How Israel’s ‘Blue Line’ team seizes Palestinian land in the West Bank
Al-Mughayyir, occupied West Bank – As the October olive harvest approaches, Bilal Abu Alia stands near his home, gazing at his family’s land – territory he says Israeli authorities have taken from hi…
Al-Mughayyir, occupied West Bank – As the October olive harvest approaches, Bilal Abu Alia stands near his home, gazing at his family’s land – territory he says Israeli authorities have taken from his family in the Palestinian village of al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah.
Of their original 0.4sq km (100 acres) of land, Bilal explains that his family can now only access a small area that includes their home and a few olive trees.
Land confiscation in the occupied West Bank doesn’t always begin with a direct seizure. In many instances, the process starts with the redesignation and demarcation of land on official Israeli maps, with the Israeli Civil Administration’s “Blue Line Team” playing an important role.
According to a report published in mid-September by the National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements, a body affiliated with the Palestinian Liberation Organization, the Blue Line team was officially established in 1999. Its primary role is to identify and formally designate areas that Israeli authorities classify as “state land” .
Comprising surveyors, cartographers and legal experts, the team uses modern surveying technology and geographic information systems to review and redraw those boundaries on official maps, according to the bureau.
The significance of the process is that land included within the boundaries Israel recognises as “state land” can subsequently be allocated for settlement projects, which are illegal under international law.
Israel’s Civil Administration has argued that Blue Line revisions are technical corrections of historic surveying errors. But the United Nations has said that the revisions have essentially expanded the boundaries of land classified by Israel as state property.
The bureau report argues that, in recent years, the Blue Line team has evolved from a technical mechanism for boundary demarcation into a tool increasingly used to accelerate settlement expansion and legitimise settlement outposts.
Read Full Story at Al Jazeera →
