On Wednesday, Israeli occupation authorities issued a decision to illegally annex privately owned Palestinian lands in the town of Hizma, northeast of the occupied Palestinian capital, Jerusalem, in the West Bank.
Media sources said the new order includes the seizure of extensive tracts of land near the main road in the Erzeiq Valley area of Hizma.
The annexed territory extends from the road leading to Jaba’ through to the Al-Aqabat area, encompassing large portions of adjacent Palestinian lands.
The decision stipulates that the annexation will remain in effect until December 31, 2027. However, based on precedents, such designations often become indefinite, with the lands ultimately repurposed as permanent military installations or used for the expansion of Israel’s illegal colonial outposts.
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”.
