Saturday, November 19, 2011

East, West, All Around The Land

Alert: Seems story that follows is unreliable.

AP is reporting:

West Bank land seized by Israeli kibbutz

A tract of Palestinian land in the West Bank has for the first time been seized by a kibbutz located inside Israel...The land — about 365 acres (148 hectares) from the West Bank Palestinian village of Bardaleh — was seized by the nearby agricultural community of Kibbutz Meirav, which lies inside Israel proper, said Dror Etkes, a prominent researcher and activist against Jewish settlement in the West Bank.

...The kibbutz has been tending to the land for years, but only recently has Israel publicly acknowledged that it considers it its own...Israeli military spokesman Guy Inbar said the West Bank land now belonged to the kibbutz. He said the move was not meant to set a precedent, but would not elaborate further. Officials from the Kibbutz weren't immediately available for comment because of the Jewish Sabbath.

Bardaleh's Sawafta clan says it owns most of the annexed land...It is unclear whether the land has been formally annexed and when Israelis began taking formal control.

Proving ownership of lands on the Israeli side of the barrier is incredibly complicated among Palestinians, who use a mix of old Ottoman documents, Jordanian registries, and unregistered but communally agreed upon land divisions...

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