Violation: establishing a new outpost
Location: Yatma village/ Nablus
Date: 10/08/2014
Perpetrators: Rahalim colonists
Details:
The southern Palestinian suburb of Nablus has been witnessing a wide-range targeting campaign on agricultural lands by the heavy machinery of the Israeli occupation. The occupation enforced colonial expansion in the West Bank and imposed the De facto policy. Spreading and building new outposts and watchtowers in the Palestinian suburb was the method by which the occupation achieved its colonial plans of expansion and lands confiscation.
There is no wonder that the colonies of Rahalim (located in Iskaka), Yasuf and Yatma (located to east Nablus) have been a priority on the Israeli agenda. The aforementioned colonies got a huge share of expansion to the instant that they enlarged three times in size.
A new outpost:
According to the LRC footage, a group of colonists were seen installing 9 caravans and building a military watchtower. In addition, a pool of water harvesting was built on a confiscated agricultural land from Yatma. Most parts of the targeted lands are considered colony security zone, which has been confiscated according to a military order (2001) under the pretext of Security purposes.
The new outpost is located 1km to the west of Rahalim. Noteworthy, an agricultural road was opened to link the colony with the outpost and that is how it became what it is now.
Photo 1: Rahalim colony
Colonists and soldiers exchange turns in looting lands:
Mr Ghassan Duglas, the man who is in charge of the colonial file in the West Bank, to the LRC stated: “It became more of a habit to build new outposts and even colonies on confiscated lands, which are were taken under the pretext of military purposes”.
He also added: “all the colonial expansion is undertaken on confiscated lands under the pretext of “security purposes” as claimed by the occupation. A number of colonies namely (Bracha, Alon Mori, Yitzhar, Rahalim, and Itmar) are live evidence of the colonial expansion plans”.
Duglas asserted that: “the legal department of Nablus governorate has been following up the complaint against colonists who confiscated the lands with no right. There has been a great coordination with attorneys and human rights organizations to win this fight between colonists and villagers”.
About Rahalim:
The colony started in 1990 as a confiscated land for the favor of building a military base in Yatma. In 2000, the Israeli occupation allowed colonists to install 19 caravans in the area.
Today, and after 12 years, Rahalim colony became one of the most confiscating colonies where it took over 450 dunums from the villages of Iskaka, Yasuf and Yatma( Geographical Information System –LRC). In addition, the occupation has been planning on establishing new outposts to found the so-called grater Rahalim.
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