Resistance to the Wall and Settlement: Occupation Confirms Order to Seize Sebastia Artifacts

SadaNews - The head of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, Minister Muayad Shaban, stated that the occupation issued an order today to seize 2,000 dunums of land from the towns of Sebastia and Burqa, northwest of Nablus, under an appropriation order targeting the archaeological site in the area.

Shaban indicated in a statement this evening, Tuesday, that the official appropriation order issued today represents a direct continuation of the previously announced intention to confiscate, under order number (2/25) dated January 18, 2025, where the occupying state had only announced its intention at that time without further clarifications.

He stated that the issuance of an appropriation order by the occupation authorities for the archaeological site in Sebastia reveals a selective employment of legal tools to achieve settlement goals. The concept of appropriation in international law refers to designating land for a public benefit that serves the population under administration in an equal and non-discriminatory manner. However, the current practice exploits this procedure to solidify effective control over the land and designate it exclusively to serve settlers, turning a tool intended to achieve the public good into a means for redistributing benefits on a settlement basis, serving settlers and wielding a sword over the necks of landowners, stripping the action of its legal legitimacy and revealing its nature as a mechanism for disguised annexation under the guise of administrative action.

Shaban clarified that the area previously announced by the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission regarding the targeted site, amounting to 1,473 dunums, was an estimation based on spatial consideration, as the announcement of the intention to confiscate at that time did not include precise determinations of the areas but indicated general boundaries without disclosing detailed plans or final measurements. Thus, the order issued today bearing number (26/1) does not represent a new separate action, but reveals the actual size of the targeted land within the same process.

He continued: The transition from announcing the intention to seize to issuing an official appropriation order, coupled with the statement of the precise area, confirms that what occurred in recent months was a preliminary phase within a gradual procedure that appears to be legal aiming to establish legal and administrative control over the archaeological site and its geographic surroundings, and that the targeted area for seizure which reached 2,000 dunums indicates that the targeting is not limited to the archaeological site boundaries but extends to include the surrounding spatial area, which carries effects on the agricultural lands and extensions of the towns of Sebastia and Burqa.

Shaban emphasized that the occupying state, by utilizing the artifact file to infiltrate Palestinian land, confirms broader policies aimed at imposing actual annexation realities in the West Bank, through legal and administrative tools that appear to be regulatory or heritage-related, while in essence serving the function of restructuring control over the land.

He stressed that today’s revelation of the actual targeted area multiplies the seriousness of the action and necessitates urgent legal action to confront the appropriation order, in addition to diplomatic and legal efforts to expose the use of cultural heritage as an entry point to expand control over Palestinian land.

He noted that protecting archaeological sites will remain an integral part of protecting the land and national identity, and that any attempt to transform heritage into a tool for control or annexation will face all available legal and national means.