Israel is occupying land under the cover of war

Last Updated on September 4, 2024 7:30 am

One of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites is Batir in Palestine. The village is known for its olive groves and vineyards.

Here natural spring water is used for irrigation. This is how life has been going on there for centuries.

Surrounded by nature, this village became the latest ‘flashpoint’ of Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank.

Israel has approved a new Jewish settlement here.

Many privately owned lands have been taken away for these new settlements. Not only that, new Israeli outposts have also been established without approval.

Ghassan Olyan is among those whose privately owned land has been taken away for this new settlement. He said, they are stealing our land to build their dreams.

UNESCO said it was concerned about plans by settlers to surround Battir. But this village is not an isolated incident.

Such installations are considered illegal under international law. However, Israel disagrees.

Israel’s domestic intelligence chief Ronen Bar recently wrote a letter to ministers warning them.

In that letter, Barr noted that Jewish extremists in the West Bank were carrying out “terrorist” acts against Palestinians and causing “indescribable damage” to the country.

Meanwhile, settlements in the occupied West Bank have been accelerating since the start of the war in Gaza.

Extremists in the Israeli government, however, “proudly” say the change will prevent the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

It is feared that these extremists want to prolong the war in Gaza to fulfill their ‘goal’.

Yonatan Mizrahi of Peace Now, an Israeli settlement watchdog, said extremist Jews in the West Bank are exacerbating an already tense and volatile situation and making it more difficult to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

According to him, there is a “mixture of anger and fear” in Israeli society after the October 7 attacks.

A June survey by the Pew Research Center found that 40 percent of Israelis believe the settlements have made their country safer.

Earlier in 2013 this number was 27 percent.

On the other hand, 35 percent of the people who took part in the June survey again think that Israel’s security has been damaged by the settlement. In the previous survey, that figure was 42 percent.