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Guardian Falsely Claims Israeli Town Was Built on Palestinian Land
(CAMERA-UK) Adam Levick - The Guardian on July 23 claimed that the Israeli community of Efrat, 20 km. south of Jerusalem, was located on land that once belonged to four Palestinian villages. In fact, the town, which today has 11,500 residents, is built on land predominantly owned and populated by Jews since decades prior to 1948. Gush Etzion (the Etzion Bloc) has been recognized in past Israeli-Palestinian negotiations as an area that would remain part of Israel in any future peace agreement. Mayor Oded Revivi confirmed that Efrat was built on state land and some private Jewish land. When it was declared state land by Israeli authorities in the 1970s, this was based on a thorough review of land registries during Ottoman, British and Jordanian control of the territory. Revivi stressed that when the town was built, they were extremely careful to avoid building on any private Palestinian land. When the founders of the community discovered some small parcels that, the records showed, did belong to Palestinians, they were careful to build around it. As the town is not surrounded by a fence, the small amount of privately owned land is accessible to the Palestinian owners. He added that there haven't been any legal claims in decades. Thus, the construction of Efrat didn't involve the illegal seizure of private Palestinian land, and it didn't involve the displacement of any Palestinians or the destruction of any Palestinian homes.