The Israeli government issued an order for the illegal annexation of 45.700 Dunams of Palestinian lands in Kisan village, east of Bethlehem, south of the occupied Palestinian capital Jerusalem, in the West Bank.
Hasan Breijiyya, the head of the Bethlehem office of the Wall & Colonization Resistance Commission, has reported that the lands are entirely privately owned by the local family of Awadallah, in the southeastern area of the village.
Breijiyya added that Israel decided, without prior notice, to take the lands from their Palestinian owners to turn them into what the occupation government dubbed as a “natural reserve.”
He said that the decision was made to allow the expansion of the illegal Abie HaNahal colony, which was built on stolen Palestinian lands.
Immediately after the decision was made, illegal colonizers from Abie HaNahal started the preparation for a new segregated road on a Palestinian mountain overlooking the Wad al-Hajjar valley, northwest of Kisan.
Ahmad Ghazal, the deputy-mayor of Kisan, said the planned road would be 4 meters wide and extend 2 kilometers on the Palestinian lands.
Ghazal stated that the colonizers are also planning to link the illegally annexed lands with the Industrial zone which was built on stolen Palestinian lands west of the village, in addition to plans to install solar panels and a recycling factory.
It is worth mentioning that, a month ago, the colonizers started uprooting Palestinian olive trees in the lands in the same area.
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 Humanitarian Law.
