Housing projects in the Israeli settlement of Givat Zeev in the West Bank (Associated Press)
The Palestinian Wall and Settlement Resistance Authority announced today, Friday, that Israel carried out the largest seizure of West Bank lands in 30 years in 2024, claiming that they are state lands.
The head of the government body, Moayed Shaaban, said - in a statement - that the areas seized by the occupation under the name of state lands amounted to a total of 10,640 dunums (a dunum equals a thousand square metres), in two separate announcements.
He explained that the first announcement was about a month ago, when the occupation seized 2,640 dunums of land from the towns of Al-Eizariya and Abu Dis, east of the occupied city of Jerusalem.
As for the second announcement - according to the Palestinian official - it was today, when the occupation seized 8 thousand dunums of Jordan Valley lands - in the northern West Bank - in favor of expanding the Yafit settlement established on Palestinian land.
Forced displacement and colonial expansion
Earlier Friday, the Israeli Broadcasting Authority reported that 8,000 dunams had been allocated in the Jordan Valley as Israeli land for the construction of hundreds of housing units, in addition to an area designated for industry, trade, and employment.
The Commission quoted Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich - who signed the confiscation decision - as saying, “This announcement will allow the continued construction and strengthening of the Jordan Valley, at a time when there are those in Israel and the world seeking to undermine our right to Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and the country in general.”
Shaaban commented on this decision, saying that the occupation government is continuing its plan to seize control of Palestinian lands under various names, including declarations of state lands that turn them into favor of settlement.
He added that all recent state land declarations aim to create a link between existing colonies, which leads to the isolation and suffocation of Palestinian villages in the West Bank and the complete loss of their ability to communicate.
He pointed out that this targeting is considered a continuation of the plan to control the Jordan Valley, the strategic food reservoir for the Palestinians, which is the area targeted by many forced displacement plans, colonial expansion, and access denial.
Shaaban pointed out that more than 72% of colonial agricultural and pastoral outposts have become “a starting point for gangs of colonialists who call themselves (Hill Youth) to carry out many terrorist attacks against the Palestinians.”
According to publications by the Land Research Center (a Palestinian non-governmental institution), a special team in the Civil Administration of the Israeli Army is preparing to declare Palestinian lands as state lands, as the occupation army seizes them under the pretext of using them as camps or military training areas, and then they are later leaked. To the colonies.
Recently, Palestinian and Israeli human rights organizations indicated a noticeable increase in settlement activity in the West Bank since the formation of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government at the end of 2022.
According to Palestinian estimates, more than 720,000 Israelis reside in illegal settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
Source: Anadolu Agency