Volunteers plant on Palestinian land in Bethlehem area to avoid Israeli confiscation

Ma'an – Planting initiatives in the southern West Bank district of Bethlehem began Tuesday on land threatened with confiscation for Israel's separation wall, officials said.

In the Husan village, west of Bethlehem, volunteers began cultivating 300 dunums of land near the illegal settlement of Betar Illit under a Palestinian Authority Ministry of Agriculture program initiated by the ministry's anti-wall and settlement activity unit.

Spokesman for the campaign against the wall and settlements in Bethlehem Awad Abu Sway said that while large portions of land in the area were planted with fruit trees, more needs to be "reclaimed, planted, and tended to, to avoid confiscation by Israel under the pretext of being wasteland."

Approximately 90 meters of fencing was erected on the land and the area was prepared for further planting, he added.

Meanwhile, in the Bethlehem-area town of Beit Sahour, 65 local and international volunteers participated in a similar initiative on land near the wall, undertaken by the Ajyal camp.

Approximately 180 volunteers will begin preparing land for cultivation in the Battir village to the west and the Al-Ma'sara to the south, both near the wall, and are scheduled to finish work on Thursday.