Israel’s occupation authorities expropriated almost 70 acres of Palestinian land in the Jordan Valley and West Bank on Tuesday, Shehab news agency has reported. The land is owned by the Roman Catholic Church — the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem — in the villages of Bardala and Tayaseer near the West Bank city of Tubas and in the Jordan Valley respectively.

Palestinians residents living on the property fear that this expropriation is the forerunner to their expulsion for “security reasons”, a euphemism used by Israel to ethnically cleanse the land prior to the expansion of illegal settlements.

The expansion of Israeli settlements always starts with such measures. It is one way that Israel uses to empty the land of the indigenous Palestinian population. [including both Muslims and Christians]

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Featured image: An Orthodox Church in Jerusalem’s old city on 16 September 2013 [Saeed Qaq//Apaimages]