Brussels - Jerusalem: Europe and the Arabs
On Sunday evening, the governor of Palestinian Salfit, Abdullah Kamil, revealed a new Israeli plan aimed at seizing more than 10,000 dunums of agricultural land in the governorate, located in the northern West Bank, in favor of settlement expansion.
Kamil said, in a press statement, that the occupation authorities published, through the so-called "Supreme Planning Council," the decision to seize lands belonging to the towns of Al-Zawiya, Deir Ballut, Rafat, and Masha, west of Salfit Governorate, and Sinria, which is affiliated to Qalqilya Governorate, and converting them into industrial and tourist areas, and units settlements, and linking roads between settlements.
Kamil added that, according to the detailed plan issued by the occupation, a new industrial zone will be established under the name "Sha'ar Hashomaron" and "Nahal Rabah", on 4 thousand dunums of agricultural lands, road networks, a cemetery and public places, and the expansion and linking of the "Qena" settlement. With the Oranit settlement, in addition to the establishment of new settlement units, road networks and a sewage pumping station, in the lands of Rafat, Masha, and Sinria (belonging to Qalqilya).
According to what was reported by the Middle East News Agency, Kamil called on the people and farmers to communicate with the competent official authorities represented by the municipal and village councils, the General Authority for Civil Affairs, the Wall and Settlement Resistance Authority, and the various legal authorities, to submit the necessary objections and block the road to the plans of the Judaizing occupation.
He stressed that these occupation practices are a flagrant and gross violation of international law and resolutions of international legitimacy, foremost of which is Security Council Resolution No. 2334, noting that the settlement policy, whether building or expanding settlements, seizing lands or displacing Palestinians, is illegal, rejected and condemned.
Kamil called on the international community to take decisive positions to pressure Israel to stop its settlement practices and policies.