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Over the years the
situation in Jerusalem and in the occupied Palestinian territories
is
getting worst. The
intensification of Jewish settlements in Jerusalem and in other
parts
of Palestine has two
aims:
1-
Create facts on the ground , which lead
to the permanent incorporation of new
territory by
Israel.
2-
Keep Palestinian territories divided
and surrounded by the Israeli army.
Today, 350,000 Israelis
live in more than 150 settlements in the West Bank, Jerusalem and
Gaza. Since Sharon won
the elections 34 new settlements were build but Israelis continue
to claim that they have
not built new settlements.
Nowadays, what Israel
calls “Greater Jerusalem” is virtually surrounded by a “Great Wall”
of
new settlements, which
Israel claims are mere extensions of existing neighborhoods.
Today, however, the term
encompasses a far greater expanse of the West Bank-some one
half-million dunums, 12
per cent of the West Bank, where 400,000 Israelis and 200,000
Palestinians now reside.
These settlements spread
from hill to hill, ringing the city. Eighteen Palestinian villages
have been trapped within
these Israeli compounds and strangled.
According to B’Tselem
Israel has used a complex legal and bureaucratic mechanism to
take control of more
than fifty percent of the land in the West Bank. This land was used
mainly to establish
settlements and create reserves of land for the future expansion of
the
settlements.
The principal tool used
to take control of land is to declare it “state land.”
This process began in
1979, and is based on a manipulative implementation of the
Ottoman Lands Law of
1858, which applied in the area at the time of occupation.
The Israeli government
employed as well another method to take control of land including
seizure for military
needs, declaration of land as abandoned assets, and the
expropriation
of land for public
needs.
Each of these are based
on a different legal foundation. In addition, Israel has assisted
private citizens
purchasing land on the "free market.”
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