On Wednesday, the Israeli occupation army began the bulldozing of Palestinian lands near Salfit, in the occupied West Bank’s central part, to expand a segregated road for illegal Israeli colonizers.
The head of Deir Estia Town Council, Firas Thiab, said the Israeli bulldozers started uprooting and leveling Palestinian lands to prepare for a new segregated road which would be about 100 meters long and 10 meters wide, in addition to the “buffer zones” around it, which would also lead to the illegal annexation of more lands.
The road leads to the illegal Revava colony which was built on stolen Palestinian lands in Salfit.
Local activist against Israel’s illegal colonialist activities, Issa Souf, said Israel has been expanding and developing the main entrance of the illegal colony, to expand it and the road that leads to it.
He added that the work includes a junction, traffic lights, and expansions of streets so that the colonizers can drive in and out of the illegal colony without delays, while the Palestinians continue to lose lands and trees.
It is worth mentioning that the Revava illegal colony was established on stolen Palestinian lands in 1991 after Israel illegally annexed 353 Dunams from Deir Istiya and 304 Dunams from Harish town.
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 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”.
