The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) recently established a new Jewish settler outpost in the north of Beit Ummar town north of al-Khalil as part of the settlement of Karmei Tzur.
Youssef Abu Maria coordinator of the popular committees in the southern West Bank said that the construction of Karmei Tzur in 1982 and its expansion later led to the destruction of vast tracts of agricultural land and trees in the town and its nearby areas and prevented local farmers from reaching and working their swaths of land.
Abu Maria added that the IOA and its settlers had seized and fenced in 2006 over 250 dunums of land belonging to Beit Ummar families.
He affirmed that Israel’s settlement activity and its frequent attacks on local farmers had greatly affected the town’s agricultural production and economic well-being whose population is heavily dependent on agriculture.
The local official said that the IOA lately announced the building of 40 settler homes on annexed land near the town while some settlers took over different tracts of Palestinian-owned land in the town’s agricultural area.
He pointed out that the establishment of Karmei Tzur also interrupted the territorial contiguity between the towns of Beit Ummar and Halhul and made construction between them impossible.
