BETHLEHEM, June 11, 2015 (WAFA) – Israeli forces Thursday razed Palestinian-owned agricultural land in the village of Wadi Fukin to the west of Bethlehem, for the benefit of establishing a new settlement project in the area, according to a local official.
Head of Wadi Fukin village council, Ahmad Sokar, informed WAFA that Israeli forces, accompanied with bulldozers, arrived in the early morning and razed 20 dunums of land located between the illegal settlements of Bitar Elit and Tzur Hadassah. The land belongs to a local resident identified as Sabri Manasra.
He said that according to Israeli media this Israeli procedure comes in the framework of establishing an industrial and commercial area between the two aforementioned settlements at the expense of the village’s land.
He noted that Israel intends to take over around 200 dunums of land for the benefit of establishing the industrial zone, which would benefit settlers residing in nearby illegal settlements.
Settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the Golan Heights, both occupied since 1967, are considered illegal under international law.
The settler population in the West Bank is estimated at 531,000: in late 2012 the population of the West Bank settlements was 341,400; in late 2011 there were 190,423 individuals living in Israeli neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.
B’Tselem the Israeli human rights group said, “The settlements have been allocated vast areas, far exceeding their built-up sections. These areas have been declared closed military zones by military orders and are off limits to Palestinians, except by special permit. In contrast, Israeli citizens, Jews from anywhere in the world and tourists may all freely enter these areas.”
According to a report by Applied Research Institute (ARIJ), “The consecutive Israeli governments adopted a policy to acquire much of the West Bank lands to build and expand the Israeli settlements by employing different methods; most renowned of which, “Security,” which is also, how Israel was able to restrict Palestinian towns’ development on the remaining areas.”
It said that, “Since 1967, Israel utilized all the laws that were once running in this part of the land; at least the ones that it can make use of to justify its occupation in an attempt to legalize the various methods it uses to carry out its systematic policy to confiscate Palestinians’ lands to make it available for the occupation Army or/ and for the Israeli settlers.”
During the time of this report on Israeli violations in the occupied Palestinian Territory (oPt), which covered the period between June 13, 2014 – April 15, 2015, ARIJ institute said that, Israel as an entity along with the Israeli settlers confiscated, destroyed, and seized for the so called “military purposes” around 415,266 dunums of Palestinian land in the West Bank.
T.R/M.H
