South Sharon residents gear up for land battle

By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY (TRANSLATED)
Rural settlements in the south Sharon area are gearing up for battle over plans to requisition some of their lands to allow neighboring Arab towns and settlements to expand, reports www.local.co.il. Ten or more moshavim and settlements are said to be at risk of losing lands in the plans, which are being drawn up by the Interior Ministry's Borders Committee. According to the report, worried residents have attended two conferences on the subject in recent weeks, at Yarkona and at Gan Haim. The conferences were organized by the Admati ("My Land") non-profit organization, which said it was trying to raise awareness of the "grave situation" facing some of the settlements. A spokesman for the organization said that 10 or more settlements were likely to lose land that would then be attached to neighboring Arab cities, towns and settlements, but that most residents were not even aware that their lands were at risk. The report said that dozens of residents attended the conferences, and that afterwards many vowed to take action to fight the plans and to help in raising money for lawyers to assist them.