The West Bank Military Government announced today that it is declaring several thousand acres of land east of Jerusalem to be “state land” and therefore available for the expansion of Jewish settlements, in this case the new town of Maale Adumim on the Jerusalem-Jericho road.
Military Government officers have notified the Mukhtars (heads of local government) of two neighboring Arab villages of this intention. Under law, the villagers have 21 days to appeal in the courts against the seizure. The expansion of Maale Adumim would cut off the Arab villages east of Jerusalem from the Judaean desert.
In recent months, the Military Government has declared thousands of acres on the West Bank to be “state land” on grounds that it is unused and untitled. The effect is to expand Jewish settlements while precluding the growth of nearby Arab villages and denying them use of the land for grazing or other purposes.
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