The Israeli authorities have confiscated another 24 million square metres of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank, classifying them as “state- owned property” in order to construct more illegal settlements. According to a report by the Hebrew website Ynet, the occupation authorities have declared the Palestinian land in the Jordan Valley to be state-owned in three stages.
The first stage was during the term of the previous government headed by Naftali Bennett, during which three million square metres of Palestinian land were annexed. Four months ago, another 8.5m square metres were annexed, and yesterday another 12m square metres were annexed and declared to be “state-owned”.
The Israeli plan includes building settlement housing units and industrial and commercial areas on the illegally-annexed land despite many countries, including the United States, expressing their opposition.
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The Supreme Planning Council of the army’s Civil Administration is expected to issue the permits for the construction of 5,300 settlement housing units in the area, and about 600 other housing units to be marketed in different areas in the West Bank. The Israeli authorities have approved the construction of 152 housing units in the Negohot settlement in the Hebron area in the south of the West Bank, 260 housing units in the Jordan Valley settlements, 140 housing units in the Kiryat Arba settlement in the south of the West Bank, and 186 housing units in the Elon Moreh settlement near Nablus in the north of the occupied West Bank.
The report indicated that the goal of far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is “to prevent Palestinian geographical contiguity on the one hand, and to establish Jewish settlement contiguity on the other hand.”
Smotrich seeks to declare private Palestinian-owned lands seized by settlers to establish the outpost Evyatar as “state- owned land” after confiscating them from their Palestinian owners. This is in addition to confiscating private Palestinian land for the benefit of other settlement outposts in the Ramallah area in the central occupied West Bank, as well as in Hebron and Bethlehem in the southern occupied West Bank. Ynet said that approving settlement construction plans is part of Smotrich’s plan for Israel’s “complete control” over the West Bank.
On Monday, the powers of the judicial advisor to the Civil Administration were transferred to another judicial advisor under Smotrich’s command, who is working to accelerate a plan to expand streets and roads for use solely by illegal Jewish settlers throughout the West Bank.
READ: Report: Israel demolished 318 facilities, uprooted 10,000 olive trees in West Bank this year