Violation: changing 67 dunum of Yabrod and Silwad from agricultural lands to colonially residential
Date: 20/12/2013
Location: Palestinian agricultural lands located in the colony periphery
Perpetrators: Beit El colonists
Victims: not less than 20 agricultural family
Details:
In the context of land confiscation for the favor of colonial expansion, the Supreme Council- Inspection Sub-Committee of the Civil Administration featured, on20/12/2013, an advertisement in al-Quds newspaper page30 including a master plan, which is to change 67 agricultural dunum(confiscated in the eighties) for the sake of serving colonial expansion plans. This came for the favor of annexing new colonial units and service facilities in Beit El.
According to the advertisement, the targeted lands are located within the borders of Beit El and administratively relative to Ein Yabrod within the natural block no.2 pieces no.(96.120.119.95), natural block no.6 pieces no.(123,121,105,103,122,163,162,106), natural block no. 17 from the lands of Silwad pieces no(144,136,137,143,140) and natural block no.20 pieces (33,32).
Photo 1: the expansion works on Beit El
It should be marked that the Civil Administration has recently intensified operations of land confiscation and that is for the sake of colonial expansion. This could be done by changing the status of lands from agricultural to residential or lands for infrastructure development; the occupation has repeatedly done that in areas of the West Bank and Jerusalem to serve Israeli colonies.
All in all, those activities undertaken by the occupation aim at legitimizing the colonization and changing facts on the ground to hinder any futuristic treaty with the Palestinian side.
The colony of Ofra was established in 1975northeast of Ramallah governorate on lands confiscated from the villages of Silwad and Ein Yabrod. Now, it has an area of 900 confiscated dunum from the aforementioned villages. The colony carries a Canaanite name that has nothing to do with Jewish origins. Ofra has a population of 3100 colonists and has many facilities namely ( institute for girl, high school, post office, elementary school, a daycare, middle school, a gymnasium, public library, a dairy farm, poultry farm, and a gas station).
Prepared by
The Land Research Center
LRC
