JENIN, Thursday, October 31, 2019 (WAFA) – Israeli authorities notified the municipality of the town of Yabad, southwest of Jenin, in occupied West Bank, of their intentions to confiscate around 409 dunums of land for the purpose of continuing the construction of the West Bank separation barrier.

Mayor of Yabad, Sa’ed Zaid, told WAFA Israeli forces delivered an order to the municipality for the confiscation of around 409 dunums of land, where barbed-wire fences have been placed for the past 15 years along the village and towns to the west of Yabad, for the benefit of expanding the separation wall.

About 85% of the barrier’s meandering route winds through the West Bank. In other words, it runs through the occupied territory, and is not located along the Green Line or in Israel proper (i.e., west of the Green line). This is in keeping with Israel’s longstanding policy of using the West Bank to serve its own needs and purposes, while disregarding the needs and rights of the local Palestinians, said the Israeli information center for human rights in occupied territories, B’Tselem.

In constructing the barrier, Israel broke up contiguous Palestinian urban and rural blocs, severed inter-community ties that had been forged and cemented over the course of many generations, and abruptly imposed an arbitrary reconfiguration of space based on settlement boundaries and to suit the convenience of Israeli security forces, it said.

T.R.