'More than one-third of illegal settlements built on private Palestinian land: ReportThe Associated Press
JERUSALEM: More than one-third of Israel's 122 West Bank settlements were built on land confiscated from private Palestinian owners on security grounds, including some erected after the Israeli Supreme Court outlawed such seizures three decades ago, the Haaretz newspaper reported on Monday.Israel's settlements, built on land captured in the 1967 Middle East war, have been a contentious enterprise throughout the decades, and a major source of friction with the Palestinians and the international community.Setlement critics maintain that international law allows the seizure of occupied territory, but only for military needs. In 1979 Israel's Supreme Court banned the military's widespread practice of seizing privately owned West Bank land on security grounds, then turning it over to settlers.The 44 settlements that Haaretz identified as being built on private Palestinian land are home to tens of thousands of Israelis. At least 19 were built after 1979, the newspaper said.Haaretz said it based its report on an Israeli military database whose publication the Defense Ministry is fighting. The Israeli military was not immediately available for comment.The data "prove that systematic land theft for the purpose of establishing settlements was carried out via a fictitious and completely illegal use of the term 'military necessity,'" Haaretz cited attorney Michael Sfard as saying. Sfard represents several Palestinians whose property has been taken over by settlers.The Haaretz article confirmed a report last year by the anti-settlement watchdog group, Peace Now, that about one-third of the land on which settlements stand was seized from private Palestinian owners, much of it after the Supreme Court ban. That report was based on information leaked from the Civil Administration, the Israeli military department responsible for administering civil affairs in the West Bank.Both reports challenge the government's claims that it stopped the land seizures after the ban was enacted.The Defense Ministry has refused to publish its data on settlements, but Peace Now and other organizations have gone to court to have it released under freedom of information laws. A month ago, the Defense Ministry told the court that releasing the information might "damage the state's security and foreign relations."An Israeli government official familiar with the case said at the time that Israel doesn't want the international community to know the true extent of the country's West Bank settlement activity. "Israel won't release the list because it doesn't want to be embarrassed diplomatically," he said.'
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