Israel Seeking Settlement Move to Palestinian Land
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Israel is working to transplant an illegal West Bank settlement scheduled for demolition to Palestinian land nearby, effectively legalizing the rogue outpost, an Israeli NGO said Friday.
"They have started the process of taking land," Hagit Ofran, of settlement watchdog Peace Now, told Agence France Presse.
An advertisement bearing the crest of Israel's civil administration, a unit of the defense ministry in the occupied West Bank, appeared in Palestinian daily Al-Quds on Thursday listing several plots of land near the Amona settlement, north of Ramallah.
It said that they are considered to be the property of absentee Palestinian owners and therefore liable to seizure.
Anyone claiming legal ownership is invited to lodge objections within 30 days of the ad's publication, it said
"The civil administration has opened a process where it is announcing that it intends to make use of these properties which are near Amona," Ofran said.
"It can be assumed that the takeover's purpose is to allow the relocation of the settlers of Amona from the land they are currently occupying," a Peace Now statement added.
The United States said late Thursday it was "deeply concerned" by the Israeli plan.
"This would represent an unprecedented and troubling step that's inconsistent with prior Israeli legal opinion and counter to longstanding Israeli policy to not seize private Palestinian land for Israeli settlements," State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau told reporters.
Israel considers settlement outposts built without government approval to be illegal and sometimes sends security personnel to demolish them.
The international community considers all settlements built in the West Bank -- including annexed east Jerusalem -- to be illegal.
Amona, home to about 40 families, was built on lands privately owned by Palestinians, who successfully petitioned Israeli courts for the outpost's removal.
After repeated delays, the Supreme Court ordered the settlers' eviction and the demolition of their homes by December 25 this year.
The site being eyed for their relocation is just a few meters (yards) from the present location.
"In order to compensate a small group of settlers who stole private Palestinian lands, the Israeli government itself is now stealing private lands as well," the Peace Now statement said.
12 August 2016, 14:48
44
to this wahhabi lover call @terrorist one has to ask him simple questions, for example:
whom you prefer, the Israelis or the Palestinians: he will answer, the Israelis.
whom you prefer, the Saudis or the Lebanese: he will answer, the Saudis.
bearing in mind all his records regarding these issues.
12 August 2016, 18:58
30
If the Palestinians had wanted peace, they would have easily reached it 20 - 40 years ago, and Israel would not have been in the position to build on this land which would have been in the Independent State of Palestine.
13 August 2016, 04:48
10
glad you mentionned it philippo.
israhell deliberately destroyed every chance for peace exactly for that reason, with peace and/or a palestinian state the theft can't continue, and we all know without stolen land israel doesnt exist.
13 August 2016, 07:23
10
.mowaten - "and we all know without stolen land israel doesnt exist."
What utter nonsense you write. Israel didn't occupy the West Bank and Gaza until 1967 after the Arab States started their war again her, so are you saying that between 1948 and 1967 Israel didn't exist.
Please also remember that during those dates there was no such thing as a Palestinian people as the Arab States had refused to establish one at the UN vote on 29th November 1947. Israel never occupied a single centimetre of Palestinian land, the West Bank was Jordanian territory and the Gaza Strip was Egyptian. Until 1967 there was never a call against either of those two countries to recognise an Palestinian people and an independent Palestinian State.
Also remember that Yasser Arafat himself was not even born in the area, but in Cairo, which for the last 5,000 years has been part of Egypt.
