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 , the new Israeli government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu that sworn in before the Knesset last week, is the most far-right in Israel’s history. Its program has started with a paragraph confirming that ‘the Jewish people have the exclusive and irrevocable right over all of the Land of Israel’, which violates the rights of the Palestinians and besieging them through settlements. Hebrew sources disclosed that new provisions in the coalition agreement between the Likud Party and the Religious Zionist Party related to the expansion of settlements within the Old City of Hebron as is the casein ‘Kiryat Arba’ settlement, and linking the settlements in Hebron with additional roads with Jerusalem, Beer-Sabe’ and Asqalan.
This government preempted those agreements and understandings by carrying out actual settlement activities, where settlers began fencing ‘tabu’ lands owned by citizens to the north of Khirbet Samra in preparation for their seizure, which means transferring lands owned by Palestinians to settlement outposts or an Israeli settlement project. Other settlers fenced pastoral land near the Shedmot Mikula settlement east of Khirbet Farisya in the Jordan Valley, in an area closed by military orders during the last few years.
Within the context, the Israeli Human Rights Organizations revealed the establishment of a new agricultural settlement outpost in the Jordan Valley near Jericho to prevent Palestinian shepherds from grazing their livestock in the area.
According to a statement issued by the ‘Jordan Valley Activists’ organization and the ‘Checkpoint Watch’ organization, the new settlement outpost was established near road 5787, close to the Al-Khadadiyah area, Al-Arqoub hills, Zahrat Al-Midan, and the village of Marj Al-Na’ja, where two buildings were built, an umbrella, and a unit to generate electricity from solar energy. The Israeli ‘Peace Now’ organization had warned that the Netanyahu-Smotrich agreement would lead to the Israeli government’s legalization of scores of unauthorized outposts that were built in violation of International Law, which means a major annexation step in Area C of the West Bank.
In continuity with the outgoing government’s policy, the Israeli Ministry of Interior announced its support to the settlements in the occupied West Bank, amounting to nnnUS$ 55 million for the construction of university buildings, cafes, restaurants and infrastructure in the settlements of “Efrat”, “Ma’ale Adumim”, “Ariel” and “Benjamin”. The amounts also include support for the security in the settlements in an effort to cope with the wave of popular resistance of the Palestinians. The support plan also included the areas of the Galilee and the Negev to be Judaized, with amounts of NIS 300 million. Moreover, the Israeli Occupation Authorities are working to register and level the lands in the Sheikh Jarrah Neighborhood in favor of Jews who claimed ownership of the land before 1948.
In 2018, the occupation government allocatoed a budget of US$ 16 million to implement a plan to seize large areas of land in favor of settlements, and devote a large part of it to settlement associations. According to the Israeli project, 50% of the lands i.e. 5,000 dunums to the south of Al-Aqsa will be registered and seized, and transferred to the benefit of Jews and settlement associations, as well as completing the settlement of the remaining Jerusalem lands until the end of 2025.
List of Israeli Assaults over the Last Week Documented by the National Bureau:
Jerusalem:
- Celebrating the Judaizing ‘Hanukkah’ feast at Al-Buraq Wall, the western wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque, for 8 days. The American Ambassador of the United States attended the celebrations.
- Carrying out excavation work in the Sheikh Jarrah Hill, to erect the ‘Monument to the Occupation Soldiers’.
- Bulldozing land in Al-Hamra area that was seized by the occupation in the Silwan town. The ‘Elad’ Settlement Organization had previously announced the start of Judaizing excavations in the land of Birkat al-Hamra, which is of strategic religious, geographic, historic and archaeological importance, with an area of 5 dunums.
- Demolishing a house in Silwan under the pretext of building without a permit. They also delivered notices to demolish residential and agricultural facilities in the Al-Saeedi and Abu Al-Nawar communities, east of Jerusalem, under the same pretext.
- Chopping down more than 30 Christian tombstones and graves in the Protestant Cemetery located on the slopes of Mount Zion, near the Hebron Gate.
Hebron:
- Confiscating an agricultural tractor in the Um Radaf area in Masafer Yatta, and prevented citizens from plowing and cultivating their lands, with the aim of deporting them from it in favor of settlement expansion.
- Threatening to demolish a house in Susya village in Masafer Yatta under the pretext of not having a license.
- Bulldozing and demolishing Vehicle Parts Workshop in Khirbet Qalqis, south of Hebron, under the pretext of not having a permit
- Demolishing an agricultural room, and 15 olive trees were uprooted in the Ein Fares area, west of the town of Dura.
- Seizing a bulldozer in Masafer Yatta, while working on land reclamation in Al-Shaab area in Al-Tuwani village.
- Preventing shepherds from entering their lands and pastures in the areas of Al-Thala and Um Al-Khair, east of Yatta.
- Demolishing a 170m2 house in the Ma’in community in the Yatta town, under the pretext of not having a permit, and 4 houses in the Sha’ab al-Batem area of Masafer Yatta, each with an area of 80m2.
- Organizing a provocative march in the vicinity of the Ibrahimi Mosque, south of Hebron, during which settlers chanted racist slogans.
- Removing a fence in Jabal Al-Sondas, south of Hebron that surrounds 4.5 dunums, overlooks the southern area of Hebron.
Ramallah:
- Erecting an Iron Gate between the lands of the Kharbatha Bani Harith towns, west of Ramallah, to prevent residents of the villages of Kharbatha Bani Harith, Ras Karkar, and Kafr Nima from accessing their lands.
- Storming the outskirts of Al-Tira Neighborhood in Ramallah, under the protection of a large force of the occupation army, and performed Talmudic rituals in the place.
- Cutting down 50 olive saplings in a land located in Ras al-Aqaba area in Sinjil town, north of Ramallah
- Demolishing agricultural rooms and stone chains, filled a water well, and uprooted 250 olive seedlings in the Mughayir town.
Nablus:
- Attacking the towns of Burin and Orif, and completely burned 3 vehicles on Hawara Street.
- Injuring 4 young men when settlers attacked them by spraying them with pepper gas in the Huwara town.
- Stopping the construction of a house under construction in the Rojib town, and bulldozing areas of land adjacent to the ‘Magdolim settlement’, which was established on the lands of the Qusra town, south of Nablus.
- Demolishing 8 residential tents and sheep tents in Douma, south of Nablus.
Tulkam:
- Destroying the contents of an agricultural warehouse near the ‘Avnei Hefetz settlement’, and destroying the agricultural equipment in it.
- Closing the Wadi Al-Matareb road with soil cubes between the villages of Shufa and Jbara, and laying cement cubes along the Separation Wall that separates the town from its agricultural lands, noting that Minister of the Occupation Army, Benny Gantz, approved last November the construction of a new concrete wall in the northern West Bank with a length of 100 km.
