Israel to seize more Palestinian land in West Bank; expand illegal settlement
Israel plans to seize 700,000m² of land under Palestinian control in the northern West Bank to expand an illegal area settlement.
RAMALLAH, Monday, October 21, 2019 (WAFA) — Israel plans to seize 700 dunums (700,000m²) of land under Palestinian control in the northern West Bank village of Qaryout in order to expand an illegal area settlement, according to a local activist.
Bashar Sadeq, active in the settlement resistance movement, told WAFA that the Israeli military passed out an aerial picture showing that village land that has been recognized as part of Area B, which is under Palestinian administration and Israeli security control, has been cut off in order to be used for the expansion of the illegal settlement of Eli.
He said the land in question is 700 dunums in area and that the decision would harm its Palestinian landowners, who are mainly farmers, since now they cannot enter or benefit from their land without a special army permit.
The Israeli soldiers yesterday kicked out the farmers while they were harvesting their olive crops in that land and ordered them not to return to it without a military permit.
The 1993 Palestinian-Israeli Oslo agreement divided West Bank land into Area A, which is under full Palestinian rule, Area B, administered by the Palestinians but the security remained in Israel’s hands, and Area C, which is under full Israeli control and which makes up more than 60 percent of the area of the West Bank.
This is the first time since 1993 that Israel cuts off land from Area B and turns it into Area C.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates condemned today Israeli seizure of Palestinian land in the village of Qaryout and the southwestern area of Nablus in particular.
The Ministry warned in a press statement of a new settlement plan to seize more than 700 dunums of Qaryout village land to expand the illegal settlement pf Eli.
“We have always warned of the seriousness of the colonial settlement plan targeting the southwestern area of Nablus that aims at establishing a huge settlement bloc that will be linked to the settlement bloc in Salfit governorate, connected with the settlement blocs in Qalqilya governorate and extends into Israel,” it said, describing the land grab as “the biggest land heist and annexation of large parts from the occupied West Bank.”
The Ministry said Israel “is taking advantage of the full American support for its expansionist colonial plans and continues to undermine any chance to achieve peace on the basis of a two-state solution, while deepening the abhorrent apartheid system in Palestine and transforming the Palestinian areas in the West Bank into isolated communities in the midst of a huge ocean of settlements.”
It warned that what Israel is doing is actual annexation of the West Bank and unilaterally determining the future of the final status negotiations by turning the Palestinian issue and the rights of the Palestinian people and their just and legitimate cause into an issue of people in need of relief programs and economic projects, which is what the Israeli leaders often talk about when they talk about ed autonomy.
The Foreign Ministry expressed its astonishment at the international community that only issues statements of condemnation rather than take action to put a stop to these Israeli activities. “The abandonment of the international community and the United Nations of their political and legal responsibility makes the world order lose what remains of its credibility,” it said.
The Israeli military passed out an aerial picture showing that 700 dunums of Qaryout village land located within Area B, which is under Palestinian administration and Israeli security control, has been cut off in order to be used for the expansion of the illegal settlement of Eli.
