المكتب الوطني للدفاع عن الارض ومقاومة الاستيطان منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية
Related Articles
By: Madeeha Al-A’raj
The National Bureau for defending land and resisting settlements ( nbprs ) stated in its latest weekly report , that last week, the Occupation Authorities postponed the approval of the most dangerous settlement construction of 9,000 settlement units plan on an area of 1,243 dunums of Qalandia International Airport, north of the occupied Jerusalem, following the American and international pressure. The postponement decision didn’t prevent the Israeli Local Planning Committee in the occupied Jerusalem from submitting a new settlement plan called “Givat Hashakid” on the outskirts of the Beit Safafa town, south of Jerusalem.
The plan includes the construction of 473 settlement units, an elementary school, nurseries, and temples on a 38 dunums, located outside the Green Line, in areas known as “Nahal Refaim”, “Hamsila Park” and “David Benvenisti Street”. This is at a time where Beit Safafa, and some other Palestinian Neighborhoods and towns in the occupied Jerusalem suffers from a severe shortage of land allocated for construction.
Knowing that in 2018, the Israeli government approved a plan, claiming that it reduces the gaps between the populations, and developing neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. It includes an item to registration lands in Eat Jerusalem at the Tabbo after the occupation of Jerusalem in 1967. However, most of the land registration processes took place were to serve housing schemes for Jews only, and didn’t lead to an improvement in the situation of the Palestinian population. The land parcels that were registered were registered in the names of Jewish families, claiming that they owned these lands before the Nakba in 1948, and the settlement associations use this plan to control homes of Palestinians and demand their expulsion from the homes they have lived in since the 50s of the last century.
Within the context, i.e. facilitating construction that serves settlers, the far-right and racist Interior Minister, Shaked said that she is working on regulating the water and electricity infrastructure for the isolated outposts in the West Bank. Adding that it is possible to connect these outposts to electricity by order of the Minister of Defense, and we are working on that and hope that this will happen within a few months.
For her part, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, warned of the deterioration of Palestinian rights and of the human rights situation reaching catastrophic levels, at the meeting organized by the United Nations Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, She stressed the need to address the root causes of the conflict, and this requires the international community’s commitment to ensuring long-awaited accountability for all violations. She also warned of settler-related violence reaching alarmingly high levels, amid continuing tensions over expansion Israeli settlement.
Moreover, the Bennett’s government is seeking to approve a plan that includes the establishment of 2 new settlements in order to increase the number of settlers in the Golan by 50%. And in order to speed up this plan, Bennett’s office seeks to establish a “special committee” for the establishment of the two settlements named Aseef and Matar in addition to expanding settlements with new neighborhoods and industrial, commercial and tourist areas. The committee will have the authority of a local and regional planning committee without having in its membership representatives of the public. The decision-making regarding the establishment of a new settlement and its location will not change and this will remain through the national planning institutions, but the actual planning of the settlement after the approval of its establishment will be within the powers of the Special Committee, whose period of work will be determined until the year 2025.
List of Israeli Assaults over the Last Week Documented by the National Bureau:
Jerusalem:
- Forcing a citizen to demolish his house in Al-Ashkariya Neighborhood in the Beit Hanina town, if refuses to demolish, he has to pay a fine of up to NIS 65,000. Another citizen was forced to demolish his 165-m2 house in Silwan on the pretext of building without a permit.
- Warning to demolish dozens of homes – 84 homes in Wadi Yasoul Neighborhood in Silwan town in the occupied Jerusalem.
- Demolishig retaining walls in Jabal Mukaber.
- Storming the Sheikh Jarrah Neighborhood, chanting “Death to the Arabs”, as part of an inciting march against Jerusalemites called for by far-right associations.
- Storming the Al-Aqsa Mosque, from the side of the Morrocan Gate, under the protection of the occupation police and performing Talmudic rituals.
- Lighting the historic Jerusalem wall with Talmudic drawings and slogans, coinciding with the so-called Hebrew “Festival of Lights.”
Hebron:
- Storming the Samou town and performing Talmudic rituals in the ancient tower in the town.
- Demolishing a house in the Irfaiya village, east of Yatta, other agricultural room and a house in the Abu Khashaba area, south of Hebron, consisting of 3 rooms and its annexes, with an area of 60m2, in which 13 people lived.
- Bulldozing 60 dunums of citizens’ lands in the Um al-Khair village in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, and 40 dunums in the Badawi al-Zuwaidin community of al-Ka’bna Village Council and Um al-Daraj in Masafer Yatta.
- Preventing the Hebron Reconstruction Committee staff from completing maintenance and restoration work at the Ibrahimi Mosque and 12 homes in the old city of Hebron.
Bethlehem:
- Fixing 2 monitoring cameras on a two-donum area of land, located in the “Ein Qassis” area in the Al-Khader town, south of Bethlehem.
- Demolishing facilities and buildings in the town of Nahalin, west of Bethlehem, on the pretext of not having a permit.
Nablus:
- Seizing 3 tents in the Beit Furik town, east of Nablus in the Al-Suwaneh area, and forced people to leave the area.
- Storming the evacuated Homesh settlement, near the town of Silat Al-Dahr, south of Jenin.
- Performing Talmudic rituals, and celebrated the Hebrew Hanukkah festival of lights, with the participation of Settlement Council Chairman, Yossi Dagan and Knesset member, Orit Struck.
- Detaining farmers who were working on their lands in Qariot, south of Nablus, and preventing them from completing their work.
- Attacking the homes of citizens in the Madama town.
Jordan Valley:
- Seizing parts of the land in the Al-Baqi`ah Plain in the northern Jordan Valley.
- Demolishing 3 tents in Khirbet Humsa in the northern Jordan Valley, and seized agricultural tractor from Khirbet Ibziq in the northern Jordan Valley.
- Forcing 5 families to leave their homes in Khirbet Ibziq in the northern Jordan Valley, for a period of 10 days to conduct military trainings in the area that begin on 5/12 and end on 15 of this month, which means that citizens will remain in the difficult weather conditions.
