Middle East Monitor / November 24, 2022
The Israeli Civil Administration issued permission on Wednesday for 80 acres of Palestinian land in the central occupied West Bank seized in 1984 to be annexed to the illegal Tal Shahrit Jewish settlement outpost, the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission has revealed. The administration has declared the area to be “state land” in a move which effectively grants legal recognition to the outpost by the occupation state.
According to the Commission, the land belonged to Palestinians in the villages of Bidya and Kafr al-Dik in Salfit Governorate. Last week, it pointed out, the Civil Administration granted similar permission for land owned by the villages of Al-Khader, Nahalin and Artas in the Bethlehem governorate, to be annexed to the settlements of Daniel, Eliazar and Efrat. The land was declared to be “state land” in 2014.
“Moreover, in the middle of last month, the [Israeli] occupation authorities transferred approximately 152 acres of land belonging to the villages of Qaryut, Al-Laban and Al-Sawiya in the Nablus governorate to increase the area of nearby Eli settlement,” added the Commission.
Such measures, it said, prove that Israel intends to control more Palestinian land, under various pretexts, including judicial and administrative steps, which can only be a prelude to annexing land for settlement purposes. All of Israel’s settlements and settlers are illegal under international law.
The head of the Commission, Moayad Shaaban, said that the Israeli measures are intended to control the land and prevent its Palestinian owners from using it.
