The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has reactivated a plan to seize a vast tract of Palestinian land to build a road connecting the illegal settlements of Beit Aryeh and Ofarim west of Ramallah city.
According to the Land Research Center (LRC) the IOA had announced in early July its intent to execute a previous plan to annex another 324 dunums of Palestinian-owned land from the villages of Aboud and al-Lubban al-Gharbi west of Ramallah to build the road.
LRC said that Israel’s annexation of more land from these two villages was an illegal measure aimed at besieging the Palestinians in the area and appropriating their land to serve settlements deemed as illegal under international law.
The land on which Beit Aryeh and Ofarim had been confiscated a long time ago by Israel from the Palestinian villages of Aboud and al-Lubban al-Gharbi.
In 2011 the Israeli army signed an agreement with the municipality of Beit Aryeh approving the construction of 100 homes and a bypass road between Beit Aryeh and Ofarim.
