In the Shadow of Israel's Security Fence - 11

Yousef Manasra, 82, sits among his olive trees in the evening. Yousef was 25 when the Israeli army originally forced residents out of the town in 1948. At the time, he and his family moved into surrounding hills and lived in tents provided by the United Nations. They survived by drinking water from nearby streams and sneaking into their village at night to harvest their fields. Yousef fears that once the once the barrier is completed around Wadi Fukin, younger residents will leave the village and move farther into the West Bank so they are not cut off from important resources such as health care and education. If this happens, much of Wadi Fukin's land will go uncultivated and could be taken by Israel. According to the United Nations, Israel uses a law based on an old Ottoman code that allows the state to claim any land that goes uncultivated for three years.