West Bank farmers say they feel betrayed by the Palestinian Authority finance and agriculture ministries, after failing to meet promises of support for farmers whose land lies close to Israel's separation wall.
Speaking to Ma'an, farmers from different West Bank areas slated for confiscation for the separation wall said they signed an agreement with the Ministry of Finance, which would reimburse farmers for building water wells for irrigation at their own expense.
However, they say the ministry has failed to abide by the terms of the agreement and are now faced with considerable financial commitments and fees after undertaking the irrigation work on their farmland. They told Ma'an that creditors were urgently seeking to reclaim borrowed money.
"We have dug the wells and the result was salty and bitter water. Some farmers could be jailed because they gave cheques hoping the government will pay them money to cover them as agreed," one farmer said.
PA Ministry of Agriculture undersecretary Zakariyya Salawda described the Finance Ministry's failure to reimburse farmers as "unacceptable" and promised to offer them assistance.
He explained that the ministry "did not want to waste time" by starting a bidding process of the wells' construction, therefore requesting farmers to undertake the work at their own expense "to protect Palestinian as quickly as possible from confiscation."
The Ministry of Finance, he said, pledged to allocate $10 million, of which $1.8 million would be dedicated to launching the project. But the ministry only paid $500,000, which was transferred to areas closer to the wall in Jerusalem, the official said.
Finance Ministry general accountant Yousif Az-Zumar did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
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