The Israeli forces Commander for the Central Region of the occupied
West Bank, Major General Yair Naveh, has decided to confiscate 152
Dunams of southern Bethlehem. The annexation order aims at using the
annexed Palestinian lands for the Wall and for “military purposes”.
Head of the Wall Resistance department at the Palestinian Ministry of Local Government, Khaled Al Azza, stated that the annexed lands will be used for the construction of a section of the Wall that will run alongside a new settler roads linking several settlements surrounding Bethlehem.
The roads will be “settler only” as Palestinians will not be allowed to use them which will result in the isolation of several Palestinian villages in Bethlehem district.
The Annexation Wall will extend from Al Khader village, south of Bethlehem, to Beit Ummar village, near Hebron in the southern part of the West Bank.
The lands which Israel intends to annex in Hebron is currently used as grazing land and for agricultural purposes.
The new orders comes as Israel continues to tighten its siege and blockage over Bethlehem. Recently, the northern side of Bethlehem was annexed to the boundaries of the Jerusalem municipality.
The new north of Bethlehem is now totally closed by the segments of the annexation Wall as more areas became isolated. Northeast of Bethlehem is blocked by the construction of Abu Ghneim (Har Homa) settlement, which is built over a small Palestinian green mountain Israel annexed and uprooted its trees.
Efrat settlement already blocks Bethlehem from the south and and leads into the military compound of Gush Etzion and the Bitar Illit Settlement to the southwest.
Gilo Settlement in built on lands that was annexed from the residents of Beit Jala, the northwest of Bethlehem and completely isolated the Palestinian areas there from Jerusalem.
On Monday, the Israeli government issued enders to construct 690 settlement homes in the Occupied West Bank.
The new units will be constructed in large settlement blocs in the West Bank and is coherent with Olmert's “Convergence Plan”.
The bids are the biggest since Olmert officially took office. Since the beginning of the year, the Israeli government issued tenders to construct at least 788 units.
The new settlement houses will be built in large settlements; 342 houses will be built in Bitar Ilit settlement near Ramallah, while 348 houses in Ma'aleh Adumim near Jerusalem.
Al Azza issued a press release urging, Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations, that the UN take the responsible acts in order to apply the several UN resolution against land confiscation in Palestine.
The press release calls for presenting the the ruling of the International Court of Justice in the Hague against the Israeli Wall inside the West Bank, to the UN Security Council for adoption, and calls for the implementation of the International Law.
