Ramallah: Israeli occupation authorities have unlawfully expropriated a large tract of Palestinian-owned land near the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, as reported by al-Bireh Municipality. The seized land totals approximately 137 dunums and includes areas belonging to the city of Al-Bireh, as well as the towns of Silwad, Ein Yabrud, Beitin, and Burqa, all located east of Ramallah, and to the town of Mikhmas, east of Jerusalem.
According to Palestine News and Information Agency - WAFA, this land will be used for the expansion of the nearby colonist-only bypass Road 60, adjacent to the Sha'ar Binyamin industrial zone. The Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission has indicated that the land has already been seized, with the latest military notice serving to activate the 'right to dispose' of the land, as per a seizure order issued in August 2024.
In August 2024, the Commission reported that 66,762 dunums of land from Al-Bireh and nearby areas had been appropriated for the Road 60 expansion from the Sha'ar Binyamin colony to the British Police junction. Amir Daoud, Director of Publication and Documentation at the Commission, described the expropriation orders as a tactic for reinforcing military control over Palestinian lands, benefiting colonists through the construction of exclusive roads that disrupt Palestinian territories.
The use of the term 'Judea and Samaria' by Israel to refer to the occupied West Bank is seen as an effort to legitimize its claims to the area. Currently, nearly 1 million Israeli colonists reside in West Bank and East Jerusalem colonies. The nation-state law, passed in July 2018, declared the strengthening of these colonies a 'national interest.'
