Israel confiscates 8,000 dunums in Jordan Valley for settlement construction plan

The Israeli occupation authorities confiscated an area estimated at 8,000 dunams (1,977 acres) in the Jordan Valley area east of the occupied West Bank to expand the Yafit settlement by building hundreds of new housing units and establishing an industrial and commercial area near the Palestinian village of Fasayil, according to reports by Kan.

Israeli public radio station Kan reported on Friday that the Settlement Directorate, headed by far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, planned to confiscate these lands and expand settlement there over the past year.

The Settlement Directorate declared the confiscated lands “Israeli lands”, claiming they would become lands for implementing settlement projects.

The radio quoted an Israeli official involved in this settlement plan: “Planning and legitimising the construction of housing units on confiscated lands in the Jordan Valley will continue for approximately a year. These measures will require approval by the political level.”

Left-wing Israeli Peace Now movement, which monitors settlement in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem, reported that a record number of approvals for settlement construction plans in the West Bank was recorded during the past year.

Three weeks ago, the Settlement Directorate announced the confiscation of 2,500 dunams (618 acres) that were then declared “state land” in the Ma’ale Adumim settlement area east of occupied Jerusalem.

Smotrich claimed: “At a time when the country and the world are seeking to undermine our rights in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and the country in general, we are pushing strategically forward settlement through work hard throughout the country.”

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