Jewish Extremists Are Seizing Land In The West Bank At Record Numbers

It was a restaurant appreciated for its cuisine and friendliness in the West Bank town of Beit Jala. “The place is beautiful, the food succulent and the owners are adorable […]. If you’re passing through Beit Jala, a stop at Al Makhrour is a must,” a comment from 2015 reads on its Facebook page.

In this Catholic valley west of Bethlehem, which in 2014 became a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its its olive groves and vineyards, the Kisiya family’s restaurant is nothing more than a pile of ruins topped by fences.

Israeli settlers backed by the army seized the 5,000 square-metre plot on July 31 and evicted the French-Palestinian family on the grounds they did not own it. “We are being targeted because we reject the government’s Zionist policy,” said Michelle Kisiya, a 54-year-old French-Israeli woman, in a phone call with FRANCE 24.

Kisiya’s Palestinian husband, Ramzi, had inherited the land. In 2001 he opened a restaurant there with his wife and their four children. At first there was no electricity, but then solar panels solved the problem. For years, hundreds of tourists passing through Bethlehem stopped there for a salad before continuing their hike in the green valleys. The establishment was so successful that the family decided to add on a house in 2012, which was also used as a chapel for religious festivals.

Since Israel’s occupation of the West Bank began in 1967, almost 500,000 Israelis have settled amid the 3 million Palestinians living in the territory. For a long time, the Makhrour valley was untouched by uncontrolled settlements, but the trouble began in 2012 when an Israeli outpost – a settlement not authorised by the government – was built there. The Kisiya family did not have a valid building permit for their house, and their restaurant was destroyed for the first time.

A spokesman for the regional council of Gush Etzion, a cluster of Jewish settlements south of Bethlehem, told FRANCE 24 that the disputed land has belonged to a subsidiary of the Jewish National Fund since 1969. “Twenty years ago, the Kasiya [sic] family invaded it illegally,” he said.

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The family is far from alone: for historical reasons, most private land in the West Bank is not officially registered, which makes it easier for Israel to seize. Israel in June seized more than 1,200 hectares of land in the territory, a three-decade high.

In a bid to prevent the family’s restaurant from being rebuilt again, the Israeli army declared the site to be a “closed military zone”, which prevented anyone from entering it until Sunday. The settlers, who are supported by the army, are not worried. They know the Israeli government will soon consider the outposts built in the vicinity as legal, even though international law does not recognise them.

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who monitors illegal construction in the occupied West Bank, in late June announced the approval of five illegal settlements  – some 1,270 hectares of land – in response to Norway, Ireland, Spain, Estonia and Armenia’s decisions to recognise a Palestinian state.

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For the past month, Michelle Kisiya and her daughter Alice, 30, have been organising a non-violent citizens’ movement to protest against the seizure of their land. Israeli police arrested them on August 25 before releasing them a few hours later. “If I leave my land, I have nothing left in this country. If I don’t fight, the whole valley will be invaded by settlers. We’re not afraid. We’re not criminals,” said Michelle Kisiya, who has set up a tent a stone’s throw from the family’s land to welcome activists, journalists and supporters of her cause.

The French consul in Jerusalem, Nicolas Kassianides, did not want to answer FRANCE 24’s questions but he has travelled to Makhrour in recent weeks to offer his support to the Kisiya family.

“This is a French family and it is the consulate’s job to support its nationals, so I wanted to show our solidarity and our support for the steps being taken to assert their rights […]. The Kasiya [sic] family has sent us documents proving their right to the property,” he told an AFP team on site.

Although the family’s case has reached the highest echelons of the state of Israel, it is by no means an anomaly. Expulsions of Palestinians from their land in West Bank have increased, particularly since Israel’s far-right government came to power in 2022. The situation has sharply deteriorated since Israel’s invasion of Gaza in the wake of the October 7 attacks.

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Peace Now’s Mizrachi agreed. “Since October 7, settlement activity has accelerated: new outposts are being built, thousands of Palestinians have been denied access to their land for security reasons, and there have been more declarations of state ownership of land in the West Bank this year than ever before. Settler violence has also increased significantly.”

The Israeli NGO warned in January of the record number of unauthorised settlements that had sprung up since the Gaza war began. For its part, the UN has recorded some 1,270 settler attacks and more than 620 Palestinians killed in the West Bank by either the Israeli army or settlers since October 7.

“Many Palestinians are subjected to physical violence, but the most common form of violence is damaging property or burning crops,” said Mizrachi. “All these practices existed even before October 7, but they have now become widespread.”