BETHLEHEM, Friday, May 28, 2021 (WAFA) – Illegal Israeli settlers today took over three dunums of Palestinian-owned land in the village of Kisan, to the east of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, according to Ahmad Ghazal, the deputy mayor of the village.
Ghazal told WAFA that hardcore Israeli settlers from the illegal settlements of Maale Amos and Ibi HaNahal broke into a Palestinian-owned land near the village, and embarked on levelling land and installing power poles, seats and umbrellas in what seems to be a prelude to establish a settler-only park.
This came only a day after the Israeli occupation authorities okayed the construction of 560 housing units in the illegal settlement of Maale Amos.
There are over 700,000 colonial Israeli settlers living in Jewish-only settlements across the West Bank in violation of international law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention which expressly bans the relocation of the occupying nation’s civilian population to the land of the occupied.
According to Israeli rights group B’Tselem, Israel has used a complex legal and bureaucratic mechanism to take control of more Palestinian land in the West Bank.
The principal tool used to take control of land is to declare it “state land.” This process began in 1979 and is based on a manipulative implementation of the Ottoman Land Law of 1858. Other methods employed by Israel to take control of land include seizure for military needs, declaration of land as “abandoned assets,” and the expropriation of land for public needs.
Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)