by Sanaa Kamal
RAMALLAH, Aug 31 (NNN-XINHUA) – For seven days in a row, dozens of Palestinians from the West Bank village of Dura, near Hebron, have been living in camps outside their homes, to prevent settlers from seizing their lands.
The villagers told Xinhua that their lands are a seizure target for the Israeli settlers, as part of their plan to push forward annexation moves gradually.
Several days ago, Jewish settlers from Negohot settlement in Hebron, started building a road leading to an outpost on Palestinian lands, aiming to turn them into Israeli property, said the father of eight.
Walid al-Sawity, 61, who owns three hectares of land in the village, is one of those who set up a camp to protect his land from potential seizure.
“I will not allow any settler to seize a grain of soil from the historical land,” he vowed.
After years of Israeli seizure, the village of Dura only has 400 hectares of lands left, in the possession of its Palestinian residents in Area C, under full Israeli control.
The Oslo peace accords, signed between Israelis and Palestinians in 1993, divided the West Bank into three areas: Area A under the full control of the Palestinian Authority, Area B under joined Israeli security control and Palestinian Authority’s rule, and Area C under full Israeli control.
Israeli authorities have been preventing any existence of Palestinian establishments in Area C, considering it “a governmental land.”
However, al-Sawity told Xinhua that his family has held the ownership documents since the Ottoman Empire’s rule, rejecting the Israeli statement as invalid.
“The Israeli occupier is doing its best, whether by diplomacy or by force, to impose its existence on our lands, even if that violates our human rights to look forward to living in peace,” the Palestinian old man complained.
Sitting in front of a wood-fire a few metres away, Mufid Abu Zaanoun, a 59-year-old father of seven, also expressed his fear of losing his land, on which he has just built several houses for his sons.
“I have been threatened by the settlers who will confiscate my land and expel my family from it as soon as possible,” Zaanoun said.
Israel is racing to annex Palestinian lands in the occupied West Bank, despite its announcement of suspending annexation, Ahmed Salhoub, mayor of Dura, told Xinhua.
As one of the most prominent facets of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the settlement issue was a major reason behind the collapse of the last peace negotiations between the two sides in mid-2014.– NNN-XINHUA
