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Israel to seize 34 acres of land in Ramallah for settlement

January 10, 2019 at 4:44 pm

Israeli forces deploy in the West Bank city of Ramallah on 10 December 2018 [Twitter]

Israel’s Ministry of Finance has authorised a plan to illegally annex part of the Palestinian village of Deir Dobwan, east of the West Bank’s administrative city of Ramallah.

The authorisation was revealed by the Land Research Centre in Jerusalem today, which reported that 139 dunams of land – equivalent to 34 acres or 139,000 square metres – is to be seized by a local illegal settlement.

The revelation comes amid an increased authorisation and building of Jewish settlements in the West Bank since US President Donald Trump took office in 2017.

Israel’s ‘Apartheid Road’ opens in West Bank, separating Palestinian and Jewish settlers

“The feeling of the government is everything is allowed, that the time to do things is now because the [Trump] administration is the most pro-settlement you can ever have,” said Hagit Ofran, of the Israeli anti-settlement monitoring group Peace Now in its Settlement Watch programme.

As a result of years of settlement projects and constant violation of international law, over 450,000 illegal settlers now live in the West Bank, as well as 200,000 in occupied East Jerusalem.

It is feared that the Israeli government is using its vast network of settlements by linking them together for the purpose of increasing ease settler access to illegal settlements in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem.