Occupation damages Palestinian historical site in WB

Days of Palestine, Wet Bank –Israeli occupation resumed on Wednesday building its Apartheid Wall on top of historical site in occupied West Bank town of Beit Jala.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities condemned this “flagrant” Israeli “violation” and “disrespect” of Palestinian history and heritage.

According to the PA, the Israeli occupation allowed work on top of Khirbet al-Najjar, a site that dates back to Roman and Byzantine periods.

The ministry said that Israeli bulldozers began making excavations in the area — site to historical walls, water wells, presses and a cluster of graves — in what it said were the beginning stages to build a road to a nearby settlement.

Israeli forces prevented a group of Palestinians from arriving into the scene in order to document the Israeli violations. The PA said that this is an “obvious violation of international law” regarding Palestinian rights to heritage and culture.

Palestinian residents of Beit Jala and other villages in Bethlehem have long faced Israeli construction on their land, much of which has been cut off from them by Israel’s separation wall.

Bethlehem Mayor Vera Baboun said last month that Bethlehem district cities for more than 10 years have been receiving letters from Israeli authorities ordering the confiscation of land for the construction of the separation wall.

The district has fought the orders in the past, but the orders cite security threats as the reason for confiscation.

Nearly 60 kilometers of the wall already cuts through Bethlehem district and is built on Palestinian land, the UN Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs reports, enabling the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the area.

Source Article from http://www.daysofpalestine.com/news/occupation-damage-palestinian-historical-site-wb/

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