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00:00 Driving down this road, West Bank land planner Safar grows nervous.
00:04 It runs right between two large Israeli settlements near Jerusalem,
00:08 Mali, Adomim and Kedar.
00:11 We are Palestinians. We are not sure if we are allowed to come here.
00:15 Israel has a plan to control all these lands.
00:20 A plan unveiled by Israel's far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich,
00:24 would see the transfer of 800 hectares of West Bank land to Israel.
00:29 That would help expand settlements and give Israel control of the roads in between.
00:34 For Palestinians, journeys from north to south would be long and difficult.
00:38 They fear, for them, the West Bank would be effectively cut in two.
00:43 Over there is a road that only the settlers can use.
00:47 This shows that Minister Smotrich's plan isn't something new.
00:51 It's the continuation of an aggressive policy to keep on occupying land and increasing control.
00:57 But especially since the 7th of October, there have been severe attacks
01:01 against the land and the Palestinians of the West Bank.
01:05 Inside the settlements, considered illegal under international law, Israelis welcome the plan.
01:11 From the end of her garden, Hanna Stein overlooks the roads
01:14 currently shared by settlers and Palestinians.
01:17 Hanna's become increasingly scared following deadly attacks on settlers' cars
01:22 and so supports the land transfer.
01:25 I would certainly feel more secure, that's for sure.
01:32 Over that way, there are some Bedouins.
01:35 I've heard maybe they'll be expelled, but I'm not sure if it's true.
01:39 I don't like to get involved in politics.
01:42 Dozens of Bedouin villages built without Israeli permits are under threat.
01:47 People here tell us they're scared but won't speak on camera out of fear of reprisals.
01:53 These Palestinian Bedouin villages are perched on hilltops between Israeli settlements
01:59 and now they've been declared on Israeli state land,
02:03 making them more at risk of expulsion and diminution than ever.
02:08 This latest Israeli appropriation of 800 hectares is the largest land transfer
02:13 since the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993.
02:17 It includes this land between settlements near Jerusalem and parcels in the North Jordan Valley
02:22 and it demonstrates the Israeli government's desire to keep building
02:26 and expand its settlement policy in defiance of international condemnation.

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