Israel orders stop on construction of four houses east of Bethlehem

 Israeli forces today ordered stop on the construction of four Palestinian houses in Kisan village, east of the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem, according to local sources.

Deputy head of Kisan Village Council Ahmad Ghazal told WAFA that Israeli forces raided the village and handed four Palestinians orders to stop the construction of their houses under the pretext of unlicensed construction.

He added that the village has been a regular target of colonial settlement construction, manifest in the spike in the number of stop-construction orders, land grab and the construction of settler-only bypass roads on lands seized from the village.

Located 11 kilometers to the south of Bethlehem city, Kisan has a population of some 600 and occupies a total area of 133,330 dunams.

Under the Oslo Accords, an agreement made 25 years ago that was supposed to last just five years towards a self-governing country alongside Israel, the Palestinian Authority was given limied control over a tiny pocket of land occupying 112 dunams, accounting for less than 1 percent of the village’s total area. Israel maintains control over 108,952, classified as Area C, accounting for 81.7 percent. The remaining part of 24,266 dunams, accounting for 18 percent, is classified as nature reserve.

Israel has established three colonial settlements, namely Ma‘ale Amos and Mizpe Shalem besides to the settlement outpost ofIbei Hanahal on lands confiscated from the village. It has confiscated further land for the construction of settler-only by-pass road no. 901 and road no. 3698, which extend for 16.1 kilometers on the village land.

Israel has constructed a section of the apartheid wall, confiscating and isolating some 87,344 dunams of fertile land, accounting for 65.5 percent of the village total area, for colonial settlement activities and pushing the villagers into a crowded enclave, a ghetto, surrounded by walls, settlements and military installations.