Another settlement scandal is emerging today in Israel, as bulldozers are moving against Palestinian-owned territory in the occupied West Bank, clearing it and setting up “temporary housing” in anticipation of yet more settlement expansions.

It isn’t just that the Israeli government is taking yet more land away from its private owners for the illegal settlements, but the methods which are raising eyebrows, as Israeli NGO Peace Now and local Palestinian officials both detailed.

The Israeli government gave its usual “notice” of the plans to seize the land, telling the Palestinian owners they have the usual two months to “present objections” in Israeli courts: a long difficult process that often takes years of courts overruling the government to get anywhere.

They issued the notices but they didn’t actually wait to hear the inevitable complaints from the owners of the property, instead immediately sending in the bulldozers, rendering the legal challenges too late to make a difference.