QUSRA, West Bank - Palestinians have
launched protests in the occupied West Bank after Israeli
bulldozers began clearing land in what villagers fear is an
attempt to confiscate it for future Jewish settlements.
Scuffles intensified this week as Israeli voters voted in an
election, with Palestininans saying settlers had been emboldened
by U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle East plan and Israeli
election rhetoric about annexing settlements.
Villagers from nearby Qusra challenged troops guarding
Israeli bulldozers as they worked in a field close to Migdalim
settlement in the northern West Bank.
In another nearby village, Beita, residents protested over
several days, planting a Palestinian flag and erecting a tent on
the hilltop of al-Arma to defend it against settlers from Itamar
settlement, near the city of Nablus. Some demonstrators hurled
rocks at Israeli troops.
"I came here because this is my land, and I want to die on
my land but they are not letting me come near it," said Joudat
Odeh, from Qusra.
"They are happy at the victory of Netanyahu," said Odeh, 70.
"They are coming to control this land and we are helpless."
Palestinians, protesting against Israeli machineries bulldozing lands, argue with Israeli forces near the village of Qusra, in the Israeli occupied West Bank
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud
Party leads the vote count after Monday's election, but with 99%
of votes counted on Wednesday he was still short of securing
enough seats for a governing coalition.
Victory would pave the way for Netanyahu to make good on his
pledge to annex settlements in the West Bank under Trump's peace
plan.
Palestinians have rejected the proposal, saying it would
kill their dream of establishing a viable state in the West Bank
and Gaza Strip, territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle
East war.
More than 400,000 Israeli settlers now live among about 3
million Palestinians in the West Bank, with a further 200,000
settlers in East Jerusalem. Palestinians and much of the world
view the settlements as illegal under international law, a
position Israel and the United States dispute.
An Israeli military statement said that on March 1 Israelis
were carrying out "agricultural work" near Migdalim when around
30 Palestinians "came to the area, hurled rocks and came into
physical confrontation with the Israelis. Military forces came
to the area and dispersed the crowd."
Soon afterwards, the statement said, 120 Palestinians
gathered nearby in what it termed a "riot." It said its troops
were confronted with burning tyres and "large amounts of rocks"
and "responded with riot dispersal means."
Qusra protesters said Israel had stopped Palestinians using
or farming the lands in question since the 1990s, and now they
feared settlers would seize them for their own use.
"I am afraid that in a few days Netanyahu may come to lay
the cornerstone of a new settlement," said Mohammad Shokri, 80,
from Qusra.
"He gave them a promise he would increase settlement. They
want to take over all the mountains and to leave nothing for the
Arabs".