Israel plans largest seizure of Palestinian land since 2014
Reports from 1) Palestine Monitor and 2) Business Insider.
Jordan Valley south of Jericho seen the day before Israel confirmed it was planning to appropriate a large tract of fertile land near Jericho in the occupied West Bank. Photo by Mohamad Torokman/ Reuters
Israel seizes land in Jordan Valley in largest land appropriation since 2014
By Sara Cuña, Palestine Monitor
January 27, 2016
Last week, the Israeli Government announced plans to appropriate 380 acres of fertile agricultural land in the Jordan Valley, the largest Israeli land seizure in 30 years.
Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon formalised the plan saying the land, just south of the occupied Palestinian city of Jericho, “[is] in the final stages of being declared state land.”
Hanan Ashrawi, an official from the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, responded saying, “Israel is stealing land specially in the Jordan Valley under the pretext it wants to annex it.”
“This should be a reason for a real and effective intervention by the international community to end such a flagrant and grave aggression, which kills all chances of peace,” she added.
According to the Jordan Valley Solidarity campaign, the agricultural land is near the illegal settlement of Almog, established in the ’70s.
The seizure comes as no surprise, Hashidi Radir, a Jordan Valley Solidarity coordinator told Palestine Monitor.
Driving along Highway 90, a highway dotted with Israeli settlements and Area C agricultural lands under full israeli military control, he explained that Israel’s plans to seize the land is routine.
“First, they claim the land as a military zone as a protection measure since they surround existing settlements, and then they proceed to use it for agricultural purposes or build on it,” Radir said.
Later, he said, Israeli authorities annex the land, expanding nearby settlements, or just building new ones.
“This has been the plan all along,” Radir estimates. “It’s just becoming more and more obvious,” he said, looking at the shops and gas stations, which exist for the use of settlers.
Meanwhile, he said, “closed military zones allow the IDF to evict people out of their houses, block roads, confiscate land.”
One example of these military abuses of the Palestinian community is Jannat’s family. She is 48 years old, a mother of four daughters and one son, and wife to sick husband who cannot work. Her house was destroyed in one of the villages in Area C about six years ago.
Several communities from the Jordan Valley organize and give housing to evicted families. But the conditions are barely liveable.
Jannat’s new house has no electricity, bathroom, kitchen or privacy, whatsoever. Her children walk every day to school on a dangerous road.
“It’s hard [for my children] to keep up with the studies when [they] come home to this,” she explained as she poured us some tea she had to made with the neighbour’s water, since the water pipes don’t reach their house.
Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem has reported numerous cases of agricultural damage, house demolitions, and other forms of harassment to the Palestinian communities in Area C in the Jordan Valley in past weeks. According to the organisation, these actions, led by the IDF or settlers themselves, constitute an effort to reduce Palestinian presence in Area C.
The Israeli seizure has been publicly criticized by the both US and the UN. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, said:
Settlement activities are a violation of international law and run counter to the public pronouncements of the government of Israel supporting a two-state solution of the conflict.
According to B’tselem, the annual growth rate for the Israeli settler population, excluding East Jerusalem, is more than two and a half times higher than the overall population in Israel.
In addition to the settlements, which amount to approximately 1,365 hectares of Palestinian land, industrial and agricultural land administered by settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories cover almost the double of that amount, according to a recent report by Human Rights Watch [Get your business out of the oPt says Human Rights Watch].
Israel confirms it plans to seize West Bank land
By Maayan Lubell, Reuters /Business Insider
January 21, 2016
Palestinian Chief negotiator Saeb Erekat holds a map as he speaks to media about the Israeli plan to appropriate land, in Jordan Valley near the West Bank city of Jericho, January 20, 2016. Photo by Mohamad Torokman /Reuters
JERUSALEM — Israel confirmed on Thursday [Jan 21st]it was planning to appropriate a large tract of fertile land in the occupied West Bank, close to Jordan, a move likely to exacerbate tensions with Western allies and already drawing international condemnation.
In an email sent to Reuters, Cogat, a unit of the Defence Ministry, said the political decision to seize the territory had been taken and “the lands are in the final stages of being declared state lands.”
The appropriation, first reported by Israel’s Army Radio, covers 380 acres in the Jordan Valley close to Jericho, an area where Israel already has many settlement farms built on land Palestinians seek for a state.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement on Wednesday denouncing the land seizure, which is the largest appropriation in the West Bank since August 2014.
“Settlement activities are a violation of international law and run counter to the public pronouncements of the government of Israel supporting a two-state solution to the conflict,” Ban said in a statement.
The land, already partly farmed by Jewish settlers in an area under Israeli civilian and military control, is situated near the northern tip of the Dead Sea. The Palestinians denounced the appropriation plan on Wednesday.
The United States, whose ambassador angered Israel this week with criticism of its West Bank policy, said late on Wednesday it was strongly opposed to any move that accelerated settlement expansion.
“We believe they’re fundamentally incompatible with a two-state solution and call into question, frankly, the Israeli government’s commitment to a two-state solution,” deputy State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to make a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday. It was not immediately clear whether he would address the issue or whether foreign diplomats would raise their concerns with him.
The Palestinians want to establish an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, areas Israel captured in the 1967 war in the Middle East.
About 550,000 Jewish settlers are living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to Israeli government and think-tank statistics. About 400,000 Palestinians live in East Jerusalem and 2.7 million in the West Bank.
Israel is hoping that in any final agreement with the Palestinians it will be able to keep large settlement blocs close to Jerusalem and the Israeli border, as well as in the Jordan Valley, for security and agricultural purposes. The Palestinians are adamantly opposed.
The latest round of peace talks broke down in April 2014, and Israeli-Palestinian violence has surged in recent months.
Since the start of October, Palestinian stabbings, car-rammings and shootings have killed 25 Israelis and a US citizen. In the same period, at least 148 Palestinians have been killed, 94 of whom Israel has described as assailants. Most of the others died during violent demonstrations.