***image2***On Thursday, a group of Zionist settlers announced in a press conference their intention to build five new colonies on stolen Palestinian land across the West Bank.
One of the areas is next to Homesh settlement south-west of Jenin, in place of Silat adh Dhahr settlement which was evacuated in August 2005 during the implementation of the so-called “unilateral disengagement plan”. The second, to be called Herr Hifi, will be built to the east of Nablus, on land stolen from the villages of Azmut and Deir al Hatab. Another two colonies will be built in the south of the West Bank, one in the Khilit al Qutun area south of the Palestinian village of Irtas, close to Irfrat settlement.
Another settlement is to be constructed on land stolen from Halhul, near Hebron. The location of the final settlement is yet to be announced.
Construction work is scheduled to start on Sunday 29 September. Over the last two days, Occupation forces have begun installing the infrastructure to support the latest expansion onto Palestinian land, installing cement bases for the electricity pylons that will connect Betar settlement in West Bethlehem district to the Qiryat Arba settlement to the east of Hebron city. The pylons are to be built on confiscated land from the Palestinian villages of Hussan, Nahhalin, al Jabaâ, Halhul and Beit Omar.
The new infrastructure is part of a wider project for the construction of a high-voltage electricity network to serve settlements West of Bethlehem from generators in Kuriat Arbar settlement. The power lines will stretch for around 20 kilometres, and around 200 dunum of Palestinian land will be confiscated for the building of pylons.
Most of the affected lands are used for farming, but the path of the network will also prevent scores of Palestinians from building houses or using the land along the path of power lines.