المكتب الوطني للدفاع عن الارض ومقاومة الاستيطان منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية
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By: Madeeha Al-A’raj
The National Bureau for defending land and resisting settlements ( nbprs ) stated in its latest weekly report , that a new ethnic cleansing crime to be carried out by Moshe Lyon Municipality in the occupied Jerusalem as it has announced to demolish the entire Al-Bustan Neighborhood again, cancelling all the agreements reached with the citizens of neighborhood, and rejected the engineering plans that it asked them to provide as an alternative to demolition, and it also refused to extend the demolition orders, which recently distributed to them.
Thus, the municipality will demolish all homes in preparation for the establishment of a ‘biblical National Park. The story of this neighborhood goes back to the year 2005, when the occupation municipality issued a decision to demolish it, and began distributing demolition orders to its 1550 residents i.e. about 100 apartments under the pretext of being built without a permit, even though its lands are privately owned and an Islamic endowment. The Al-Bustan Neighborhood is located 300 meters away from the southern wall of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and it extends over an area of 70 dunums. According to well-known occupation’s myths, it claims that it represents a ‘historical cultural legacy for the Jewish people’, so worked to Judaize its name and turning it into the ‘Garden of King David’.
It should be noted that 3 neighborhoods in Silwan are threatened with demolition in favor of Judaizing national parks, namely Al-Bustan, Wadi Al-Rababa that has about 1,000 inhabitants, and Wadi Yasoul neighborhoods, which has about 300 inhabitants. There are other neighborhoods in Silwan that are threatened with settlement, such as, Batn Al-Hawa neighborhood, which surrounded the Bustan, and more than 5 dunams of land are under threat of confiscation under the pretext of ownership of the land for the benefit of the settlers, and the residents are waging a struggle in the Israeli courts to preserve their property, while the Wadi Hilweh Neighborhood is threatened by excavations, tunnels and outposts.
As for the ongoing settlement plans, the occupation authorities issued a military order to seize 658 dunums of the lands of the Al-Abidiya town, north of Bethlehem, all are in the Wadi Al-Nar area in basin no. 6, in the locations of Keren Al-Hamam, Jalin and Sanam Al-Baqa’a. the new decision under the name of an order on the land law ‘expropriation for the General Benefit’ – (Judea and Samaria) no. 321, (5729-1969) – to acquire and take over the right to dispose of ‘the Kidron Horknya Valley Water Complex No. H / 1/21 (Wadi al-Nar), to build a water complex for the use of settlements in the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea.
The occupation published a military order in 2019, to change the natural course of the Wadi al-Nar line for wastewater, and this decision comes within the decisions related to the occupation’s control over Palestinian natural resources by exploiting wastewater and treating it for use in agricultural purposes, while preventing Palestinians from establishing development projects, and deliberately preventing development wastewater projects in the Palestinian territories
According to a recent joint report that dealt with the Occupation State’s motivation to settle in the West Bank, issued by B’Tselem and Kerem Navot Organization, which focusing their work on monitoring, research and publishing facts and reports related to the settlement policy as it clearly embodies the Israeli Apartheid in the West Bank, which seeks in various ways to achieve and perpetuate the supremacy of one group of ‘Jewish people’ over another group, namely the Palestinians in all the lands extended from the river to the sea.
List of Israeli Assaults over the Last Week Documented by the National Bureau:
Jerusalem:
- Notifying the demolition of 10 buildings in the village of Al-Jib, northwest of Jerusalem, adjacent to the Apartheid Wall, including houses, stores, and a wedding hall belonging to the prisoner, Shukri Abu Dei’a.
- Forcing a citizen to demolish his own house in the Abu Riala Neighborhood in the village of Al-Issawiya after threatening him to pay a fine of 150,000 NIS.
Hebron:
- Bulldozing citizens ‘lands in the Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, belonging to the Buhais family, with the aim of expanding the Maon and Karmiel Settlements on citizens’ lands near the Um Al-Khair and Tawana area east of Yatta.
- Injuring a citizen by a teargas canister and suffocated others in the areas of Um Zaitouneh and Al-Tha`la, east of Yatta, during a protest event against bulldozing the lands east of Yatta, south Hebron.
- Demolishing a house under construction in the area of Khallet Al Wardah, east of Bani Naim, with an area of 500 m2, and a well for collecting rainwater with a capacity of 200 m3 in addition to damaging the building materials on the site.
- Closing the entrance to the Ma’in village, east of Yatta, south of Hebron, with earthen mounds, under the pretext of protecting the Israeli settlers.
- Opening fire towards two children 12 and 13 years old from the Ahrizat family, while they were grazing sheep in the Al-Massafer area east of Yatta.
Bethlehem:
- Cutting down number of old olive trees, in the lands of Bethlehem, in the Asion area.
- Attacking a number of farmers, southwest of the village of Kisan, east of Bethlehem, and expelling them.
- Notifying a citizen of the demolition of his own stores under the pretext of not having a building permit.
- Notifying of the demolition of an agricultural room in the village of Al-Walaja, northwest of Bethlehem, and a house under construction with a floor and an area of 200 m2 in the Wadi Al-Hummus, east of Bethlehem, near the village of Dar Salah, east of Bethlehem, under the pretext of not having a building permit, knowing that the house is located in Area B and the owner has a building permit from the Palestinian Local Government.
Ramallah:
- Expelling a farmer from his land in the village of Nabi Saleh, north of Ramallah, adjacent to the Halamish settlement, established on the village’s lands, in addition to stopping work on it, and seizing his agricultural tractor.
Nablus:
- Handing notices to stop construction of three buildings under construction in the village of Zwata northwest of Nablus, under the pretext of being in Area C, knowing that these houses are located within the partial structural scheme approved since the previous year.
Salfit:
- Attacking a Palestinian from the town of Broqin during his existence in his land with his family, and throwing stones at the family’s vehicle and breaking its windows.
- Attacking a farmer and his wife with stones while they were on their land in the Qana Valley, north of the town of Deir Istia.
- Storming the Islamic shrines in the town of Kafel Haris, under the Israeli protection and performing Talmudic prayers.
Qalqilya:
- Handing demolition notices in the village of Al- Nabi Elias to several facilities built near the old road that passes from the center of the village on the northern side.
Jenin:
- Handing a notice to stop work on the maintenance of a road in the village of Um Al-Rayhan in the Yabd area of the road leading to the Al-Batmah Neighborhood.
Jordan valley:
- Bulldozing lands belonging to the Ein El-Hilweh stream in the northern valleys, from which citizens benefit in irrigating their livestock, and provide water, especially in the summer season.
- Demolishing two buildings in the village of Ein Shibli in the Central Valley, east of Nablus. They also handed demolition notices to 9 buildings in the village under the pretext of being a military zone.
- Storming the Khirbet Homsa Al-Fawqa in the northern Jordan Valley, and filming the citizen’s tents.
