ISRAELI FORCES RIP OFF SALFIT TO EXPAND SETTLEMENTS

Salfit, 9 Muharram 1436/2 November 2014 (MINA) – Eyewitnesses from Salfit, central Palestine, said that Israeli occupation forces are bulldozing lands in the district villages, to make roads and build more settlement units, expanding in the city.

Israeli occupation last month seized 20 dunums of Salfit, and started the process of bulldozing the Palestinian agricultural lands, Palestine News Network (PNN) quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting, Sunday.

Palestinian researcher, Khaled Ma’ali, said that the bulldozing and expansion process is taking place in 4 Israeli settlements near the city; “Ariel” settlement North Salfit (to expand the campus of Ariel Israeli University), Brukhin settlement North the village of Bruqin, and the settlement of “Zafafa” and “Leshim” nearby the city.

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Ma’ali added that Salfit district is the second biggest victim of Israeli occupation land theft crimes after Jerusalem, saying that more settlement units are being built in 24 Israeli settlements surrounding the city, and taking over 18 villages in the Salfit district, ripping off the city into two halves and four cantons, which will weaken its economy, agriculture and society through intensifying settlements that aim to seize more than 70% of the agricultural lands of the city.

Israeli occupation coveted Salfit especially for having the biggest water well in the West Bank, and a strategic location that connects the Northern and Southern occupied Palestinian cities of Ramallah, Nablus, Tulkarim, Qalqilya together. It is also close to the Israeli-Occupied cities in the Northern area.

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Moreover, Salfit has many religious sites and natural resources, such as white and red stone, which Israeli forces ban Palestinians from investing in, even though Salfit districts falls into the Palestinian “C” lands according to the Oslo records.

Ma’ali concluded that the Israeli Occupation forces are committing flagrant violations according to the international law and the forth Geneva conventions, which forbid whatsoever changing the features of occupied lands and building cities or locations of the occupier.(T/P008/R03)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)