Israel to seize West Bank land

Netanyahu seeks cuts to 2014 budget to finance Gaza war

Jerusalem, Aug. 31: Israel announced on Sunday a land appropriation in the occupied West Bank that an anti- settlement group termed the biggest in 30 years and a Palestinian official said would cause only more friction after the Gaza war.

Some 400 hectares ( 988 acres) in the Etzion settlement bloc near Bethlehem were declared “state land, on the instructions of the political echelon” by the military- run civil administration.

Israel Radio said the step was taken in response to the kidnapping and killing of three Jewish teens by Hamas militants in the area in June. The notice published by the military gave no reason for the decision.

Peace Now, which opposes Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank — territory Palestinians seek for a state, said the appropriation was meant to turn a site where 10 families now live adjacent to a Jewish seminary into a permanent settlement.

Construction of a major settlement at the location, known as “Gevaot”, has been mooted by Israel since 2000.

In 2013, the government invited bids for the building of 1,000 housing units at the site.

Peace Now said the land seizure was the largest announced by Israel in the West Bank since the 1980s and that anyone with ownership claims had 45 days to appeal.

A local Palestinian mayor said Palestinians owned the tracts and harvested olive trees on them.

Meanwhile, Israel's Cabinet convened on Sunday to debate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's call for swingeing budget cuts to pay for the 50 day military campaign in Gaza.

Mr Netanyahu, defence minister Moshe Yaalon and finance minister Yair Lapid are seeking cuts of two per cent from every government ministry — other than defence — to raise about 2 billion shekels ($ 561 million).

According to documents released by the Cabinet office ahead of Sunday's weekly meeting the biggest proposed cut is to the education ministry, which is being asked to give up 4.8 billion shekels.

Welfare and social services are being asked for 62.6 million and health spending is to be trimmed by 43 million.

Welfare minister Meir Cohen protested, saying there was no more fat on his budget to trim. “From whom will we take? From those who have nothing to put in their children’s sandwiches for school?” he said on Israeli Army radio. Mr Netanyahu’s own office, which is responsible for the domestic and foreign intelligence agencies, the Atomic Energy Commission and other departments, is to lose 33 million.