Slippery Slope

Abdul Karim Lafi, an architect and chairman of the parents committee in Beit Safafa, was arrested and taken in for an interrogation at 2 am on the charge of calling for a strike in Beit Safafa schools to protest the construction of road number 4 that will take 250 dunums of private land and split the village in two. In addition, village residents have complained that ever since their protest has started, Israeli authorities have increased enforcement policies in the village, including sending in tax agents. (Haaretz)

(Hebrew – Haaretz)

The state was forced to retract its decision to expropriate 2,400 dunams of agricultural land in the Jericho area and evict the farmers who farm it. (Haaretz)

(Hebrew – Haaretz)

The IDF and Civil Administration are expanding their activities to evict Palestinians from their villages in the South Hebron Hills, in an area that has been declared as Firing Zone 918. (Haaretz)

(Hebrew – Haaretz)

The State Attorney’s Office announced to the Village Council Heads the West Bank villages of Ein Arik, Dir Abziya, and Beitunia, that an expropriation act of 590 dunam [about 146 acres] of their residents’ land has been annulled. The announcement follows an appeal to the High Court of Justice. The expropriated land was designated for building a shorter road from the settlement of Talmon to Jerusalem.

Minister of Environmental Protection Gilad Erdan (MK Likud) said in a Kol Israel interview that “evicting the Ulpana neighborhood is a command that is impossible to follow, it won’t be executed”, following the High Court of Justice’s decision to evict the neighborhood until May 1st. Erdan had expressed his support to expropriate the authority of Minister of Defense Ehud Barak (MK Ha’Atzmaut) in matters of settlements. Meanwhile, Barak had said that “we have found 2.2 Hectares in Beit El on which we could build alternative housing if necessary”.