Peace Now, an anti-settlement watchdog, has disclosed that Israeli authorities recently approved the seizure of 12.7 square kilometres (4.9 square miles) of land in the occupied West Bank, the largest appropriation in more than three decades.
According to the watchdog, it was the largest single appropriation approved since the 1993 Oslo accords at the start of the peace process.
It said that since the start of the year, Israel has declared 23.7 square kilometres (9.15 square miles) in the Palestinian territory as state land.
According to the PA, the land seizure was approved late last month but only publicised on Wednesday, July 3, 2024.
It comes after the seizure of 8 square kilometers (roughly 3 square miles) of land in the West Bank in March and 2.6 square kilometers (1 square mile) in February.
“That makes 2024 by far the peak year for Israeli land seizure in the West Bank,” Peace Now said.
The land parcels are contiguous and located north-east of the West Bank city of Ramallah, where the western-backed Palestinian Authority is headquartered.
By declaring them state lands, the Israeli government has opened them up to being leased to Israelis and prohibited private Palestinian ownership.
Prominent human rights organisations have pointed to Israel’s rule over the West Bank in accusing it of the international crime of apartheid, allegations Israel rejects as an attack on its legitimacy.
Israel’s far-right Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich has turbocharged land seizure and settlement construction since being granted expanded powers over Israel’s administration of the occupied territory under the current governing coalition.
Smotrich, who oversees settlement planning and lives in a settlement himself, has promised to flood the West Bank with a million new settlers.
Smotrich laid out his plans for the West Bank at a conference for his ultranationalist Religious Zionism party last month, a recording of which was obtained by Peace Now.
He said that he intended to appropriate at least 15 square kilometers (nearly 6 square miles) of land in the West Bank this year.
He also promised to expand the establishment of farming outposts, which hard-line settlers have used to extend their control of rural areas, and to crack down on Palestinian construction.
Peace Now said that the declaration published on Wednesday was signed under the authority of Hillel Roth, a deputy Smotrich appointed earlier this year to boost settlement expansion and state land declarations in the West Bank.
Establishment Of Palestinian State Crucial
In a statement, Peace Now emphasized, “Today, it is clear to everyone that this conflict cannot be resolved without a political settlement that establishes a Palestinian state alongside Israel.”
“Still, the Israeli government chooses to actually make it difficult and distance us from the possibility of peace and stopping the bloodshed,” the watchdog added.
Rights groups claim that the expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank is aimed at reshaping the demography of the territory earmarked for a future Palestinian state.
“Netanyahu and Smotrich are determined to fight against the entire world and against the interests of the people of Israel for the benefit of a handful of settlers who receive thousands of dunams as if there were no political conflict to resolve or war to end,” Peace Now said.
In Israel, one dunam is equivalent to 1,000sq metres or 0.25 acres.
There are more than 100 settlements across the occupied West Bank, where more than 500,000 Jewish settlers with Israeli citizenship live.
The three million Palestinians who live in the territory are subject to Israeli military rule and have endured near-daily military raids since the Gaza war broke out in October.
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