Israel has approved the largest nationalisation of land in the West Bank in three decades. The unilateral appropriation of about 12.7 square kilometres could exacerbate tensions related to the war in Gaza. Writes UNN citing The Associated Press.
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Israel has declared some 1,270 hectares in the West Bank as national territory. It is the largest land grab in the occupied West Bank in three decades, the settlement tracking group Peace Now reported Wednesday. It is also said to be the largest single appropriation since the 1993 Oslo Accords that launched the peace process. Such a move is likely to exacerbate the already rising tensions surrounding the war in Gaza, AP notes.
Israel's aggressive expansion in the West Bank reflects the settler community's strong influence on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, the most religious and nationalistic in the country's history. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, himself a settler, has pushed the expansion policy with new powers to develop settlements and has said his goal is to consolidate Israel's authority in the territory and prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.
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Ouest-france points out that the Hamas attack and the war it provoked is also apparently "an opportunity to accelerate Israel's colonization of the occupied West Bank, while awaiting the realization of its dream of rebuilding a bridgehead in the Gaza Strip, as it did between 1968 and 2005".