Confiscation of building materials for a mosque in the Khallet Hassan area of Salfit Governorate

September 23, 2020

• Violation: confiscation of building materials.
• Location: Khallet Hassan – Bidya town / Salfit governorate.
• Violation Date: 23/09/2020.
• Perpetrators: the Israeli Occupation Army.
• Affected party: Residents of Bidya town.

Violation details:

On Wednesday morning, 23/09/2020, the Israeli occupation army, accompanied by the so-called Civil Administration personnel, raided the “Khallet Hassan” area in the northeastern part of the town of Bidya. They arrived at the Al-Mourabitoun Mosque, whose construction had begun recently, and confiscated a quantity  of iron rods intended for building the mosque’s foundations, and left behind a confiscation report bearing the number (01016).

Photo 1: copy of the confiscation materials’ report

Photo 2: The construction site of the mosque

It is noteworthy that the town of Bidya is constantly exposed to attacks by settlers against farmers and land in  “Khallet Hassan” area, the last of which was on September 17, 2020, when hundreds of olive plants were cut down, retaining stone walls and agricultural service rooms  destroyed.   In turn, the citizens of Bidya and neighboring villages began a weekly protest and Friday prayers on the site. Then, they decided to get a mosque built on a piece of land donated by a citizen form Bidya, and the actual work began on September 15, 2020. Before completing the construction of the bases, the Israeli occupation forces and the Civil Administration stormed the site and confiscated building materials. It is noteworthy that the Khallet Hassan area is considered one of the targeted areas that the occupation seeks to control due to its large area (4 thousand dunams), and the beginning was in 1983 when Israeli companies controlled about 1,200 dunams of their lands by falsifying purchase contracts. The Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission recently  succeeded in regaining 900  dunums of its land from the Israeli companies.

With regard to controlling this area, the occupation aims to link the settlements of Karni Shomron, Ma’aleh Shimron, Nofim and Givat Yair together.

Recently, Palestinian  farmers and land owners in the towns of Bidya and Kafr Thulth began a process of rehabilitating and cultivating the lands there, but this did not satisfy the occupation who try their best  to stop these efforts.

Bidya town:

The town of Bidya is located 25 km from the eastern side of the city of Nablus, and it is bordered on the north by Deir Istia and Kafr Thulth, and on the west by Saniria, Masha and Zawiya, and from the east by Qarawat Bani Hassan and Sarta, and from the south by Kafr al-Dik

• Its population was 10,451 people in the census of  2017.
• Its total area is 13,827 dunums, of which 1,367 dunums are built-up areas.

Land confiscation:

The occupation authorities confiscated an area of 637 dunums of its lands, as followed:

• 1- The “Ariel” industrial zone, which was established in 1999, looted 17 dunums of the lands of Bidya town.
• 2- Bypass roads  numbers 505 and 5 looted an area of 620 dunams.
• 3- The Israeli occupation plans to erect the Expansion and Annexation  Wall on the lands of the town at the  length of 4118  meters which will destroy  411 dunams under its path and isolate about 3,690 dunums behind it.

Land classification of Bidya town according to Oslo Agreement:

• Areas classified as B (2,045 donums).
• Areas classified as C ( 11,782 dunums)