Gaza Herald – Israeli authorities are escalating measures to consolidate control over Palestinian territories in the occupied West Bank. These actions include the issuance of military orders and official declarations classifying lands as state property. The strategy runs parallel to the expansion of settlements and outposts, aiming to isolate Palestinian communities from their agricultural and grazing areas.
Jad Issaqa, Director General of the Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem (ARIJ), stated that these procedures aim to restrict Palestinian access to their lands. He explained that the goal is to limit the ability of locals to exploit these resources, thereby allowing the occupation forces to acquire additional areas of land in the West Bank.
Issaqa highlighted that military orders, including a project known as the Crimson Line in the northern Jordan Valley, are part of plans to separate agricultural lands from Palestinian settlements. This threatens the livelihoods of hundreds of families dependent on farming and livestock rearing. The project endangers approximately 118 thousand dunums of Palestinian land in the region.
According to Issaqa, the project isolates these areas by carving paths and imposing military restrictions that separate population centers from their surroundings. He emphasized that classifying Palestinian lands as state property serves as another means to expand control. He affirmed that these measures violate international law and provide no legal justification for the occupation to seize land under its control.
The director noted that settler attacks constitute another link in the system of land seizure. These attacks vary from taking possession of agricultural spaces and establishing outposts to preventing farmers from reaching their fields. In some cases, settlers steal olive harvests. Issaqa described practices where settlers pick olives harvested by Palestinian farmers and then sell them back to the landowners.
He pointed out that occupation forces do not intervene to stop these attacks. Issaqa asserted that military orders, settlement expansion, and settler violence are not isolated incidents but integrated tools designed to impose control over Palestinian lands and undermine owners’ ability to access and invest in them.
ARIJ also warned against attempts by the occupation to assert control over natural resources, particularly water sources and springs. Issaqa stressed that an occupying force has no right to seize or utilize resources of occupied lands for the benefit of its own residents.
In response, Palestinians are showing increased resilience in economic and agricultural sectors. Since the war on Gaza began on October 7, 2023, thousands of Palestinian workers have been prevented from working inside occupied territories. This has led to a return to investing in local lands.
Issaqa revealed that the number of protected greenhouses in the West Bank has increased sevenfold since the start of the war. Despite difficult economic conditions, some farmers used savings to build them, while others sold their wives’ jewelry to cover construction costs. This expansion has helped increase vegetable production and reduce reliance on external markets.
These measures continue across various regions. Recently, authorities declared 2536.44 dunams of land in the towns of Beitillu, Al-Mazra’a Al-Qabliya, and Deir Ammar, northwest of Ramallah, as state property. A period of 45 days was opened for objections to the decision.
This report was produced in the Gaza Herald newsroom.
