Palestinians given one hour to leave site of new Israeli settlements

The Israeli occupation administration issued the deadline on Saturday after hundreds of Palestinian activists set up tents on the area where the Israeli regime plans to build thousands of new illegal settler units.
 
"Members of the Israeli Civil (military) Administration told us this morning that we have one hour to evacuate the site," Abir Copty, one of the organizers of the tents said.
 
"We have no intention of leaving of our own accord," she added.
 
On Friday, the activists set up more than 20 tents in the area between the occupied east al-Quds (Jerusalem) and the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim to support the right of the Palestinian owners of the land.
 
Senior Palestinian officials have described the move as a “highly creative and legitimate non-violent” way of defending occupied Palestinian land.
 
Last month, Israeli officials said they would go ahead with plans to build 6,500 settler units on Palestinian territory, despite the opposition of the United Nations and the international community.
 
The presence and continued expansion of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine has created a major obstacle for the efforts to establish peace in the Middle East.
 
More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds in 1967.
 
The UN and most countries regard the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were captured by Israel in a war in 1967 and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbids construction on occupied lands.