Israeli occupation authorities ordered, on Saturday, the confiscation of 500 dunams of Palestinian land in the village of Hizma, east of Jerusalem, and 124 dunams in the villages of Majdal Bani Fadel and Douma, south of Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank, local sources said.
Muslim Abu Heleou, head of Hizma municipality, told WAFA that the Israeli army handed the Palestinian Civil Liaison a notification regarding Israel’s intention to size 500 dunams of land which belong to Palestinians from Hizma, with a view of expanding the illegal Israeli settlement of Adam, nearby.
Meanwhile, Ghassan Daghlas, an official who is active in the settlement resistance movement, said the Israeli military handed Palestinians from Majdal Bani Fadel and Douma an order showing the land that is to be confiscated for military purposes.
On Friday, the Israeli authorities notified the municipality of the town of Yabad, southwest of Jenin in the northern West Bank, of their plan to confiscate around 409 dunams of land for the purpose of continuing the construction of the West Bank separation barrier.
According to the Israeli anti-settlement group, Peace Now, “Over the years, Israel has used a number of legal and bureaucratic procedures in order to appropriate West Bank lands, with the primary objective of establishing settlements and providing land reserves for them.”
“Using primarily these five methods: seizure for military purposes; declaration of state lands; seizure of absentee property; confiscation for public needs; and initial registration, Israel has managed to take over about 50% of the lands in the West Bank, barring the local Palestinian public from using them.”
Source: WAFA (Palestinian News and Info Agency)
Edited for IMEMC: Ali Salam
