Israeli Bulldozers Raze Structures in Ramallah-District Village
Ramallah, MINA – Israeli bulldozers on Thursday razed several structures in Deir Nidham village, northwest of Ramallah, according to local sources.
They said that Israeli forces stormed and cordoned off al-Husa area, denying people access to it, WAFA reported.
The soldiers escorted a bulldozer to the area, where the heavy machinery tore down residential structures and shacks belonging to some Bedouins who have relocated to the area, which belongs to the villagers.
Located 14 kilometers to the northwest of Ramallah city, Deit Nidham, also written as Deit Nizzam, has a population of some 1,200 and occupies a total area of 2,758 dunams.
Under the Oslo Accords, an agreement made 25 years ago that was supposed to last just five years towards a self-governing country alongside Israel, the Palestinian Authority was given limited control over a very small pocket of 130 donums, classified as Area B and accounting for 4.7 percent of the village land. In contrast, Israel maintains control over the remainder, classified as Area C.
Israel has seized at least 22 percent of the village’s land for the construction of the nearby colonial settlement of Neve Tzuf. It has confiscated more land for the construction of settler-only by-pass Road 465, which extends 7.4 kilometers on the village’s land, which connects the settlements with one another and encloses the village from four directions.
Israel has erected concrete blocks and a metal gate at the village entrances, frequently sealing it off under the guise of maintaining security.
Israel severely restricts Palestinians’ freedom of movement through a complex combination of approximately 100 fixed checkpoints, flying checkpoints, settler-only roads and various other physical obstructions.
Such Israeli measures, taken under the guise of security, are intended to entrench Israel’s 54-year-old military occupation of the West Bank and its settler colonial project which it enforces with routine and frequently deadly violence against Palestinians.(T/R3/RE1)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
