Israeli occupation legalises largest appropriation of Palestinian land in many years

Israeli occupation authorities announced on Sunday the largest confiscation of Palestinian land in recent years, totalling 984 dunams, for the purpose of expanding the settlements in the Gush Etzion region located southwest of Jerusalem, thus legitimising the Netiv Ha’avot outpost illegally established in 2001 on privately owned Palestinian land.

The Netiv Ha’avot outpost is currently inhabited by about 50 settler families, including Ze’ev Hever, also known as Zambish, the secretary of the Amana organisation, which campaigns for settlement expansion in occupied Palestine.

In 2002, the Palestinians petitioned the court to demolish the settlement. The court rejected the petition, but ordered a government committee to examine the legality of Israel’s purchase claim; however, this did not happen. The Israeli High Court also rejected a petition in 2010 that Israeli rights group Peace Now presented to demand the demolition of the outpost on the basis that the land survey had not yet been completed.

A subsequent survey, which the occupation authorities tried to hide, indicated that Palestinians did, in fact, own a majority of the land.

Nevertheless, Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon recently announced that the land is now state land and last week warnings were handed out to the Palestinians in neighbouring villages saying that they were being given 45 days to appeal the decision.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which reported the news on Sunday, described this confiscation as “the largest appropriation of territory in the West Bank in many years”. It will allow the expansion of the nearby settlements Neveh Daniel, Elazar and Alon Shvut.

“Within this area [of appropriated land] lie enclaves of private Palestinian land which will become trapped within the settler real estate,” Haaretz added.

Source: arabs48.com