Israel Tells High Court They May Seize More Palestinian Land for Illegal Outpost

Parts of Illegal Outpost, Several Roads Built on Privately Owned Land

by Jason Ditz,

Getting ready to start maliciously abusing their new legislation allowing them to confiscate Palestinian land for the sake of settlements, the Israeli government has informed the High Court they are considering new seizures around the illegal West Bank outpost of Adi Ad.

Palestinians have been suing over the Adi Ad settlement since 2014, urging the High Court to dismantle the illegally constructed outpost. Israeli officials told the court not to agree to this, insisting that some of the outpost was on land already claimed by the Israeli government.

Some, but not all, at least seven buildings in Adi Ad are built on privately-owned Palestinian land, as are a number of roads the settlers have built. This is exactly the sort of thing the Israeli far-right had always intended to use the new land seizure law for, seizing the privately owned land to give it to the settlers.

Adi Ad is a very small settlement outpost, with estimates putting it at only a little over a dozen families. Its primary claim to fame is an early 2015 incident in which settlers there attacked US diplomats. The diplomats were inspecting settler vandalism against Palestinian-owned trees near the settlement, as some of the land was owned by an American citizen.

http://news.antiwar.com/2017/02/14/israel-tells-high-court-they-may-seize-more-palestinian-land-for-illegal-outpost/