A new settlement plan to expand Dolev settlement in Ramallah

The Applied Research Institute - ARIJ - said that the Israeli occupation authortites approved on the twenty-fourth of July the settlement plan to expand the Dolev settlement in the Ramallah governorate.

In a report, ARIJ indicated that the new settlement plan provides for the confiscation of 280,689 dunums of Palestinian land to build 364 new settlement units in the settlement, on lands belonging to the towns of Ras Karkar and Deir Ibzi' in the Ramallah governorate in the occupied West Bank.

It added that the plan targets basin No. 1 in the site known as "Madros" in the town of Ras Karkar, and basins No. (2, 4, and 7) in the areas known as "Ain Wadi Al-Mugheer", "Al-Dora" and "Al-Wajh Al-Shami" in the town of Deir Ibzi'.

The report indicated that the plan aims to transform the targeted lands into third-class residential areas (according to the Israeli definition), buildings and public institutions, open spaces, tourist establishments, engineering facilities, a gas station, a car park and internal roads.

The report indicated that the scheme will be implemented on the western side of the settlement, on the open Palestinian lands that mediate the villages of Al-Janieh, Ras Karkar, Deir Ibzi’ and Kafr Ni’ma, and will cut the geographical connection between them, and will create an extension to the Dolev settlement from the western side.

In November 1992, the Israeli occupation authorities allocated an area of 3,228 dunams of Palestinian land east of the Dolev settlement, by Israeli military order No. 51/9 under the name of "Nahal Dolev Delavim".This order threatens the Palestinian villages adjacent to the Dolev settlement from the eastern side, particularly the lands of the city of Ramallah (1058 dunums), Ein Qinya (1,528 dunums), Al-Janiya (593 dunums), Al-Zaytouna (29 dunums), and Abu Qash (19.5 dunums).

The Israeli occupation authorities deliberately allocate large areas of Palestinian land as nature reserves in the West Bank, in order to prevent Palestinian urban expansion and to turn them into Israeli settlements in the future.