BETHLEHEM, Tuesday, November 09, 2021 (WAFA) – Israeli occupation authorities today razed a livestock barn in al-Khader town, south of Bethlehem, according to local sources.

Ahmad Salah, a local activist, said that Israeli forces escorted a bulldozer to al-Suwaneh area in the southwestern section of the town, where the heavy machinery tore down a livestock barn belonging to Mohammad Sbeih, purportedly for being built without a license.

Located 4 kilometers to the west of Bethlehem city, al-Khader has a population of some 12,500 and occupies a total area of 8,280 dunams.

Under the Oslo Accords, an agreement made 25 years ago that was supposed to last just five years towards a self-governing country alongside Israel, the Palestinian Authority was given limited control over a small pocket of land occupying some 1,200dunams, accounting for almost 14.5 percent of the village’s total area.  In contrast, Israel maintains control over the remainder, classified as Area C.

Since the start of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in 1967, like so many other villages in Palestine, al-Khader has been subjected to almost continual land theft for Israeli settlements, bypass roads, and military installations.

Israel has constructed Efrat and NeveDaniyyel colonial settlements on an area of 6,329 dunums of Palestinian land, including a portion confiscated from al-Khader. It has also constructed a section of the apartheid wall, isolating some 5,620 dunums of the town’s land for colonial settlement activities and pushing the villagers into a crowded enclave, a ghetto, surrounded by walls, settlements and military installations.

It has confiscated more land for the construction of a tunnel and a crossing, controlling Palestinian movement from Bethlehem city and the western countryside villages.

K.F.