Israel claims 400 hectares in West Bank for ‘state use’

Israel has announced plans to expropriate 400 hectares of land in the
occupied West Bank in a move Palestinian officials fear will only cause
more friction after the Gaza conflict.
The announcement concerning land south of Bethlehem, inside what
Israelis call the Etzion bloc of settlements, comes after Israel determined
the land was not cultivated with enough intensity for the Palestinians to
maintain their ownership rights.
Signs have already been posted on the land by military administrators
saying “state land – no trespassing”. Dror Etkes, head of the Kerem Navot
NGO which specialises in West Bank land issues, said: “There is enough
territory for a very big settlement with thousands of units.”
The notice published by the military gave no reason for the decision, but
Israel Radio said the step was taken in response to the kidnapping and
killing of three Jewish teenagers in the area in June.
Peace Now, which opposes Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank,
said the appropriation was meant to turn a site where 10 families now live
adjacent to a Jewish seminary into a permanent settlement.
Danny Dayan, a settler leader, denied that rightful owners would be
dispossessed, stressing that people with a claim can lodge an appeal
within 45 days.
Other settler leaders praised the land declaration as an appropriate
response to the murder of three Israeli teens. “The goal of the murderers
of the three youths was to sow fear and disrupt our living routine and our
answer is strengthening settlement and building,’’ Davidi Perl, head of the
local settlements council, said.
In Israel’s view, building in the area would not constitute a new settlement
because the site is officially designated a neighbourhood of an existing
one, Alon Shvut.
Construction of a major settlement at the location, known as "Gevaot",
has been mooted by Israel since 2000. Last year, the government invited
bids for the building of 1,000 housing units at the site.
Peace Now said the land seizure was the largest announced by Israel in the
West Bank since the 1980s. A local Palestinian mayor said Palestinians
owned the tracts and harvested olive trees on them.
Israel has been long criticised by the international community for its
settlement activities, which most countries regard as illegal under
international law and a major obstacle to the creation of a viable
Palestinian state in any future peace deal.