Palestinian president demands for Israel to backtrack on mass land confiscation in West Bank

The Palestinian president strongly denounced on Sunday the Israeli decision to seize almost 4,000 dunams of land in the occupied West Bank to build a new illegal settlement.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, called on Israel to reverse its decision. Anadolu news agency quoted him as saying, “This decision will lead to more instability. This will only inflame the situation after the war in Gaza.”

Abu Rudeineh also stressed that settlement construction is “illegal”.

On Saturday, the Israeli government declared 4,000 dunams of land south of Jerusalem in the Hebron province – which is adjacent to the Gush Etzion settlement bloc – as state land. The move will pave the way to establishing a new settlement called Gvaot.

Haaretz newspaper reported that the appropriated land belongs to five Palestinian villages in the Bethlehem are: Jaba, Surif, Wadi Fukin, Husan and Nahalin.

The newspaper described the mass land confiscation as “the latest of a series of plans designed to attach the Etzion settlement bloc to Jerusalem.”

Last week, the Israeli cabinet decided to seize the land to collectively punish Palestinians for the abduction and killing of three young Israeli settlers in June.

Anadolu reported that objections to the Israeli decision could be presented before an Israeli court within 45 days—without specifying which court objectors may appeal to.

The left-wing Israeli movement Peace Now issued a statement strongly criticising the Israeli move, describing it as “unprecedented” and saying that the seizure will “dramatically change the reality in the Gush Etzion and the Bethlehem area”.

Peace Now’s general secretary Yariv Oppenheimer said the Israeli decision is like “a stab in the back” to President Abbas and other Palestinian “moderates”.

According to the peace movement, this is the largest land confiscation in 30 years.