Israel Orders the confiscation of lands in Bethlehem and Hebron Governorates

On January 19^th, 2011, the Israeli Civil Administration has issued a military order to confiscate more Palestinian lands in Al Khader village in Bethlehem area and Beit Ummer town in Hebron Governorate which states the confiscation of 62.5 dunums of lands for the sake of establishing a religious school (yeshiva in Hebrew). The military order holds number 495 and aims at amending the land use from agricultural to an educational institution.

 

Table 1: Israeli Military order no. 495
No.	Community Name	Land Area (Dunum)
1	Beit Ummer	14.3
2	Al Khader	48.2
Total		62.5
Source: The Geographical Information department – ARIJ, 2011

 

 

 

An analysis conducted by the Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem (ARIJ) to the military order showed that the targeted land lies between the settlements of Efrat and Migdal Oz southwest Bethlehem city which are part of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc. and to the east of the Israeli bypass road number 60. Both settlements were established on lands originally owned by Palestinians of Al Khader, Artas and Beit Fajjar villages in Bethlehem area and Beit Ummer town in Hebron Governorate but were confiscated from their owners over the last decades for colonial purposes. The analysis also showed that part of the targeted land falls under the so called Israeli classification ‘State Land’. It is worth mentioning that the announcement of the land as a ‘State Land’ was the primary method that was used by the successive Israeli Governments ever since Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip for the implementation of many colonial plans in the Palestinian Territory such as settlement building, expansion, road construction, military bases …etc.

 

It is important to note that the targeted land is already occupied by a number of Buildings and caravans. These buildings are used by Yosef-Hamivtar religious school (Yeshivat Torat Yosef-Hamivtar) which was established 30 years ago and provides Talmud and Torah education to 30-40 Israeli students. This shows that the land in question is already a religious school and it has never been used for agricultural purposes as the military order proposes, but rather, the military order will allow for the development of this religious school into an educational institution which of course, will cause the confiscation of more Palestinian lands in the area.  Map 1

 

 

For decades, Israel has resorted to take various measures to confiscate Palestinian owned lands for the various Israeli purposes such as settlement building, road construction, establishment of military bases and many other military usages in the occupied Palestinian territory under the multiple motives, including religious, political, economic, and psychological. Not forgetting to mention that Settlement activity in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is the cornerstone of Israel’s thinking and the foundation upon which the State of Israel was established and continued to grow over the years.

 

Israel’s refusal to stop settlement building ignores a mass of UN resolutions which call for ending such activity. UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution 446 of 1979 ‘Determines that the policy and practices of Israel in establishing settlements in the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967 have no legal validity and constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East’; also UNSC resolution 465 of 1980 ‘determines that all measures taken by Israel to change the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure or status of the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, or any part thereof, have no legal validity and that Israel’s policy and practices of settling parts of its population and new immigrants in those territories constitute a flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and also constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East;

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[1] United Nations Resolution 446 (1979) on Israeli West Bank Settlements

[2]  UN SC Resolution 465: Resolution 465 (1980) Adopted by the Security Council at its 2203rd meeting on 1 March 1980