The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has decided to devour more Palestinian agricultural and pastoral lands in the village of Yasuf northeast of Salfit province in the West Bank and annex more than 200 dunums of its land for security and settlement purposes.
Yasuf mayor Nashaat Abdul-Fattah explained that the IOA decided to seize 150 dunums of land in the village and classify them as state property as well as another 70 dunums to use them for security purposes.
Abdul-Fattah said that “the land of the village has become depleted by Israel’s settlement expansion road barriers the presence of a military base and a bypass for settlers” adding that the village is also plagued by daily attacks by Jewish settlers who blocked the Yasuf-Nablus road a few days ago.
Meanwhile the IOA refuses to comply with a court verdict ordering the evacuation of settlers from an illegal outpost north of the village
“An Israeli court decided to evacuate the settlement outpost north of the village but the structures and mobile homes have not been removed while the settlers are still carrying bulldozing activities there” Ahmed Abiya a local farmer said.
“What has happened is a kind of jiggery-pokery and the settlers are doing what they want. What the occupation authority did was a theatrical show to embellish its image” the farmer added.
