On the 15th of June 2015,”Walla” an Israeli Hebrew news website, published a report revealed that the Israeli Police station and the fire department in the Israeli settlement of Giv’at Ze’ev were built on Palestinian private land owned by Palestinians residents from Beituniya town in Ramallah Governorate.
According to the report, the targeted land where the Police station and fire department built, failed in the “Blue line team” test for classifying the land as “state land”. Moreover, the same case in Modi'in Illit settlement, where the fire department was built on a private Palestinian land located within the boundary of Ni’lin village west of Ramallah Governorate.
An analysis conducted by the Geo-informatics Department at ARIJ, confirmed that the Police Station as well as the fire Department in the illegal settlement of Giv’at Ze’ev were not built on what is Israel claimed as “State Lands”, but on private Palestinian lands expropriated from Palestinian residents from Beituniya town in Ramallah Governorate.
Furthermore, significant land space inside the claimed boundaries of the settlement used for the expansion of Giv’at Ze’ev. The expansion included the building of housing units ,parking, commercial and public buildings (including the police and fire departments aforementioned in report).
For Modi’in Illit settlement, the analysis showed that the fire department in the settlement wasn’t built in what is so-called “State land” and owned by Palestinians in Nil’in village, west of Ramallah city. Also, there are vast areas in the settlement didn’t classified as state land, but the Israeli Authorities used the lands to build the settlement and to expand it.
Obviously, the Israeli Authorities confiscated Palestinian lands under several illegal claims that contradicts with the status of Palestine as an occupied Territory according to the international law rules . Accordingly, these expropriations mainly aim to serve their colonial projects; such as building settlements, construction the segregation wall and opening new bypass road to benefit the Israeli settlers.
To make their actions legal, the Israeli authorities claimed that the land they aimed to confiscate classified as “State land”, and therefore to be able to use the land to build illegal settlements and expanding them. These two cases; Modi’in Illit and Giv’at Ze’ev settlements, are just two clear example for dozens of cases where the Israeli Authorities confiscated Palestinian lands under the pretext of “State land”, but the land failed in the “Blue line team” test. (Blue Line team: a team in the Israeli Civil Administration related to the Israeli Ministry of Defense. The sole scope of work of the team is to check the status of the Palestinian lands and to classify them if they are located within the “state land” zone or not. If the checked lands were classified and fall within “State Land” area, the blue line team inform the related authorities with results to push them toward expropriating the land ).
The Israeli settlement of Giva’t Ze’ev established in 1982, and located north of Jerusalem Governorate. The total area of the settlement reach to 2,998 dunums, this area were confiscated from Palestinian land in Beituniya town in Ramallah governorate and Al Jib and Beit Ijza villages in Jerusalem Governorate. The settlement inhabited by 12,632 settlers (population of 2011).
The Israeli settlement of Modi’in Iliit (Qiryat Sefer) established in 1991, and located west of Ramallah governorate. The total area of the settlement reach to 4,045 dunums and inhabited by 52,060 settlers (population of 2011).
Prepared by:
The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem
