Israel’s Largest West Bank Land Seizure in Decades Draws Criticism from Palestinians and UN

News Mania Desk/ Agnibeena Ghosh/5th July 2024

Palestinians and the United Nations have condemned what an anti-settlement watchdog identifies as Israel’s most extensive land seizure in the occupied West Bank in over thirty years. In June, Israel declared about 12.7 square kilometers (4.9 square miles) of the Jordan Valley as “state property,” effectively stripping Palestinians of private ownership and usage rights, according to the Peace Now group.

This declaration has created a “territorial continuity” between Israeli settlements in a crucial corridor bordering Jordan, as per Peace Now. A Palestinian official labeled the seizure as an attempt to dispossess Palestinians, while the UN criticized it as a regressive step for achieving a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right settler with authority over settlement policies in the coalition government, welcomed the declaration. Smotrich views the West Bank as part of a “Greater Israel.” Since the 1967 Middle East war, Israel has constructed approximately 160 settlements, housing around 700,000 Jews, on land that Palestinians seek for a future state.

The international community largely considers these settlements illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this. The recent land seizure, approved by Israel’s Civil Administration and publicized only recently, spans an area north of the settlement of Yafit. This area was previously designated as a nature reserve or Israeli military “fire area.”

Peace Now highlighted that the size of this land designation is the largest since the Oslo Accords of 1993, which aimed to establish Palestinian governance in parts of the West Bank and Gaza until a permanent peace agreement could be reached. The group noted that 2024 has seen a peak in land seizures, with 23.7 square kilometers seized since the year began, including 8 square kilometers connected to the settlement of Masua.

Peace Now accused Smotrich and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of prioritizing settler interests over resolving Israel’s political crisis or the ongoing conflict in Gaza. The group stressed the necessity of a political settlement that establishes a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric expressed disappointment, stating, “Frankly, it’s a step in the wrong direction. The direction we want to be heading is to find a negotiated two-state solution.” Muayyad Shaaban, head of the Palestinian Authority’s Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, described the seizure as part of a larger plan to control the eastern West Bank.

Israeli media reported that Smotrich celebrated the land declaration alongside news of the Israeli military’s Higher Planning Council advancing plans for 5,300 new settler homes in the West Bank. Additionally, the security cabinet recently decided to retroactively authorize five settlement outposts built without official government approval.

“Thank God, we are building and developing the settlements and thwarting the danger of a Palestinian state,” Smotrich was quoted as saying. Peace Now recently released a recording of Smotrich discussing moves that the group warned would lead to “de facto annexation” of the West Bank. These moves include transferring settlement management from the military to civilian officials, creating a “legalization bypass route” for settlement outposts, expanding agricultural outposts, and cracking down on unauthorized Palestinian construction.

In exchange for retroactively authorizing settlement outposts, Smotrich reportedly agreed to unfreeze three months of tax revenues withheld from the Palestinian Authority and to extend a waiver protecting Israeli banks working with Palestinian banks. The US had urged Israel to release these funds, warning that increased economic hardship for Palestinians could lead to more violence in the West Bank.

The UN reports that over 530 Palestinians and 14 Israelis have been killed in the territory since the start of the Gaza war, triggered by Hamas’s deadly attack on southern Israel on October 7.