Israel, escalating its campaign to seize territory in the West Bank and accommodate 500,000 new settlers, is pushing forward with the largest single appropriation of Palestinian land since 1993, according to major news outlets.
The impending seizure and conversion of these areas into state land, approved by the Israeli government last month and publicized by Peace Now on Wednesday, encompasses five square miles and, like other seizures that were approved and implemented earlier this year, threatens the mass eviction of Palestinians already living there. Israeli policy dictates that state land is effectively off-limits to Palestinians and can only be leased to Jewish settlers.
