The Israeli government yesterday confiscates more than 2,000 dunams of Palestinian land in Jericho, east of the occupied West Bank, local radio reported.

According to Israeli Radio, the government issued a map of the land it confiscated and made it public. It showed that the area is 2,342 dunams (2.34 square kilometres).

Israeli organisation Peace Now says that declaring Palestinian land as state land is one of five methods that the Israeli government uses to steal Palestinian lands.

It said that Israel has managed to take over about 50 per cent of the lands in the occupied West Bank, barring the local Palestinian public from using them.

“Over the years, Israel confiscated more than 900,000 dunams [90,000 square kilometres] in the West Bank in this manner, and at least 90 settlements are built on lands declared as ‘state lands’,” it said.

(MEMO)