inherited from my father, but now because I can’t produce anything on the land, I can’t afford to cover the costs of my daughter’s education. I can say that now I am financially destroyed. Ultimately we have lost our livelihood that we used to make from the land and the independence that we used to have. We are working with the municipality and other associations to help us restore access to the land and find families that might be willing to live there because there is 6,300 dunums [6.3 km2] that Palestinian families should be able to use and live on. Getting there is very hard, but some families could live there if they are willing to stay there 24 hours a day, seven days per week. Commuting from Khirbet Shihadeh every day is impossible today because of the by-pass road. This policy is an indirect strategy to displace and expel Palestinians. The Israeli helicopters fly over these lands every six months to take pictures. That’s why Palestinians have to keep going to these lands, to show that we are still there as failure to do this will activate Israeli measure, derived from Ottoman laws, to confiscate land. It’s now our duty to make sure the land is never confiscated.” Ibrahim Yousef, 57-year old farmer from Deir Istiya. Interview: Deir Istiya. 21 March 2017 Legal Analysis First and foremost, the existence of colonies and the transfer of the civilian population of Israel into the oPt constitutes a grave breach under Article 49 of GCIV, which prohibits the Occupying Power from transferring its civilian population into the territory it occupies. Therefore, it follows that the confiscation of occupied land for the construction and expansion of colonies, including confiscation and denial of use for the provision of services to those colonies, cannot be justified and is also prohibited. In Wadi Qana (the area near Deir Istiya), privately-owned Palestinian land was confiscated under the declaration of a nature reserve. In Deir Istiya, land was confiscated for the construction of by-pass roads, and the installation of sewage pipelines and electricity generators for the colonies. Article 23(g) of the Fourth Hague Convention and Customary IHL both forbid the seizure of private property in occupied territory, unless it is required by imperative military necessity. In both cases, the confiscation of land by Israel, does not meet the criteria of imperative military necessity. The situation is compounded with the creation of by-pass roads to connect 61