Israel seizes more Palestinian land for settlement construction

Israeli authorities have confiscated thousands of square meters of private Palestinian land in the southern West Bank to expand a settlement in blatant violation of international law and defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions condemning Tel Aviv regime’s land expropriation and settlement expansion policies in the occupied territories.

On Sunday, the Wall and Settlement Resistance Committee lodged an appeal to the so-called Israeli Supreme Court, denouncing the Israeli regime’s seizure of approximately 1,200 dunams (1.2 square kilometers) of Palestinian-owned land.

Hassan Bureija, head of the committee, told the Arabic-language Voice of Palestine radio station that Israeli officials have granted 1,182 dunams (1.18 square kilometers) of private Palestinian land to the Israeli Ministry of Construction and Housing in order to erect an outpost south of Bethlehem, situated about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) south of Jerusalem al-Quds.

On November 18, Palestinian chief negotiator and Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Saeb Erekat, said the Israeli regime is forcibly displacing the Palestinian population to advance its settlement expansion projects.

“Israel continues to forcibly transfer the Palestinian population for the sake of expansion and consolidation of its illegal colonial settlement activities on lands belonging to the State of Palestine,” he said in a statement.

“As a result of the international community's failure to hold Israel accountable, Israeli war crimes continue to deny Palestine the right to exist. UN member states and international organizations must immediately assume their responsibilities, specifically those that fall under the Fourth Geneva Convention and Hague regulations, to protect the Palestinian nation. The United Nations must also fulfill its obligations in accordance with international law and resolutions, including Security Council Resolution 2334,” Erekat commented.

Less than a month before US President Donald Trump took office, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 2334, calling on Israel to “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem” al-Quds.

About 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.

The last round of Israeli-Palestinian talks collapsed in 2014. Among the major sticking points in those negotiations was Israel’s continued settlement expansion on Palestinian territories.

Trump backtracked on Washington’s support for a “two-state solution” last year, saying he would support any solution favored by both sides.

“Looking at two-state or one-state, I like the one that both parties like. I’m very happy with the one both parties like. I can live with either one,” the US president said during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington on February 15, 2017.

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