An Israeli flag is seen in front of the West Bank Jewish settlement of Maaleh Adumim. (photo: AP)
West Bank: Israel Seizes Largest Amount of Land in Years
16 March 16
Plans for expanding nearby Jewish settlements and building tourism and other commercial facilities were already on Israel's drawing board.
srael has once again appropriated large tracts of land in the occupied West Bank near the Dead Sea and the Palestinian city of Jericho, Reuters report the Israeli Army Radio as saying Tuesday.
Israel's Peace Now movement, which tracks and opposes illegal Israeli settlements in territory captured in the 1967 war, said the reported seizure of 579 acres (234 hectares) represented the largest colonization of land in the West Bank in recent years.
The group said plans for expanding illegal Jewish settlements and building tourism and other commercial facilities in the area were already on Israel's drawing board.
Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat called on the international community to press Israel to stop land confiscations. Palestinians in the occupied territories have condemned Israel’s intentions and have received vocal support from the international community in the past.
The U.S. State Department criticized the land seizure, saying ongoing expropriations and settlement expansions were "fundamentally undermining the prospects for a two-state solution."
"We strongly oppose any steps that accelerate settlement expansion, which raises serious questions about Israel's long-term intentions," State Department spokesperson John Kirby told a news briefing.
Asked about Army Radio's report of the land confiscation, Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon's office said "We are not relating to the issue."
Photos of a de facto Israeli confiscation notice - a Hebrew map and accompanying documents titled "A declaration of government property" - were tweeted, however, by the Palestine Liberation Organization Tuesday.
Dated March 10, it listed 2,342 dunams, or 579 acres, and carried the signature of an official identified on the map as Israel's "supervisor of government property and abandoned property in Judea and Samaria", Hebrew terms for the West Bank.
Such an appropriation would be the largest since August 2014, and larger than the 380 acre (154 hectares) area that Israel first said in January it planned to designate as government property near the Dead Sea. News of those plans drew international condemnation at the time.
Israel says it intends to keep large settlement blocs in any future peace agreement with the Palestinians. Palestinians, who seek to establish a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, say they fear Israeli settlement expansion will deny them a viable country.
Palestinians have cited Israeli settlement activity as one of the factors behind the collapse of U.S.-brokered peace talks in 2014, and a surge of violence over the past five months has dimmed hopes negotiations could be revived any time soon.
Since October, Palestinian street attacks are said to have killed 28 Israelis and two U.S. citizens. Israeli forces have killed at least 184 Palestinians.
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