Kibbutz Merav in the north of Israel has evacuated 1,000 dunams (250 acres) of private Palestinian farmland it had been cultivating since the 1980s, the State Prosecutor’s Office reported to the High Court of Justice on Tuesday.

Responding to a petition by residents of the Palestinian village of Tubas in the northern Jordan Valley, the prosecution told the court that “after long discussion with the kibbutz, the Israel Lands Authority and the kibbutz signed an agreement in which the kibbutz evacuated all the lands that were the subject of the petition.”

Kibbutz Merav is located within the Green Line on the slopes of Mount Gilboa, overlooking the eastern part of the Jezreel Valley.

Haaretz reported in 2013 that the then-Israel Lands Administration had admitted to illegally giving private Palestinian land to the kibbutz, which continued to cultivate it over the years.

The land in question is located beyond the pre-1967 border, but across from the security barrier, meaning that even though it has now been evacuated, the land’s Palestinian owners still do not have access to it.

The prosecution informed the court that it would act to have the land declared a “seam line area,” which “would make access for the owners of the land possible for the purposes of cultivation, subject to security considerations.”

The petitioners, for their part, are not making do with the statement to the court and are considering petitioning for the security fence to be moved.

“The reason for the construction of the fence where it is was apparently because the state believed this area was part of the kibbutz. We are considering asking the court to take out the fence in this area,” to allow the owners access to their land, said their attorney, Tawfiq Jabarin.

Jabarin, who said he believed the kibbutz received monetary compensation for evacuating the land, added that his clients were considering suing for damages.

Dror Etkis, a left-wing activist who studies the settlements in the West Bank, said that although the kibbutz started working the land only in the 1980s, the landowners were actually barred from their land in the 1970s. He said he believed the state would have to compensate the owners.

“A proper country that had expelled people from their land for over 40 years, would get down on its knee and ask forgiveness and offer generous compensation. In the Jewish state, Palestinian property is forfeit and so not only is there no need to apologize, but it is recommended that they continue to take away their rights," he said.

Kibbutz Merav confirmed that it had evacuated the land and said that they were still in negotiations with the state over compensation. Evacuation of the land had caused major economic damage, kibbutz business manager Nitzan Aviran told Haaretz.

“We turned that into excellent land; we raised the most complicated crops agriculturally speaking – carrots, bananas, garlic and onions,” Aviran said, adding, “I don’t want money, I want land. That is what my people know how to do. What will I tell these people? There are people here who are 45 or 50 years old and this is what they’ve been doing their whole lives.”

According to Aviran, the Palestinian landowners would not get access to the land in any case. “That whole bunch of 44 farmers, they won’t work the land. We aren’t the ones who decided where the fence would go. So we won’t have the land and the farmers would be able to work it, I wish they could but I don’t believe they can.”