Palestinians villagers fear encroaching Israeli settlement bloc... Palestinian villager Ismail Taha: "It's stealing, and we have no means to defend ourselves. While they have biased courts, police and an army, we have no money and no power. We're peaceful, but..."

Photo credit google image search for Palestine's Kufr al Deek: Hiking on Mohamads family land in Kufr al Deek village. by johannes.a

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"STATE LAND"

Israel has declared the 300-dunam (74-acre) tract traversed with olive trees and dirt paths "state land," a label it has applied to much of the other lands upon which settlements and their connected farming lands have been historically built.

"The present case refers to declared state lands on which approved works are taking place lately for the agricultural development of the region. The works are under constant supervision and monitoring," the Israeli government body responsible for the occupied West Bank told Reuters.

Residents of Kufr al-Deek and other villages disagree with the "state land" claim and say settlement activity is expanding.

They point out ruined Palestinian cisterns and modest homes on the hill they say Israeli forces demolished in recent months. Looking out on the horizon, the string of nearby settlements appear to be growing, with a whole hillside next to one being flattened ahead of apparent planned construction and settler portacabins pouring down the hillside of another....

Peace Now, an Israeli watchdog group, said Netanyahu's government had advanced plans to build almost 14,000 new settler homes on occupied land in the 9-month period of peace talks which began last July.

The International Court of Justice deems the settlements illegal. While the European Union has said it "deplores" them and the United States calls them "illegitimate," countries have taken few obvious steps to slow their spread.

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

http://news.yahoo.com/palestinians-villagers-fear-encroaching-settlement-bloc-135605973.htm

By Noah Browning

KUFR AL-DEEK West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinians in the village of Kufr al-Deek in the northern occupied West Bank awoke on Sunday to see Israeli earth-movers busily flattening the top of a nearby hill.

Locals say it is their privately-owned land and that the Israeli government is preparing to build a new Jewish settlement outpost there.

They fear it will help consolidate a bloc of Israeli towns, plunging almost halfway into the occupied territory, which they say will deny them a viable future state....READ MORE