PCBS: Israel Seizes 85% of Palestinian Land in West Bank

West Bank, MINA – Palestinians on Tuesday recalled the 45th anniversary of Land Day, which commemorates the 1976 killing of six Palestinians by Israeli forces while demonstrating against the confiscation of their land in the Galilee region of northern Israel.

Commemorating the day, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) issued a statement highlighting the territories captured by Israel since the creation of its self-proclaimed Jewish state in 1948.

According to the office, Jews controlled only 6.2 percent of the land in Palestine under the British mandate (1920-1948). Anadolu Agency reported.

“Israel now controls about 27,000 cubic meters of land, accounting for 85 percent of Palestinian history,” PCBS said.

The bureau accuses Israel of exploiting the classification of the occupied West Bank into Areas A, B and C under the Oslo Accords.

“The Israeli army exploited about 76 percent of the land in Area C,” they said.

According to the statement, there are now 688,000 Israeli settlers living in the occupied West Bank, 46 percent of whom live in East Jerusalem.

Under the 1995 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is divided into three parts – Areas A, B and C.

Israel prevents Palestinians from carrying out construction projects in parts of the West Bank designated as Area C under the agreement, which is under Israeli administrative and security control.

Area C is currently home to 300,000 Palestinians, mostly Bedouins and herders where they live in tents, caravans and caves.

International law views the West Bank and East Jerusalem as occupied territories and considers all Jewish settlement-building activity there to be illegal. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)