This Friday, the Israeli government claimed 800 hectares of land in the West Bank, the largest occupation of Palestinian territory since the Oslo peace accords in 1993, according to Israeli anti-colonization organization Peace Now.
The statement was made by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right figure who heads the Defense Ministry department responsible for resolving disputes.
The lands in question are located in the Jordan Valley, an area traditionally inhabited by Palestinian farmers and which Israel intends to annex into the neighboring settlement of Yafit.
The area declared “public land” by Israel joins the 264 hectares declared on February 29 between the settlements of Maale Adumim and Keidar near Jerusalem.
It is the largest area of Palestinian land designated as part of Israel’s colonial project in the West Bank since the Oslo Accords, said Peace Now, an Israeli non-governmental organization (NGO) that documents colonization in Palestinian territories occupied by Israel. since 1967.
Peace Now guarantees that with Benjamin Netanyahu’s new far-right settler-backed government, 2024 will already set a record for the amount of land declared as public property.
Israel’s finance minister also announced approval for the construction of 3,500 additional homes in these settlements in response to a Palestinian attack at the entrance to Ma’ale Adumim last month that left a settler dead.
“The declaration of public lands is one of the main methods by which the State of Israel seeks to establish control over the occupied territories,” World Today explained, as quoted by the Spanish news agency Efe.
Claimed state lands are no longer considered private property in the eyes of Israel and Palestinians are not allowed to use them as the state only leases them to Israelis for settlement expansion, which is illegal by international standards.
Israel declared thousands of hectares of public land in the 1980s, and the government of then Israeli Prime Minister Isaac Rabin suspended the move in 1992 to facilitate peace negotiations that led to the Oslo Accords.
These agreements provided for the creation of a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders.
However, Netanyahu returned to the settlement method in 1998, and since then more than 4,000 hectares of Palestinian land have become state property.
“Netanyahu and Smotrich are determined to fight against the whole world and against the interests of the people of Israel for the benefit of a handful of settlers who receive hundreds of hectares, as if there is no political conflict to resolve or war to end,” lamented “The World.” Now”.
The Foreign Ministry of the Palestinian National Authority (PAN), which governs small areas of the West Bank, condemned the decision announced by Minister Smotrich, especially since it was made just hours before the US Foreign Secretary arrived in Israel. State Antony Blinken to promote a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
“Israel’s plan to expand settlements is a crime in the truest sense of the word. This is part of the official policy to annex the West Bank and eliminate the possibility of materializing a Palestinian state,” the PNP said.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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