المكتب الوطني للدفاع عن الارض ومقاومة الاستيطان منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية
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By: Madeeha Araj
In his weekly report about Israeli settlements activities in the occupied West Bank including Jerusalem the National Bureau for the Defense of Land stated , that another chapter in the Israeli apartheid policy against the Palestinian people in the occupied West Bank, has been taken as a special road named 4370 was opened with a cost of NIS 150,000,000 i.e. $ 43,000,000, to the north-east of the city of Jerusalem merely to be used by settlers, prohibited for the Palestinians, encouraged and supported by the US administration, and the silence of the international community and its double standard policy, which encourage Israel and settlers to go ahead with their crimes and violations against the Palestinian in the territories that have been occupied since 1967.
The “apartheid road” starts from the town of Anata, northeast of occupied Jerusalem to the Zayyim town. It then reaches connects several settlements near Ramallah to occupied Jerusalem. It is 3km long and nearly 8m high between the mountains, separating Palestinian drivers from Israeli ones. Its main purpose is to link the Israeli settlements located within the borders of the Israeli occupation municipality in Jerusalem with other settlements outside its borders, and near the separation wall. Head of the Settlement Council, Benjamin Gantz, who participated in the opening of the street, considered it as “the oxygen pipe for the settlers there.
In such step, the Israeli occupation government insists on moving forward with establishing the apartheid regime in occupied Palestine, similar to the apartheid one in South Africa by seizing, stealing and depriving Palestinians of their main source of life and economy as it controls all natural resources through the transfer of Palestinian communities into isolated enclaves, control their movement through the iron gates and military towers at their entrances, in addition to the military barriers that turn some of them into borders as the ones between countries.
The National Bureau for the Defense of the Land and Resist Settlement said that such projects and roads are part of the EI settlement project to the east of Jerusalem, which aims to isolate the holy city from the occupied West Bank through linking Jerusalem with the settlement of “Ma’ale Adumim”, till the Dead Sea, which means cutting the West Bank And completely isolating Jerusalem from its surroundings.
On the other hand, it was recently disclosed that a serious settlement projects are to be implemented in the area south of Bethlehem, east of Ramallah and Jerusalem, and the Jordan Valley, where the Israeli Ministry of Finance granted the license to implement a settlement plan to seize about 139 dunums of the land from the Deir Dibwan village, aiming to connect the settlement “Ma’aleh Mikhmas” with “Mitzpeh Danny settlement”. The Israeli authorities have also allocated about 48 dunums for the construction of public buildings and institutions, 26 dunums for the construction of a new road and 15 dunums for the establishment of hiking areas, as well as for the establishment of parking lots for commercial vehicles.
As the early elections of the Israeli Knesset are drawing, the so-called “Civil Administration” of the Israeli occupation approved the request of the Ministry of Housing to allocate hundreds of dunums to the expansion of settlements in the Bethlehem area, within the occupation government plan to besiege Bethlehem with settlements. It also allocated about 1,200 dunums for establishing a new settlement neighborhood, “Giv’at Itam”, and the occupation ministry will allocate funds from its budgets to support the plan, which in turn will lead to the expansion of the Efrat settlement towards Bethlehem.
In the Palestinian territories, the Israeli occupation forces continue their plans to resolve the fate of the Jordan Valley by annexing more lands to Israel. Thus, the Israeli army destroyed the village of Khirbet Abu Zik last week in the northern Jordan, which is inhabited by working in the field of grazing livestock, it was completely destroyed by occupation tanks.
Within the occupation government’s support for gangs of settlers, Israeli Justice Minister, Ayelet Shaked met with the families of the murderers of the martyr, Aisha Rabi, and told them that she had spoken to the Israeliprosecutor about the case, adding the Israeli military court in Rishon Lezion has decided to release four of the murderers, who attacked Aisha with stones near Nablus city, until she succumbed to death.
According to the data, the number of settler attacks against Palestinians and their land and properties have tripled over the past year compared to previous one, indicating that settler terrorism has become an integrated system established in the settlements located on the lands of citizens from the northern West Bank to the south, Under the supervision, support and financing of the ruling right in Israel and its various arms, and with the release of the terrorists accused of killing Aisha as a new green light for the resumption of their attacks against the Palestinians.
In a report that clearly showed the incitement to evacuate the Palestinian in the village of Khan-Ahmar, the Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported that the evacuation of the village had not yet taken place, despite PM Netanyahu’s announcement on Nov. 19th that the village will soon be evacuated. The newspaper called the Khan Ahmar as an “illegal Bedouin area”, allegedly saying it was established 10 years ago, claiming that it is a kind of plan submitted by the former Palestinian PM, Salam Fayyad within a strategy to extend control of the Palestinians on areas C, and other strategic areas.
Within the context of the endless support of the American administration to the Israeli occupation and its settlements, the US National Security Advisor, accompanied by the US ambassador to the occupation authority, David Friedman, and the Minister of Agriculture in the Israeli government Uri Ariel have violated the international law and the international legitimacy as they toured the Old City of Jerusalem attempting to impose a de-facto position in the place, in the light of international rejection of the unilateral actions taken by the US administration to consider Jerusalem as the capital of the Israeli Occupation State.
A list of Israeli Occupation and Settlers’ Assaults over the Last Week, Documented by the National Bureau:
Jerusalem:
- A hearing was held on the occupation court to discuss objections presented by Palestinians to confiscate 740 dunums of the lands of the towns of Issawiya and Al-Tur.
- Breaking into a of the prisoner, Samer Issawi in the town of Al-Issawiya in Jerusalem, and took measurements of the rooms, balconies and bathrooms.
Hebron:
- Uprooting 60 olive seedlings east of Hebron, located in the “Asir” area of the village of Shweikh, and cutting 15 olive trees near the town of Yatta. They wrote racist writings, including “Death to the Arabs. Moreover, cutting about thirty olive trees, in the Hamra area, to the east of the town.
- Breaking into and searching a number of houses in the area of Musafer Yatta, south of Hebron.
- Uprooting more than 30 olive, almonds and grapes in Al-Taiba area east of Tarqumiya village west of Hebron.
Nablus:
- Stealing a number of almond and olive trees from the land of Yanoun, south of Nablus, using a bulldozer.
- Invading the the village of Awarta south-east of Nablus under the protection of a large force of the occupation army under the pretext of performing prayers in religious and historical sites in the village.
Salfit:
- Pouring sewage water into the lands of Wadi Al-Shaab and Wad Al-Mutawi, leading to pollution in surface groundwater, as well as increase in the percentage of ammonia in some herbs and the number of harmful insects.
Jordan Valley:
- Aircrafts over the of Palestinian shepherds and herds of cattle, concentrated in open pastoral areas, such as Ain al-Hilweh, Malih, Wadi-Faw, Samra and Sweida areas, issuing sound like the sound of bees, which raise the attention of cattle, scare them to flee, sometimes it reaches to 15 meters low, so they issue a loud noise.
