Situation in the OPT/Settlement activity – Letter from Jordan

Letter dated 9 July 1985 from the Permanent Representative of Jordan

to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

I am sending you the most recnet information on Israel's settlement activity in the occupied Arab territories during the months of January-May 1985.  This activity includes the confiscation of Arab land for the establishment of new settlements and violates the principles of international law relating to military occupation and, in particular, the Hague Conventions of 1907 and the fourth Geneva Convention of 1949.

I need not stress the danger of the continuation of such a policy for peace and security and for the prospects for peace in the region.

I should be grateful if you would have this letter and its annex circulated as an official document of the General Assembly, under item 75 of the preliminary list, and of the Security Council.

(Signed)  Abdullah SALAH

Ambassador, Permanent Representative

_____________

*A/40/50/Rev.1.

ANNEX

Israeli settlement during the months of January-May 1985

During the months of January-May 1985, the Israeli occupation authorities in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip established nine settlements, namely:

1. Tsoref.  Established on 15 January 1985 on land belonging to the village of Surif in the Hebron district.

2. Na'mah.  Established in the Jordan Valley on 8 March 1985, it comprises 20 residential units and its inhabitants depend on agriculture.

3. Kadim.  Established on 8 March 1985 north of the Nablus hills, it is an agricultural settlement and comprises 15 residential units.

4. Atsmonah.  Established on the Gaza shore on 8 March 1985, it comprises 30 residential units and is dependent on agriculture.

5. Batir.  Established clandestinely on 10 May 1985, with the assistance of the Israeli Army, by settlement nuclei made up of 7 families and 10 individuals belonging to the Herut movement, it is built on land belonging to Battir, Bethlehem district.

6. Ne'ot Adumim.  Established on 13 Ma 1985 in the village of Abu dis, Jerusalem district.

7. Pallas.  Established in the north of the Jordan Valley area on 13 May 1985.

8. Ishahhar.  Established on 13 May 1985 north of Mount Hebron.

9. Migdalim.  Established to the south of the city of Nablus on 13 May 1985.

With regard to the land confiscated by the Israeli occupation authorities during this period, the breakdown is as follows:

1. 3,000 dunums of the land of the village of Abu Dis, Jerusalem district, confiscated on 16 January 1980.

2. 3,000 dunums of the land of the Sheikh Ajjalin area, to the south of Gaza City, confiscated on 20 January 1985.

3. 2,000 dunums of the land of the town of Samu', Hebron district, confiscated on 24 January 1985.

4. 5,000 dunums of the land located near the Wadi Gaza bridge, confiscated on 14 February 1985.

5. 1,000 dunums of the lowlands int he vicinity of the city of Nablus, confiscated on 21 February 1985.

6. 20 dunums of the land lying to the south of the hotel area on the Gaza coast, confiscatted on 11 March 1985.

7. 500 dunums of the land of the village of Kafr al-Dik, which is situated 25 kilometres south-west of Nablus, confiscted on 16 May 1985.

8. 5,000 dunums of the land of the village of Burin, which is located on Mount Grizim, which overlooks the city of Nablus, for annexation to the settlement of Brakhah, confiscated on 22 May 1985.

9. 800 dunums of the land of Wadi al-Biyar, belonging to the village of Khadr, Bethlehem district, confiscated on 25 May 1985.

Settlement news reported during the period includes the following:

1. On 27 February 1985, the Jerusalem newspaper Al Fajr stated that the budget of the Settlement Department of the Jewish Agency would amount to $30 million; this includes $7 million for settlement in the West Bank, $7.25 million for settlement in the Syrian Golan Heights, $7.1 million for settlement in the Jordan Valley and $4.9 million for settlement in the Gaza Strip and Mount Hebron.

2. On 12 February 1985, the newspaper Al Quds stated that information published on 10 February 1985 by the West Bank Data Project, a research organization headed by Dr. Meron Benvenisti, indicated that the number of settlers in the West Bank had, by the end of 1984, reached 42,600 distributed over 114 settlements.  It showed that 52 per cent of West Bank land was presently under Israeli control; 41 per cent of it, an area of 2.5 million dunums out of a total of 5.5 million dunums, had been placed under the control of the Israeli authorities by direct means, such as declaring it to be State land, preventing its exploitation, and seizure; and the remaining 11 percent, an area of 570,000 dunums, was indirectly controlled by Israel by such means as prohibiting construction and cultivation and declaring the land to be subiect to the Nature Reserves Authority.  The report also stated that, up to 1973, the area of land registered as state land according to the Jordanian land registers had been 700,000 dunums, an area that had increased since the Likud had come to power by another 700,000 dunums and which was expected to reach 1 million dunums by the end of this year; that the area of land on which settlements were located at present was 140,000 dunums, expected to increase to 800,000 dunums in order to absorb 1 million settlers in the future, and that construction was prohibited on areas amounting to 300,000 dunums of land adjacent to the settlements.

(Signed)  Tahir KAN'AN

Minister for Occupied Territory Affairs

—–