المكتب الوطني للدفاع عن الارض ومقاومة الاستيطان منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية
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By: Madeeha Araj,
Israeli settlement activities encouraged by the American administration and its embassy in Tel Aviv are escalated as the “Regional Committee for Israeli Organization and Building in Jerusalem” is considering the expansion of the “Nof Zahav” settlement in Jabal Mukaber under the project no. 365908, which requires the construction of 600 new settlement units to be added to the 350 planned ones under the same 2017 project, where new sections have been added and expanded under the pressure of investors and settlers in light of the green light following the ill-famed Trump’s declaration
This comes in conjunction with the issuance of the Israeli Minister of Finance, Moshe Kahlon, an order to exempt fees of the infrastructure required to transfer the US Embassy to Jerusalem. When he signed the order, Kahlon said that as a Finance Minister and responsible for planning in Israel, I am proud to pay for the transfer of the US embassy to Jerusalem..” He had published that the transfer of the embassy on May 14 might not be possible due to the bureaucratic procedures.
As the settlement activity in the northern Jordan Valley is accelerated to transfer 4 settlements and an outpost settlement into a large settlement city on thousands of donums in the Jordan Valley, where the settlements of Mejola, Shdemot Mechola, Rotem and Seleit are located, as well as the settlement outpost established by extremist settlers on the Hamad area.
In a remarkable development, the Regaim Settlement Association submitted a petition to the Israeli Supreme Court demanding the evacuation of 3 Palestinian Bedouin communities south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank. They handed over a copy of the petition that consists of 25 pages to the citizens, the 7th item of it stated that this area is classified as a shooting zone and that the Palestinian Bedouins have built it illegally, worth mentioning that the area has about 1,600 buildings, but classified as C Area i.e. under Israeli control.
On another level, the United Nations stated in a new report issued by its mission in Palestine that the weekly rate of settler attacks that resulted in injuries to Palestinians or damage to their property has increased by 50% since the beginning of 2018 compared with 2017, 67%.
As part of Israel’s ongoing war against the Palestinian people, the Facebook administration responded to a request by Israel to amend the map of Jerusalem to include settlement outposts set up by the occupation after 1967. Deputy Foreign Minister, Tzipi Hutibli submitted a request to the Government Relations Officer Erdina Kotler, who responded to the request. For her part, Israeli Justice Minister, Ilit Shaked threatened to take legal action against Twitter for refusing to respond to Israeli requests to write off the accounts of Palestinian organizations that the Israeli government accuses of being hostile.
Israel’s expansionist ambitions for the West Bank are not limited to the Golan Heights. A recent political conference entitled “Observations of a National Strategy on the Golan Heights” was presented at a conference in Tel Aviv. For the first time in fifty years, there is a possibility of changing the borders in the Middle East. Israel has an opportunity to gain recognition of its sovereignty over the Golan Heights. He added, Israel should look forward to an international understanding to cancel the 1967 lines.
The National Office condemned Ambassador Friedman’s remarks in calling for the annexation of the West Bank, specifically, the C areas, which are actually accompanied by practical measures on the ground of which is the most recent call by Israeli Minister of Construction and Housing, Yoav Galant to annex the West Bank and the Jordan Valley to Israel. He said during his meeting last weekend with the heads of the West Bank settlement council that his ministry had doubled the funds allocated for the escalation of settlement construction, adding that the maximum political settlement of our conflict with the Palestinians is to give them “self-government”.
A list of Israeli Occupation and Settlers’ Assaults Over The Last Week, Documented by the National Bureau:
Jerusalem:
- Writing hostile slogans against the Palestinian and Arabs, saying, “Arab Jerusalemites are terrorists, who must be driven out.” They damaged tires of a number of vehicles and wrote racist slogans at them, such as, “paying the price” and “revenge”.
- A Palestinian bus driver was beaten by a gang of Jewish boys in the occupied Jerusalem.
- Preparing for the “Sacrifices” project on the eve of the “Passover festive” upcoming April, which witnessed large-scale incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque throughout the month. The so-called “Temple Mount” group announced its intention to carry out this festival in the Umayyad Palaces area, with the approval and blessing of the Israeli police.
- Ongoing suffering of the Al-Khan Al-Ahmar area in the occupied Jerusalem in order to deport them from their communities in favor of settlement projects. The Higher Court will hold a session on April 25 to give its saying on that. The population organizes events and demonstrations on the main street on Thursday of every week, with the participation of Palestinian and European activists to express their rejection of any decisions leading to deportation. The citizens responded to repeated attempts by Israeli occupation forces in Jerusalem to change street signs in the Silwan town, south of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
- Demolishing a house belonging to Ishaq Shweiki by his hand, in the Abbasi neighborhood near Silwan under pressure from the Israeli Municipality in Jerusalem to avoid paying fines of NIS 50-60, 000, a house built more than 100 years ago. Moreover, demolishing Faisal Mo’d Juma’a house in the Jabal al-Mukaber, south of Jerusalem, under an Israeli Court’s decision. Juma’a said that he built the house about 6 months ago. Earlier this year, the municipality issued a demolition order.
Hebron:
- Severely beaten Palestinian schoolchildren in the Tawana village in Yatta, south of Hebron, inflicting bruises and injuries to them.
- A number of houses were taken zoomed in the Beit Umar town, north of Hebron, and several checkpoints were erected at the entrances of the city. Anumber of were also raided and searched.
Bethlehem:
- 300 Palestinian olive trees were destroyed in the Jaba’a village, southwest of Bethlehem, belonging to Moh’d Ali Hamdan.
- Agricultural lands were bulldozed in the Al-Khader town, south of Bethlehem in order to expand the 1 km long road that passes through the town.
Nablus:
- Bulldozing new lands near Shivot Rahil settlement built on the Jalood’s land, where the Israeli authorities have rejected all objections submitted by the village council and landowners under the pretext that they have been declared “state lands” since 1981, and that they are closed military zones that prevent them from using them.
- Farmers in the Madma village south of Nablus were prevented from plowing their land. Local sources said that the Israeli occupation forces attacked the farmers while working on their land to the south of the village, even though it is located in the B areas. The sources said that Israeli soldiers forced the farmers to leave the lands.
- Blocking Palestinian farmers and foreign solidarity activists, and prevented them from plowing their land in the Sawya town, south of Nablus.
- Storming the Sebastia town, north-west of Nablus, firing live bullets and tear gas at citizens, which led to the burning of some crops.
Ramallah:
- Attacking Palestinian farmers in the Tormosaya town, northeast of Ramallah. Settlers threw stones against the citizens under the seen of the Israeli soldiers, but the citizens managed to defend their land and to force the settlers to leave the area.
Jordan Valley:
- Israeli occupation forces focused their military trainings in various areas in the northern Jordan Valley, using dozens of artillery shells and rockets. Heavy military vehicles, including tanks, armored personnel buses and vehicles, were deployed along with large bulldozers in those areas, destroying large areas of agricultural land in many other areas, which resulted in destroying parts of the cultivated and rain-fed crops planted by the Palestinian farmers, besides erecting tents in the Farseia area of the northern valleys.
