RAMALLAH, April 10, 2025 (WAFA) – Israeli occupation authorities Thursday unlawfully expropriated a large tract of Palestinian-owned land near the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, according to al-Bireh Municipality.
The Municipality said that it received a military notice from the occupation authorities for the takeover of approximately 137 dunums of land belonging to the city of Al-Bireh as well as to the towns of Silwad, Ein Yabrud, Beitin, and Burqa, all located east of Ramallah, and to the Mikhmas town, east of Jerusalem.
It said that this land would be seized for the expansion of the nearby colonist-only bypass Road 60 in the vicinity of the so-called the Sha'ar Binyamin industrial zone.
According to the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, Israel, the occupying power, has already seized this tract of land, while the issuance of the new military order means that the occupation authorities intend to activate the so-called “right to dispose” of the land as per a seizure or takeover order that had been issued in August 2024.
In August 2024, the Commission issued statistics showing that the occupation authorities had seized 66,762 dunums of land belonging to al-Bireh as well as the cluster of villages and towns of Silwad, Ein Yabrud, Beitin, Deir Dibwan, and Mikhmas for the expansion of Road 60 starting from the Sha'ar Binyamin colony to the so-called British Police junction.
Amir Daoud, Director of Publication and Documentation at the Commission, said that the occupation authorities employ the issuance of expropriation orders among other forms of military orders as a means to further entrench military control over Palestinian land for the benefit of colonists, with colonist-only roads cutting through Palestinian territories, slicing the area up and operating as another form of closure which prevents movement of Palestinians.
Israel uses the Jewish nationalist name “Judea and Samaria” to refer to the occupied West Bank to reinforce its bogus claims to the territory and to give them a veneer of historical and religious legitimacy.
Almost 1 million Israeli colonists are living in colonies in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Israel’s nation-state law passed in July 2018 stated that building and strengthening the colonies is a “national interest.”
K.F.
