Israel confiscates 1,000 acres of Palestinian land south of Bethlehem

[Falcon29]

Israel confiscates 1,000 acres of Palestinian land south of Bethlehem | Maan News Agency

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli authorities on Sunday announced the confiscation of around 4,000 dunums (1,000 acres) of private Palestinian land south of Bethlehem in the southern West Bank.

Palestinian owners of the land were given 45 days to submit formal objections to the announcement in Israeli courts, otherwise all confiscated lands would automatically become Israeli government property.

Mayor of the nearby Palestinian town of Surif Muhammad Ghuneimat told Ma'an that Israeli forces posted signs in private olive tree orchards in the area warning that they have been confiscated by the Israeli government.

Ghuneimat added that the confiscated fields belonged to Palestinians from the towns of Surif, Husan, al-Jabaa and Bethlehem.

The announcement reportedly came as a response by Israeli political authorities in response to the abduction and killing of three Israeli teens in the area near Gush Etzion settlement bloc in June.

Israel has named three Palestinians from the southern West Bank city of Hebron as being behind the murders, without providing evidence.

Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now expressed alarm at the move.

"As far as we know, this declaration is unprecedented in its scope since the 1980s and can dramatically change the reality in the Gush Etzion and the Bethlehem areas," it said in a statement.

"Peace Now views this declaration as proof that Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu does not aspire for a new 'Diplomatic Horizon,' but rather he continues to put obstacles to the two-state vision and promote a one-state solution.

"By declaring another 4,000 dunams as state land, the Israeli government stabs (Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas) and the moderate Palestinian forces in the back, proving again that violence delivers Israeli concessions while non-violence results in settlement expansion," it said.

Peace Now official Hagit Ofran told AFP that the legal basis for such land confiscation was an 1858 ruling by the region's Ottoman rulers.

Part of the lands being confiscated are already home to the illegal Jewish settlement of Gvaot, part of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc.

Local settlers moved into the area and took over Palestinian land with military support more than a decade ago, but have been living in an area technically unrecognized by Israeli authorities despite their armed protection.

The Etzion settlements council welcomed Sunday's announcement, saying in a statement that it "paves the way for the new city of Gevaot."

"The goal of the murderers of those three youths was to sow fear among us, to disrupt our daily lives and to call into doubt our right to the land," it said. "Our response is to strengthen settlement."

Since mid-June, Israeli authorities have announced more than 1,472 new settlement homes, slated to house around 6,000 Jewish settlers, across the West Bank, including around Bethlehem.

...........................
So because three illegal occupying settlers(we were told 19, 16,16 but they all look like adults) were told to have been killed(By what or whom we don't really know, Israel just assigns their deaths to Palestinians for these purposes) they see it as a right to displace 1/3 of Gaza's residents and destroy a huge portion of the infrastructure specifically to punish the Palestinians for being on their land.

The message to the Palestinians is to leave, you will have no security/prosperity in your own land and the West will support us in this process. The war has always been against all Palestinians.

...........

 

[Falcon29]

Israel Claims 400 Hectares In West Bank For 'State Use'

Israel has announced it is to expropriate 400 hectares (988 acres) of land near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.

According to an AFP report, the Israeli military has said: "On the instructions of the political echelon… 4,000 dunams at (the settlement of) Gevaot is declared as state land."

The announcement comes four days after a month-long conflict in the Gaza Strip ended with a long-term ceasefire between Gaza and Israel.

Israel's settlements in the West Bank are a key cause of tension between the state and the Palestinian Authority.

In June Israeli lawmakers pressed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to release information about the rising levels of funding for the West Bank settlements, claiming the secrecy is unjustified.

The international community, including the Red Cross, United Nations, and the International Court of Justice, have ruled that Israel's settlements in the West Bank are illegal, as they break laws set out in the Fourth Geneva Convention.

.......................

Another example of state sponsored violence. Israel says they need the land for 'state use'. If you resist this land grabbing you will be killed at the point of a gun. Israel will then declare it a 'military post' for a couple weeks. Months later it becomes another Israeli settlement bloc in this colonization project.

...........

 

[Hack-Hook]

I'm sure Palestinian themselves ceded the land to Israel Government to made some brand new settlement for the Chosen people . honestly who in its right mind believe that Israel do such thing as stealing other peoples land illegally .

 

[As is - where is]

FFS Israel...

 

[C130]

acre by acre the Holy Land will be restored to it's former glory

 

[Falcon29]

Don't forget during the assault on Gaza, new settlement construction in East Jerusalem had begun:

Israel started construction on hundreds of housing units in the West Bank and Jerusalem since its assault on the Gaza Strip began in early July, Palestinian experts on settlement issues in the West Bank said.

Experts told the Anadolu news agency that Israel has refrained from announcing ongoing construction work in the new housing units to avoid further tensions in the West Bank and more international pressure during the war.

Anadolu's correspondent reported settlement expansion activities since the beginning of the war on Gaza, wherein Israel annexed more Palestinian agricultural land to build new housing units in settlements that are located on the road linking Nablus, north of the West Bank, with Ramallah in the centre.

The correspondent said that according to eyewitnesses, there is ongoing construction work in the northern Jordan Valley and in Bethlehem, south of the West Bank.

"Israel unofficially gave settlers the green light to carry out construction work in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, especially inside large settlement areas, without tendering or licensing [for new construction]," said Suhail Khalilieh, a researcher at the Applied Research Institute in Jerusalem (ARIJ).

"Relevant bodies will work later, after the end of the war, on issuing official decisions to license them," he added.

"Through daily monitoring of tenders for the construction of new settlement or housing units published in Israeli media, we can notice that there is a significant decrease [in the number of tenders] in comparison to the situation before the war on Gaza," Khalilieh added, noting that the Israeli government is adopting the policy of "silent settlement expansion" likely because it fears an increase in popular anger in the West Bank and a rise in international pressures on Israel.

Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settlement activity in the north of the West Bank, said that settlement construction in the West Bank has not stopped but rather it is witnessing abnormal growth amid silence from Israeli officials. Daghlas pointed out that settlement construction has increased by 60 per cent.

He said that settlers' attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank have decreased amid the war on Gaza, noting that this can be attributed to the fear of the outbreak of a new uprising in the West Bank, which is not preferred by the Israeli authorities especially during the Gaza war.

"The West Bank has witnessed a decline in the number of Israeli attacks during the war on Gaza. There is a desire to avoid popular rage," he said.

Another expert who specialises in settlement activity, Abdul Hadi Hantash, classified settlement construction into two categories: The first is publicly announced construction, and the second is discrete construction that the Israeli authorities do not unveil.

Hantash told Anadolu that since the beginning of the Gaza war, Israel has accelerated discrete construction, adding that building has been concentrated in large settlement areas such as Gush Etzion - near Bethlehem, Ma'ale Adumim - in East Jerusalem, and Ariel - in the north of the West Bank).


While Gaza war rages, Israel quietly speeds up settlement construction in the West Bank and Jerusalem

 

[Alienoz_TR]

acre by acre the Holy Land will be restored to it's former glory

Remember Crusades?!

 

[Falcon29]

acre by acre the Holy Land will be restored to it's former glory

Holy Land for...?

A more realistic option would be the Two-State solution with Jerusalem as an international capital since it's holy to more than one denomination.

 

[flamer84]

Holy Land for...?

A more realistic option would be the Two-State solution with Jerusalem as an international capital since it's holy to more than one denomination.

For once we agree.An international city opened to all 3 Abrahamic faiths and their Holy places.

Remember Crusades?!

Don't you get tired of mentioning them...800 years down the line ?

 

[Falcon29]

For once we agree.An international city opened to all 3 Abrahamic faiths and their Holy places.

I was also thinking of an equally represented Parliament/local government split into thirds based off the three Abrahamic faiths. So this government will regulate local affairs.

 

[Alienoz_TR]

Don't you get tired of mentioning them...800 years down the line ?

People like mentioning and praising Salahuddin too much. I on the other side like Baibars (Senior Leopard). He defeated both Crusaders, Armenians and Mongols on three different fronts.

If I had come to life again, I would have been a historian.

 

[flamer84]

I was also thinking of an equally represented Parliament/local government split into thirds based off the three Abrahamic faiths. So this government will regulate local affairs.

More of a city council ,it sounds ok.An open city for all believers.Let's face it,it's important for all 3 religions,as long as one holds it,the others would feel pushed aside.Time to burry the hatchet and even make Jerusalem a micro example how these 3 faiths can coexist,if we can.

People like mentioning and praising Salahuddin too much. I on the other side like Baibars (Senior Leopard). He defeated both Crusaders, Armenians and Mongols on three different fronts.
If I had come to life again, I would have been a historian.

Indeed,but in hindsight i think the Crusades helped the Turks to.Who knows where Byzantium would have been if not for the 4th Crusade,so,you see,they were just as devastating to christians as they were to muslims.

 

[Falcon29]

More of a city council ,it sounds ok.An open city for all believers.Let's face it,it's important for all 3 religions,as long as one holds it,the others would feel pushed aside.Time to burry the hatchet and even make Jerusalem a micro example how these 3 faiths can coexist,if we can.

.

That's the word I was looking for. I don't know why I was saying parliament.

A city council would be perfect for an international Jerusalem. Proceeds from international tourism could go to maintaining holy sites, into local economy and so on....

 

[C130]

Remember Crusades?!

yeah good times for all sides.
adventure, glory, faith, etc etc

 

[Alienoz_TR]

Indeed,but in hindsight i think the Crusades helped the Turks to.Who knows where Byzantium would have been if not for the 4th Crusade,so,you see,they were just as devastating to christians as they were to muslims.

OFFTOPIC. Sorry for pulling the thread out of its content.

If Crusades would not have happened, Byzantium would have fallen sooner. Before 1096, Turks had occupied Izmir (smyrna), and Iznik (Nicaea). Turks even prepared a fleet to lay siege on Straits under the command of Chaka Beg. But Crusaders pushed Turks back to Konya (Iconium) after 1096.

Nicaea was retaken only in early 14th century. Between 1300-1320, forgot the exact date. And Izmir/Smyrna was retaken by Tamerlane from Knights of St. John in 1402. That makes 200-300 years time to recover what was once lost.