A Palestinian man inspects his damaged house following a reported attack earlier by Israeli settlers in Huwara town south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank on 4 December 2024. [Getty]
The latest announcement by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich about confiscating tens of thousands of dunams of the occupied West Bank land didn’t shock its Palestinian residents, since this is what happens on the ground every day under various pretexts.
Israeli Channel 14 quoted the extremist minister as saying that 24,000 dunum were confiscated from the occupied West Bank within one year, confirming that 50,000 dunums were confiscated during the past 30 years since the signing of the Oslo Accords.
This “not innocent” announcement is seen by the Palestinians as a prelude to the completion of the plan to annex West Bank lands, which Israel seeks to implement publicly next year after the new US President Donald Trump officially assumes office.
In the field, the Palestinians are facing hasty Israeli decisions to confiscate their lands under security or religious pretexts, or even, in one case, for the benefit of the illegal settlers’ cattle.Â
‘Our lives are miserable’
The town of Abu Dis, located on the dividing line between the occupied West Bank and the east of Jerusalem city, reflects how the Israelis seek to confiscate Palestinian lands for the benefit of settlements.
A few months ago, the Israeli army handed over a decision to confiscate 2,400 dunum of its land in favour of expanding settlements established on its land in the 1980s.
Abdullah Abu Hilal, a resident of the town and an activist against Israeli settlement, told The New Arab that the remaining lands of Abu Dis are only 4,500 dunums out of 25,000 dunums. More than 20 thousand dunams have been gradually confiscated since the 1980s under military pretexts, and the confiscation orders are renewed every year.
“This year, an area of ​​2,500 dunams was added to it and was seized. The goal is to expand the Maale Adumim settlement and connect it to the Kedar 1 and Kedar 2 settlements,” he said.
“This plan is part of the so-called Greater Jerusalem Project E1, and part of the lands will be used to establish a settlement street called the Fabric of Life,” he added.
The expansion of settlements has torn apart the lives of 14000 Palestinians, cramming them into smaller and smaller spaces inside the town. Moreover, hundreds of dunams of the area remaining to them were cut off and confiscated to erect the apartheid wall and permanently separate the town from its mother city, Jerusalem.
“With talk about annexation plans and the Smotrich announcement, we no longer hope that our lands will be returned to us. All of them were lost to the expansion of settlements, and our lives have become miserable and difficult,” Abu Hilal concluded.
Two Bedouin communities live in the area subject to annexation, which threatens the lives of more Palestinians and displaces them in favour of providing luxury services to settlers.
‘Settlers are in charge’
According to information from the Racist Wall and Settlement Resistance Committee, this year witnessed the largest land seizure under the name “state land.”
The total amount of land confiscated was 24,144 dunum, including 12,715 from the lands of southern Nablus, 2,640 from the lands of Abu Dis and Al-Eizariya, east of Jerusalem, 441 from the west of Ramallah, and 172 from the lands of Bethlehem.
Jamal Jumaa, who specialises in wall and settlement issues, told us that the closure of agricultural lands in various villages, the confiscation of lands in vital areas, and the infrastructure for which billions of shekels are allocated are all in order to accelerate the annexation process.
“What is happening is a reality that cannot be debated. Just as Trump gave Israel recognition of its control over the Golan and Jerusalem in his first term, now he will target the West Bank in his second term,” he explained to TNA.Â
According to Jumaa, what is happening on the ground has significant consequences on the political form of administration of the West Bank.
What is striking is that the annexation plan no longer targets areas classified as C, but rather confiscates lands from Area B, which explains the recent Israeli army demolition of Palestinian homes in those lands and preventing construction on them under the pretext of their proximity to settlements, the illegal wall, or simply because the army wanted to establish a military point near it.
“The settlers have become the ones in charge of affairs in the West Bank, and this in itself is annexation, as what we see of settlers attacking lands, stealing them, and expelling their owners are employees who receive salaries from the Israeli government,” Jumaa stressed.
