Israel designates 45 acres of land in Bethlehem, Hebron as ‘state land’

Israel has declared about 183 dunums (45 acres) of land in the towns of Battir, Sa’ir and al-Shuyukh in the occupied West Bank districts of Bethlehem and Hebron as “state land”, the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission said on Monday.

The government body said in a statement that the two declarations were issued on 18^th  October and signed by the official responsible for government and abandoned property in the Israeli occupation’s “Civil Administration”. It said the measures were linked to settlement expansion and efforts to legalise settlement outposts.

Declaring land “state land” allows Israeli authorities to take control of it and manage and dispose of it under the laws and procedures they apply, preventing its owners from using it or benefiting from it.

The first declaration, named Bar Kokhba, covers 64.06 dunams belonging to Battir, in land-registration basins 12 and 13, the commission said.

It added that the declaration was linked to a settlement project previously known as Nahal Hiltz, which developed from the agricultural outpost of Neve Ori. The Israeli government approved the establishment of a settlement at the site in June 2024, before the project was later renamed Bar Kokhba, it said.