On Wednesday, the Israeli army confiscated Palestinian lands to pave a segregated road for illegal Israeli colonizers in Tuqu’ town, southeast of Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank.
Hasan Breijiyya, the head of the Bethlehem office of the Wall & Colonization Resistance Commission, stated that the army issued orders to annex five Dunam in Basin 5 of the Al-Morouj area, and Basin 4 in K’eibana, Um An-Nofous, Wa’ar Khreitoun, Mahareb and Al-Aqban.
The orders, carrying numbers 5/26/T and 52/23MD, aim at paving a segregated road linking Nokdim and Sde Bar illegal colonies built on stolen Palestinian lands.
Breijiyya stated that the new orders also pose a serious risk to the fate of hundreds of Dunams of surrounding Palestinian lands, which will be largely isolated and, therefore, are effectively annexed after their owners lose access to them.
All of Israel’s colonies in the occupied territories, 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.”
