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Friday 22 Jan 2016 - 15:47 Makkah mean time-12-4-1437
Jerusalem, (IINA) - Israel confirmed on Thursday that it is planning to appropriate a large tract of fertile land in the occupied West Bank, close to Jordan, a move likely to exacerbate tensions with Western allies and already drawing international condemnation, Reuters reported.
In an email sent to Reuters, the Israeli Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Unit (COGAT), a unit of Israel's Defense Ministry, said that the political decision to seize the territory had been taken and "the lands are in the final stages of being declared state lands".
The appropriation covers 154 hectares (380 acres) in the Jordan Valley close to Jericho, an area where Israel already has many settlement farms built on Palestinian land. It is the largest land seizure since August 2014.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon denounced the move while Palestinian officials said they would push for a resolution at the UN against Israel's settlement policies.
"Settlement activities are a violation of international law and run counter to the public pronouncements of the government of Israel supporting a two-state solution to the conflict", Ban said in a statement.
The land, in an area fully under Israeli civilian and military control and already used by Jewish settlers to farm dates, is situated near the northern tip of the Dead Sea.
"Israel is stealing land especially in the Jordan Valley under the pretext it wants to annex it", Hanan Ashrawi, a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), told Reuters. "This should be a reason for a real and effective intervention by the international community to end such a flagrant and grave aggression which kills all chances of peace."
In a related context, Israeli forces demolished six structures in the West Bank funded by the EU's humanitarian arm. The structures were dwellings and latrines for Bedouins living in an area known as E1, a particularly sensitive zone between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea.
Israel has not built settlements in E1, with construction considered a "red line" by the U.S and the EU. It could potentially split the West Bank, cutting Palestinians off from East Jerusalem, which they seek for their capital.
Israeli officials did not respond to requests for comment on the demolitions, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week that the EU was building ‘illegally’ in the area.
AG/IINA
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