The Israeli army routinely expels Palestinian farmers from their lands and facilitates illegal Jewish settler harassment.
Israeli media has been abuzz with recent statements by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who announced that Israel confiscated 24,000 dunums of West Bank land.
For Palestinians, however, this revelation comes as no surprise, as land confiscation operations occur almost daily, brazenly seizing their lands in broad daylight.
This year’s confiscations alone are equivalent to half of all the lands confiscated over the past 30 years, a development widely regarded as a disaster, yet met with little to no international response.
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‘Cowboy Method’
In the town of Aqraba, located east of Nablus and encompassing vast lands connected to the Jordan Valley, the situation is dire.
Since the current extremist Israeli government came to power two years ago, more than 25,000 dunums of Aqraba’s lands have been confiscated for settlement expansion.
Salah Bani Jaber, the mayor of Aqraba, told The Palestine Chronicle that the town’s total area is comparable to three-quarters of the Gaza Strip, a fact that has made it a prime target for Israeli land seizures. Most of the town’s lands have already been taken.
This year, the municipality received two decisions to confiscate a total of 12,715 dunums under the pretext that the land had become “state property,” a claim frequently used by the Israeli army to justify confiscations and to block residents from filing objections.
Bani Jaber noted that “all villages extending into the Jordan Valley have faced land confiscations for settlement expansions, depriving local residents of the ability to use their lands.”
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On Aqraba’s lands alone, three settlements, seven settlement outposts, and four pastoral settlement outposts have been established, consuming thousands of dunums without deterrence.
“In addition to this, settlers employ what is known as the ‘cowboy method,’ where they release their cows into Palestinian pastures. Once the cattle graze on the land, the settlers claim ownership of it,” Bani Jaber explained.
This practice has become the norm across Palestinian villages. According to documents from human rights organizations and experts, settlers act with the full financial backing of the Israeli government, not as individuals.
These land confiscation operations are accompanied by systematic attacks on Palestinians, even in areas classified as Area B, which, under the 1995 Oslo II agreement, is under Israeli security control, with Palestinian administrative authority.
The Israeli army routinely expels Palestinian farmers from their lands and facilitates illegal Jewish settler harassment.
Thousands of attacks have been recorded this year alone, preventing Palestinians from accessing more than half a million dunums of agricultural land.
Furthermore, more than 9,600 Palestinian trees, predominantly olive trees, have been destroyed, uprooted, or poisoned, according to data from The Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission.
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‘A Reward from Trump’
The first settlement to benefit from these confiscations is Ma’ale Adumim, which will be expanded by more than 2,600 dunums to connect it to the Kedar settlement in the south, a move that comes at the expense of lands belonging to Palestinian Bedouin communities.
Yafit settlement in the Jordan Valley has seen the largest expansion, gaining an additional 20,000 dunums.
Political analyst Firas Yaghi told the Palestine Chronicle that Smotrich’s announcements mark a significant step since the signing of the Oslo Accords.
According to him, the confiscations are part of a broader strategy to impose Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank ahead of Donald Trump’s possible return to the White House.
Smotrich is reportedly coordinating his steps with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose strategic goal, according to Yaghi, is to undermine the notion of a Palestinian state and impose irreversible facts on the ground, whether in the West Bank or Gaza.
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“Netanyahu has placed the issue of annexation on his agenda, intending to present it as a reward from Trump in the context of any negotiations related to Gaza,” Yaghi said.
The ongoing land grabs add new areas to settlement blocs in the West Bank, reinforcing the proposal for 40% of the land to be annexed to Israel under the so-called ‘Deal of the Century’.
Despite an international consensus supporting a two-state solution, Netanyahu and Smotrich appear emboldened by American and Israeli policies, which are decisive in this matter.
Many believe that Trump’s return to power would accelerate this plan, which, Yaghi speculated, may also include parts of Syrian territory given the current developments in the region.
“The annexation plan has been unfolding systematically according to a framework established by Smotrich from his very first day in office. Everyone is anticipating Trump’s return, as he advocates for expanding Israel’s limited territory,” Yaghi stated.
“I believe this expansion will encompass the West Bank and potentially parts of Syrian territory, given the current developments there,” he concluded.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
– Fayha’ Shalash is a Ramallah-based Palestinian journalist. She graduated from Birzeit University in 2008 and she has been working as a reporter and broadcaster ever since. Her articles appeared in several online publications. She contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle.
