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Graphic:
Illegal Plan, Bethlehem. Published by IMEMC News
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by IMEMC News
Feb 11, 2025

Military Orders to Seize 16,000 Dunams for Pastoral Colonialism

The Chairman of the Wall & Colonization Resistance Commission, Moayyad Sha’ban, announced that the Israeli occupation state has started building a new colony on lands belonging to the Bethlehem Governorate, in the occupied West Bank.

The new colony’s puts it between the towns of Husan and Al-Khader, particularly on the lands of Battir village, this new colony has been named “Nahal Hilts.”

In a statement issued by the Commission on Tuesday, Sha’ban mentioned that the approval for this colony came as a reaction to the wave of international recognitions of the State of Palestine in June of the previous year.

Following this decision, the colonial occupation state took several steps, beginning with the allocation of 120 dunams of Palestinian lands for the new colony.

This was followed by a decision from the “Blue Line Committee” to allocate an additional 600 dunams, with actual construction set to commence soon.

Sha’ban warned that the establishment of this colony aims to further isolate the Bethlehem and Jerusalem governorates, gradually implementing the “Greater Jerusalem plan,” which threatens the geographical contiguity between the northern and southern parts of the West Bank.

He highlighted that the occupation authorities have recently taken extremely dangerous measures to enhance colonial settlement and fragment Palestinian geography.

In related news, Sha’ban reported that the occupation authorities issued six military orders to allocate lands for what they term as pastoral purposes for the illegal paramilitary colonists.

He added that the colonialist state is intensifying efforts to enhance agricultural and pastoral colonialism, not only by encouraging the establishment of such outposts but also by protecting them through official institutions, allocating over 16,000 dunams.

Sha’ban pointed out that these orders prevent Palestinian shepherds from accessing these lands, granting the colonizers full authority to use them.

The first military order issued on Sunday targeted lands in the Salfit and Ramallah governorates, specifically the villages of Deir Ballout and Al-Lubban Al-Gharbi, allocating a total of 2,600 dunams for the colonizers to use as grazing grounds. These areas were previously and illegally declared “state lands.”

The second, third, and fourth orders targeted Ramallah Governorate, specifically Kafr Malek village, allocating 1,505 dunams, and Deir Jarir lands with two orders targeting a total of 4,900 dunams for the same purpose.

The fifth order targeted the Jordan Valley lands in Jericho Governorate, allocating 426 dunams, while the sixth order targeted 8,700 dunams of Tubas city lands.

Sha’ban indicated that this step, along with its inherent dangers, is part of the occupation government’s announced intentions to regulate and “legitimize” 70 agricultural and pastoral colonial outposts under coalition agreements between the occupation government parties.

The allocation of lands for grazing will solidify these outposts by granting them vast areas, making them centers for further attacks against citizens and their properties.

By the end of 2024, the number of pastoral outposts reached 137 agricultural and pastoral colonies, preventing Palestinian citizens from accessing a total of 489,000 dunams of their lands.

Sha’ban added that the occupation state continues to impose realities on Palestinian geography, tearing apart Palestinian land and enforcing a system of enclaves that eliminates the possibility of establishing a future Palestinian state.

He emphasized that the actions of the occupation state grossly violate basic human rights, attacking the inalienable rights and resources of the Palestinian people, and persistently violating international community decisions, United Nations resolutions, and declared legal positions on this matter.

All of Israel’s colonies in the occupied West Bank, including those in and around occupied East Jerusalem, are illegal under International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention in addition to various United Nations and Security Council resolutions. They also constitute war crimes under International Law.

Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory”.

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