![Ariel, one of the four biggest settlements in the West Bank [Salonmor/wikipedia]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/26_01_2008-Ariel-is-one-of-the-biggest-settlements-in-the-West-Bank.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
Sixteen buildings have been constructed in Ariel settlement beyond the boundaries of so-called ‘state land’, according to a report in Haaretz.
The fact that Israeli occupation authorities “deliberately omitted” the territory in question from the designated ‘state land’ area indicates it is privately-owned Palestinian land, or suspected to be such.
Since 1967, Israeli authorities have unilaterally designated portions of the occupied Palestinian territory as ‘state land’, and used it for settlement or other forms of colonisation.
Thus, in violation of its obligations as an occupying power, Israel does not use ‘state land’ for the benefit of the occupied population, but for the purpose of settling its own citizens (itself a separate, grave violation of the Geneva Conventions).
According to Israeli researcher Dror Etkes, “it is very difficult to believe that the Civil Administration, the Housing Ministry and the Ariel municipality didn’t know about this.”
He continued: “It’s a reminder of how the system of stealing private land in the West Bank, is at work in Ofra and extremist Amona, the same as in Ariel, Maaleh Adumim which are supposedly non-ideological settlements.”