Mr. Buaron, the Amona leader, said there was nothing stopping Palestinians from coming to work their land, but Mr. Hamed’s wife, Nihad, 56, expressed a widely held fear. “They would shoot us,” she said, noting that an unarmed man from Silwad had been killed by Israeli soldiers in August. The Israeli military’s custodian of abandoned West Bank lands placed an advertisement in mid-August in the Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds, along with a map, asking anybody claiming ownership to submit objections within 30 days. Abdallah Abu Rahmeh, a Palestinian Authority official who focuses on settlements, saw the Israeli debate as hairsplitting that obscures the depth of the occupation. In any case, Yesh Din, the Israeli rights group assisting the Palestinian landowners, said objections had been submitted regarding the “vast majority” of the plots.

Source: New York Times October 06, 2016 10:41 UTC