24 April 1996

NEW CONFISCATIONS IN RAMALLAH AND BETHLEHEM

TO "CLEANSE" AREAS OF THE WEST BANK

Land and Water Establishment

PO Box 20873

Jerusalem

Tel: (972) (2) 812364/824559

Fax: (972) (2) 811072

email: lawe@netvision.net.il

While the horrifying violence in Lebanon escalates and continues to occupy international attention, new Israeli orders confiscating Palestinian lands have been quietly published in the Arabic press. The Israeli military just announced another mass confiscation near Ramallah and Bethlehem, adding to the already significant new confiscations announced thus far in April. These latest confiscations dramatically highlight Israeli disregard for its obligations not to confiscate Palestinian land and not to alter the status quo in the West Bank before the final status negotiations. More importantly, these confiscations can be seen as part of a pattern to maximize areas around already existing settlements and to separate permanently West Bank residents from their land; in short, to make into reality before the final status negotiations the bantustanization of the West Bank, as reflected in the maps and agreement of Oslo II.

Following are details of the new land confiscations so far this month:

On 17 April, the Israeli OC Central Command, Major General Uzi Dayan (who has recently replaced Ilan Biran), published an announcement in the Arabic daily Al Quds that land was to be confiscated near Masha village in the Tulkarem district, and land belonging to the villages of Rafat, Ein Yabroud, Deir Dibwan and Mazra'ah el Qabiliyyah near Ramallah. This land lies in Area C (Area C is the area in the West Bank still under full Israeli occupation, and comprises roughly 70% of the West Bank). He stated that on 18 April a tour would be conducted to show landowners the location of the newly confiscated land, and that the confiscation orders and related maps would be made available for the 10 days following the publishing of the announcement. On 18 April, however, the Civil Administration official canceled the tour when he found a very large number of people waiting for it.

Also on 17 April, in a similar announcement, the Israeli Central Command stated that land would be confiscated from Nahaleen and Bet Ommar villages near Bethlehem. The tour to show affected landowners which land had been taken took place on 21 April, and the orders and maps were made available for the 10 days following the publishing of the announcement.

In an article in the Jerusalem Post, civil administration spokesperson Peter Lerner said that "The expropriations are for security reasons". Lerner stated that the land taken from the landowners would be used to expand the "security belts" around settlements, as called for in the new Israeli army regulations. Lerner's statement clearly reveals this Israeli policy of "cleansing", of ridding the area around settlements of a Palestinian presence.

In these and other areas of the West Bank, the confiscation of Palestinian land continues at a rapid pace:

• 300 dunums from El Dahariyyeh and Samoa villages near Hebron were seized for the Hebron-Halhoul by-pass road;
• 52.8 dunums of land were seized from Al Janiah and Mazra'ah al Qabiliyyah villages near Ramallah for a security road for Telmon A and Telmon B settlements (order #T35-1996);
• 12.5 dunums of land were seized in Tulkarem (order #T34-1996);
• 1.98 dunums of land seized in Bet Lid and Ramin villages near Tulkarem (order #T31-1996);
• 11.25 dunums seized from Nahalin and Bet Ommar villages near Bethlehem (order #T31-1996);
• 23,525 dunums of land were seized from Ein Yabroud village near Ramallah (order #T30-96);
• 7.8 dunums of land were confiscated from Der Dibwan near Ramallah (order #T22-1996);
• 36 dunums were confiscated in Arab Jerusalem to build 240 new units for the Jewish settlement of Pisgat Ze'ev, following the Jewish Jerusalem municipality's decision to expand that settlement;
• Thousands of dunums have been closed south of Qalqilya and east of Kufur Qassem near the green line for the implementation of the separation plan;
• An unspecified amount of land was confiscated in Rafat village, near Ramallah;
• An unspecified amount of land was closed in Wad Fouqin village between Bethlehem and the green line by order #T1-1996;
• A new skeleton plan has been announced for the settlements of Givat Ze'ev and Benyamin, in the Ramallah area, which will allow for the additional confiscation of lands from al Jib village (specifically plots #195, 275, 278, 368, 399, 400 and 652).

Many of these confiscation and seizure orders either do not specify the amount or which land has been taken, making appeal nearly impossible, or do not state the reason for the confiscations.

LAWE condemns in the strongest possible terms these new confiscations. The continuation of the total closure, now into its second month, and the accompanying economic strangulation of the Palestinian people, coupled with the daily loss of land and destruction of property, reveal a systematic Israeli policy of cleansing Palestinians from areas of the West Bank and separation of Palestinian areas from each other and from Israel. The "peace process" currently underway has lost its meaning in the face of these continuing violations.

LAWE is a grass-roots, Palestinian, non-governmental organization, which seeks to defend human rights through legal advocacy. LAWE is the West Bank affiliate of the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights.