Israel draws international rebuke for latest West Bank land seizure

The decision by Israel to appropriate land in the West Bank has been condemned by Palestinians and criticised by the US, British and Irish governments.

Some 400 hectares in the Etzion Jewish settlement bloc near Bethlehem were declared “state land, on the instructions of the political echelon” by the military-run Civil Administration yesterday.

The move prompted a swift critical response with a US state department official said in Washington, calling the move "counterproductive" to efforts to achieve a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan strongly condemned the decision and said Ireland had repeatedly made clear that such moves were illegal.

He called on the Israeli government to reconsider its decision as a matter of urgency.

“I strongly condemn the appropriation yesterday by Israel of a large block of Palestinian land in the West Bank, which is expected to be used for the creation of a major new Israeli settlement in this highly sensitive area,” he said.

“Ireland has repeatedly made clear that settlements are illegal under international law and their presence and continued expansion in the occupied Palestinian territory is incompatible with the aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians for peace and the realisation of the two-State solution."

The British government said today it deplored an Israeli decision to appropriate a large swathe of land inside the occupied West Bank, saying the move would seriously damage Israel’s international reputation.

“The UK deplores the Israeli government’s expropriation of 988 acres of land around the settlement of Etzion,” British foreign secretary Philip Hammond said in a statement which echoed US calls to reverse the decision.

Israel said it had taken the decision in response to the kidnapping and killing of three Jewish teens by Hamas militants in the area in June.

Tensions stoked by the incident quickly spread to Israel’s border with Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, and the two sides engaged in a seven-week war that ended on Tuesday with an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire.

Peace Now, which opposes Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank, territory the Palestinians seek for a state, said the appropriation was meant to turn a site where 10 families now live adjacent to a Jewish seminary into a permanent settlement.

Construction of a major settlement at the location, known as “Gevaot”, has been mooted by Israel since 2000. Last year, the government invited bids for the building of 1,000 housing units at the site.

Peace Now said the land seizure was the largest announced by Israel in the West Bank since the 1980s and that anyone with ownership claims had 45 days to appeal. A local Palestinian mayor said Palestinians owned the tracts and harvested olive trees on them.

Israel has come under intense international criticism over its settlement activities, which most countries regard as illegal under international law and a major obstacle to the creation of a viable Palestinian state in any future peace deal.

Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, called on Israel to cancel the appropriation. "This decision will lead to more instability. This will only inflame the situation after the war in Gaza," Abu Rdainah said.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu broke off US-brokered peace talks with Mr Abbas in April after the Palestinian leader reached a reconciliation deal with Hamas, the Islamist movement that dominates the Gaza Strip.

In a series of remarks after an open-ended ceasefire halted the Gaza war, Mr Netanyahu repeated his position that Mr Abbas would have to sever his alliance with Hamas for a peace process with Israel to resume.

The administration of president Barack Obama, who has been at odds with Mr Netanyahu over settlements since taking office in 2009, pushed back against the land decision. It was the latest point of contention between Washington and its top Middle East ally Israel, which also differ over Iran nuclear talks.

After the collapse of the last round of US-brokered peace talks, US officials cited settlement construction as one of the main reasons for the breakdown, while also faulting the Palestinians for signing a series of international treaties and conventions.

Israel has said construction at Gevaot would not constitute the establishment of a new settlement because the site is officially designated a neighbourhood of an existing one, Alon Shvut, several kilometres down the road.

Some 500,000 Israelis live among 2.4 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territory that the Jewish state captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

Reuters