NAZARETH (Palestine Foundation Information Center) Peace Now has revealed that the Israeli army’s civil administration in the occupied West Bank seized approximately 800 dunums of Palestinian-owned land around the illegal Jewish outpost of Malachei Hashalom between Ramallah and Nablus.
“The civil administration declared approximately 800 dunums as state land in the area surrounding the Malachei Hashalom outpost, located between Ramallah and Nablus,” Peace Now said in a recent report.
However, “the official declaration has yet to be published on the civil administration’s website, but a map attached to the media reports indicates that the area in question likely includes around 750 dunums situated between the villages of Duma and Al-Mughayir,” Peace Now explained.
“In February 2023, the Israeli cabinet approved the establishment of nine new settlements, among them Malachei Hashalom. Until now, the lands in the area of this settlement were not considered ‘state land,’ and this new declaration paves the way for further planning and construction of the settlement,” Peace Now said
Since the current government was formed in December 2022, around 25,510 dunums have been declared state land — amounting to nearly half of all land ever declared state land since the Oslo Accords, according to the group, which monitors Israel’s settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Declaring land as state land is one of the main tools the Israeli occupation government uses to take control of Palestinian land in the occupied territories. Once land is declared state land, Israel no longer considers it privately owned by Palestinians, so they are prevented from using it. At the same time, the government allocates such lands exclusively to Jewish settlers.
