BETHLEHEM, Tuesday, October 13, 2020 (WAFA) – Israeli occupation authorities notified today evening to stop the construction work on Palestinian-owned agricultural sheds in the town of al-Khader, south of Bethlehem, according to local activist Ahmad Salah.

He told WAFA Israeli forces handed local residents notices ordering them to stop the construction on four agricultural sheds in the village of al-Khader, citing unpermitted construction as a pretext.

Israel denies planning permits for Palestinians to build on their own land or to extend existing houses to accommodate natural growth, particularly in Jerusalem and Area C, which constitutes 60 percent of the occupied West Bank and falls under full Israeli military rule, forcing residents to build without obtaining rarely-granted permits to provide shelters for their families.

In contrast, Israel argues that building within existing colonial settlements is necessary to accommodate the “natural growth” of settlers. Therefore, it much more easily gives the estimated 550,000 Jewish Israeli settlers there building permits and provides them with roads, electricity, water, and sewage systems that remain inaccessible to many neighboring Palestinians.

T.R.