Resistance and Efforts for Peace

Nonviolent resistance continues as Israel confiscates another 100 dunams of Bethlehem

By Najib Farag
Palestinenet.org
September 15, 2006

The central West Bank’s Bethlehem is going piece by piece. Israeli army Commander of the Central Region, Yair Naveh, adopted a new resolution Friday providing for the confiscation of 100 additional dunams of Palestinian land.

The Director of the Committee to Defend against Land Confiscation, Khalid Al Azzeh, told PNN today that the latest confiscation is set to take place in southwestern Bethlehem’s Al Khader Village. Israeli forces dropped leaflets in the town Friday afternoon to inform residents that they will lose more of their land.

The Israeli government will continue the Wall and settlement activity with a new settler bypass road through the Palestinian town. Al Azzeh said that Bethlehem will become more isolated from Hebron in the south and Jerusalem to the north.

Bethlehem is surrounded by encroaching settlements and the Wall. Just recently 14 percent of the District was confiscated, with the northern city taken for military installations, a synagogue and a yeshiva, and put into the Israeli-controlled Jerusalem Municipality.

Al Azzeh issued an urgent appeal to the United Nations to force the implementation of its resolutions and international law to stop Israel from taking even more.

Meanwhile Al Khader residents continue their weekly nonviolent resistance with hundreds gathering in the town square near the mosque after Friday noon prayers and walking together to the Wall site in protest.