‘Whole new game now’: Fears of West Bank annexation after massive Israeli land seizure

NGO warns biggest land grab in territory in 30 years blocks efforts towards peace with Palestinians

Tensions are soaring in the West Bank, stoking fears the region might become a second front in the Gaza war. AFP

An Israeli NGO warned that the government's largest land grab in the occupied West Bank in 30 years is “another brick” in the wall against peace.

Hagit Ofran, a settlement expert at Peace Now, told The National that the seizure “further deepens Israeli control in the West Bank and is another brick in what we will eventually need to dismantle if we are to have any kind of peace or cessation of bloodshed between Israelis and Palestinians”.

The almost 13-square-kilometre appropriation in the Jordan Valley was the largest since the 1993 Oslo Accords, data from the group showed.

“It is completing the takeover of thousands of dunams that connects settlements east of Nablus all the way to the Jordan Valley,” Ms Ofran said.

The latest seizure brings the total amount of West Bank land appropriated by Israel this year to more than 23,500 dunams, by far the largest amount since the policy was revived in 1998 during the first government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The sharp rise in appropriation comes under the watch of the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, in which extremist pro-settlement politicians who were previously considered taboo hold key ministerial positions.

Changing the map

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich was singled out in the Peace Now report as a mastermind of the land grabs.

Mr Smotrich also holds a position in Israel’s Defence Ministry, where he created a new framework that allows the government to speed up land seizure in the West Bank by giving allied civilian bodies powers that were once reserved for the military, which has widespread security control in the territory.

“He has taken responsibility of settlement issues from the army and given it to civilian bodies who report directly to him,” Ms Ofran said. “It’s a whole new game now.”

The government also seized more than 10,500 dunams of land in February and March.

In June, Peace Now published a recording of Mr Smotrich in which the minister could be heard describing his work in government to expand settlements as “mega-strategic”.

“Once again, there is the creation of an infrastructure here, we can produce much more capacity of work, much more [land] surveys, more [land] declarations, more plans, more of everything,” the recording said.

“This is something that will change the map dramatically.”

Most of the land in the latest seizure was previously designated by Israel as part of a nature reserve or a military zone.

No Palestinian communities are located in its boundaries, said Hassan Malihat, the general director of Al Baydar Organisation for Defending Bedouin Rights. But the seizure will have longer-term effects on nearby Palestinian communities, he added.

“Road access could be limited, the communities will not be able to expand and their agricultural and herding activities could be disrupted,” he said.

Israeli settlers have sharply increased violent attacks against Palestinians since the Gaza war began. AFP

“If settlements are eventually built on the land there could be new military checkpoints, restricting movement for Palestinians.”

Palestinians and much of the international community view Israeli settlements as the primary obstacle to achieving a two-state solution.

More than 517,000 Israeli settlers lived in the West Bank last year, a 3 per cent growth on the previous year, according to a February report released by pro-settler group West Bank Jewish Population Stats.

The seizures come amid tension during the Gaza war which has spilt into the West Bank, where violent Israeli raids take place on a near daily basis, sparking deadly gun battles with Palestinian militants.

Settlers have carried out more than 1,000 attacks on Palestinians since October in the West Bank, causing deaths and damaging property, according to the UN.

Israel captured the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in 1967.

Israel's Defence Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its role in the seizure.