zones for Palestinians prohibiting entry without a permit.239 235 Ahmad ’Issa Abu ’Aram Et Al V. Commander of IDF Forces in Judea and Samaria para 6. 236 OCHA, ‘UNSCO-OCHA Discussion Paper – “Seam Zone” Military Order’. 237 Human Rights Watch, Separate and Unequal: Israel’s Discriminatory Treatment of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, 5. 238 B’Tselem, Access Denied Israeli Measures to Deny Palestinians Access to Land Around Settlements (September 2008), 7, 47; available from http://www.btselem.org/publications/summaries/200809_ access_denied; accessed 24 April 2013. 239 Bimkom, The Prohibited Zone: The Israeli Planning Policy in the Palestinian Villages in Area C, 17; B’Tselem, Land Grab, 70; OCHA, Displacement And Insecurity In Area C Of The West Bank (E, August 2011), 13; available from http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_area_c_report_ august_2011_english.pdf; accessed 24 April 2013.