Settlement expansion encircles Jenin in the northern West Bank
Land seizures, demolitions and military expansion are reshaping an area settlers left two decades ago.
Land seizures, demolitions and military expansion are transforming the northern West Bank around Jenin, as settlers return to areas evacuated two decades ago.
Residents describe losing access to agricultural land they still hold title to, one summarising the situation as my land is forbidden to me. That formulation captures the specific mechanism at work: ownership is not formally extinguished, but access is removed through the designation of closed military zones, the routing of roads and the establishment of outposts that make cultivation impractical.
The agricultural dimension is not incidental. Olive cultivation in particular requires seasonal access for pruning and harvest, and land that cannot be worked for consecutive seasons deteriorates. Under some legal interpretations applied in the territory, land left uncultivated becomes vulnerable to reclassification, which converts an access restriction into a durable change of status.
Land seizures, demolitions and military expansion are transforming the northern West Bank around Jenin, as settlers return to areas evacuated two decades ago.
The northern West Bank is significant because parts of it were evacuated in 2005, at the same time as the Gaza settlements. The return of settlers to those areas reverses a withdrawal that had been treated as settled.
France and Saudi Arabia used their joint statement in Paris this week to reject Israeli settlement policy and settler violence as threats to a two-state outcome, and to reference the 1967 borders.
Based on reporting by Middle East Eye.
