The pace of settlement expansion in the town of Nahalin, located west of Bethlehem, is accelerating, as the occupation authorities continue to build new bypass roads and expand existing settlements. Local sources reported that these systematic projects aim to tighten the siege on the town and stifle its natural urban expansion, which has led to a sharp reduction in the areas available to residents.
Naeem Fanoun, the mayor of Nahalin, confirmed that the settlement plans have succeeded in seizing vast areas of the town's land, as its total area has decreased from 24,000 dunams to only about 12,000 dunams. Fanoun explained that the town is now surrounded by four major settlements interspersed with random settlement outposts, which has transformed Palestinian communities into what resembles an isolated island amidst a continuous settlement environment.
Since October 2023, the field situation has become unprecedentedly complicated, as farmers' access to their fields has become a risky adventure. The mayor pointed out that the occupation army and settlers practice a policy of intimidation and detention against anyone who tries to cultivate their land, creating a bitter reality that threatens the agricultural sector on which hundreds of families in the region depend.
In field testimonies, farmer Abu Moaz said that the strict restrictions have pushed some to risk going to their lands under the cover of darkness to prune trees and care for them away from the eyes of military patrols. He added that most of the vital lands surrounding Nahalin have effectively become out of reach for their rightful owners, as a result of physical barriers and repressive measures that prevent movement and travel.
For his part, farmer Hussein Shakarneh warned of the danger of the pastoral settlement outposts that have recently been established, stressing that they have become a tool for deliberately destroying crops. He explained that settlers release their sheep into citizens' fields to destroy trees and crops, while farmers who try to confront these attacks are subjected to field investigations or arrest by the occupation forces, who provide protection to the settlers.
In addition to the settlement siege, Nahalin suffers from a direct military siege in the form of iron gates installed by the occupation forces at its main entrances. These gates control the fate of thousands of citizens and separate them from their surroundings in Bethlehem, and are used as a tool for collective punishment by closing them for long periods, which disrupts educational, economic, and medical life in the town.
These developments come in the context of a comprehensive escalation witnessed in the West Bank, where official data indicate that more than 1,170 Palestinians have been killed and thousands injured since October 2023. These violations coincide with widespread arrest campaigns that have affected about 24,000 citizens, under a systematic displacement policy aimed at changing the demographic and geographical reality in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Nahalin has become surrounded by four settlements and settlement outposts, to the point where it has turned into an island in a sea of settlements.
شارك برأيك
Nahalin.. a Palestinian town swallowed by settlements, half its area turned into an open prison