PLO Accuses Israeli Army of Supporting Efforts to Seize Palestinian Lands

 Illustrative: A picture taken from the outskirts of the West Bank city of Nablus shows a view of the illegal outpost of Havat Gilad on February 2, 2018. (AFP Photo/Jaafar Ashtiyeh)
Illustrative: A picture taken from the outskirts of the West Bank city of Nablus shows a view of the illegal outpost of Havat Gilad on February 2, 2018. (AFP Photo/Jaafar Ashtiyeh)
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PLO Accuses Israeli Army of Supporting Efforts to Seize Palestinian Lands

 Illustrative: A picture taken from the outskirts of the West Bank city of Nablus shows a view of the illegal outpost of Havat Gilad on February 2, 2018. (AFP Photo/Jaafar Ashtiyeh)
Illustrative: A picture taken from the outskirts of the West Bank city of Nablus shows a view of the illegal outpost of Havat Gilad on February 2, 2018. (AFP Photo/Jaafar Ashtiyeh)

The Palestinian Liberation Organization accused Saturday the Israeli Army of providing cover and facilitating efforts exerted by the Jewish National Fund to seize Palestinian lands.

The PLO’s National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements issued a press statement saying the Israeli Defense Ministry is secretly recruiting people at the Jewish National Fund to purchase hundreds of dunams of private, Palestinian-owned land in the West Bank for settlers who worked the land while its owners were denied access to it.

It added that the secret deals between the Israeli Defense Ministry and the Jewish National Fund also include purchasing lands in the Jordan Valley, Ramallah, and Hebron.

“Coordination between the occupation army and the Jewish National Fund is not new,” the PLO said.

One of the new deals between the Israeli Defense Ministry and the Jewish National Fund include a plot of land adjacent to the settlement of Hamra in the northern Jordan Valley, covering more than 1,000 dunams, most of which is planted with groves of date palms, whose fruit is intended for export.

The land’s Palestinian owners have been denied access to it for 50 years, as it was closed off by military order and lies east of the security fence along the Jordanian border.

However, during the past five decades, settlers were allowed in the area. They tilled the soil and cultivated the date groves.

Another deal was sealed in Ramallah for 4.6 million shekels, in addition to a third deal that's related to the case of the structure known as the “Bakri house,” located in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of Hebron.

The “Bakri house” affair started in 2005 when settlers took over the building, which is owned by the Palestinian Bakri family and then claimed to have purchased the building from a Palestinian. However, a police investigation revealed that the documents of the transaction were forged.

Last April, the Jewish National Fund’s board of directors approved the purchase of land in the West Bank, including in areas with isolated settlements, particularly in Nablus and Jenin.



Palestinian President Abbas Appoints New Deputy in Major Step in Naming Successor

Hussein al-Sheikh, secretary-general of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, gestures during an interview with The Associate Press at his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah, June 13, 2022. (AP)
Hussein al-Sheikh, secretary-general of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, gestures during an interview with The Associate Press at his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah, June 13, 2022. (AP)
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Palestinian President Abbas Appoints New Deputy in Major Step in Naming Successor

Hussein al-Sheikh, secretary-general of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, gestures during an interview with The Associate Press at his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah, June 13, 2022. (AP)
Hussein al-Sheikh, secretary-general of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, gestures during an interview with The Associate Press at his office in the West Bank city of Ramallah, June 13, 2022. (AP)

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday named a veteran aide and confidant as his new vice president. It’s a major step by the aging leader to designate a successor.

The appointment of Hussein al-Sheikh as vice president of the Palestine Liberation Organization does not guarantee he will be the next Palestinian president. But it makes him the front-runner among longtime politicians in the dominant Fatah party who hope to succeed the 89-year-old Abbas.

Abbas hopes to play a major role in postwar Gaza. He has been under pressure from Western and Arab allies to rehabilitate the Palestinian Authority, which has limited autonomy in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.  

The PLO is the internationally recognized representative of the Palestinian people and oversees the Western-backed Palestinian Authority. Abbas has led both entities for two decades.