On Monday, Israeli bulldozers continued leveling agricultural land in Beit Ur al-Fauqa, west of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank’s central region, for the second consecutive day, as part of an expansion project serving the illegal Israeli colony of Beit Horon.
Ali Faisal, head of the Beit Ur al-Fauqa municipal council, stated that the land clearing in the Al-Karina area is directly linked to the colony’s growth.
The targeted lands span across eight surrounding towns: Beit Sira, Beit Nuba, Beit Liqya, Kharbatha al-Misbah, Safa, Al-Tira, Beit Ur al-Fauqa, and Beit Ur al-Tahta.
In protest, residents of Beit Ur al-Fauqa gathered near the newly constructed colonial road, condemning Israeli measures that threaten to confiscate large areas of farmland belonging to their village and neighboring communities.
Faisal warned that once the project is completed, Beit Ur al-Fauqa will be fully encircled, trapped between the Beit Horon colony to the east, Route 443 to the south, and military roadblocks to the west and north.
All of Israel’s colonies in the occupied West Bank, including those in and around occupied East Jerusalem, are illegal under International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention in addition to various United Nations and Security Council resolutions. They also constitute war crimes under International Law.
Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits collective punishment and acts of terror against civilian populations.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory”.
Articles 53 and 147, which prohibit the destruction of civilian property and classify pillage as a war crime.
