BETHLEHEM, Wednesday, October 16, 2019 (WAFA) – Israeli settlers today held Jewish rituals at a water spring in al Walaja village, northwest of the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem, said a local activist, a step often seen as a prelude to setting up a settlement in that area.
Ibrahim Awadallah, an activist in al-Walaja, told WAFA that dozens of Israeli settlers broke into the Walaja spring where they performed Jewish rituals while the Palestinian landowners were not allowed to reach their lands.
The Israeli municipality of West Jerusalem had seized over the years most of al-Walaja land where old village homes are located and prevented local residents from accessing their lands after encircling them with barbed wire and installing surveillance cameras, he added.
Israel plans to seize the Walaja spring, known as Naba al-Hinnieh, in order to build a railway line connecting Jerusalem to Jaffa and a park.
M.K.
