Israel has authorized the largest land grab in the occupied West Bank in more than 30 years, according to the Israeli NGO Peace Now.
Israeli authorities have approved the seizure of 12.7 square kilometers of land in the Jordan River Valley, Peace Now said in a statement. According to the group, which opposes the construction of Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, it is the biggest land grab since the 1993 Oslo Accords.
The plots are adjacent to and located northeast of the West Bank city of Ramallah, home to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority. Declaring them state land, the Israeli government allowed them to be rented to Israelis and prohibited private ownership by Palestinians.
Israeli authorities approved the purchase of the land at the end of July. They previously approved a ban on eight square kilometers of the West Bank in March and 2.6 square kilometers in February.
The decision to seize more of the land Palestinians want for their future state is likely to heighten tensions in the West Bank, where Israeli attacks and clashes with Palestinian groups have increased since the start of Israel’s offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinians want their own state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in the 1967 war and now administered by Hamas.
Israel annexed East Jerusalem and occupied the West Bank. Israel has been waging war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip since last October.
Most of the countries of the world and the Palestinians consider the construction of Jewish settlements illegal from the point of view of international law and an obstacle on the way to peace. It is estimated that there are now more than half a million Jewish settlers who hold Israeli citizenship in the occupied West Bank.
Three million Palestinians in the West Bank face a seemingly endless military occupation. The Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the West Bank, cannot operate in the 60 percent of this territory where settlements are located. At the same time, they territorially divide the area where the Palestinians want to have a future state.
Israel claims to inhabit a territory to which its nation is bound by biblical, historical and political ties.
