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 in its early days, of course the Itamar Ben Gvir, Smotrich government, headed by Benjamin Netanyahu seems to be stuck in problems resulting from the coalition agreements, which obligated it to enact a series of laws that constitute fertile material for a struggle over the nature of the state on the one hand, and the relationship with the Palestinians on the other. So we are before a series of laws and measures granted by the coalition to Ben Gvir and Smotrich, as well as other powers related to settler activity and the lives of Palestinians under occupation, especially since the government coalition ignored the existence of the Palestinian people, but emphasized the Jewishness of the State and that the “Jewish people” alone have the exclusive right in self-determination throughout the country,” and that “sovereignty will be imposed on Judea and Samaria.”
They also confirmed that the government would strengthen Jewish settlement in the various regions of Palestine, particularly in Jerusalem, the West Bank, Galilee, the Negev, and the occupied Syrian Golan Height. One of its early steps, the extremist Israeli government in the history of Israel is, to extend the application of the Israeli Civil Law to settlers in the West Bank, and to present the first bill for the Knesset members to a vote, since it assumed its duties on Dec. 29 that stipulates the extension of the “emergency regulations” law in the occupied West Bank, officially known as the “Judea and Samaria” law, which was enacted by the government Occupation for the first time in 1967 to regulate the lives of settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories by subjecting them to Israeli civil laws. By the enactment of those laws, their validity would be renewed once every 5 years, so that their enactment would not be considered a fixed law.
In return, the occupation imposes military laws and orders on the 2.9 million Palestinians in the West Bank. In fact this law is a copy of the apartheid laws that were in force in South Africa. The validity date of this law expired last June, but the Bennett, Lapid and Gantz government failed to extend it due to the opposition of Benjamin Netanyahu’s camp and his refusal to extend these laws, as part of the camp’s plan at the time to push the government to resign and advance the date of the Knesset elections.
The law was approved again in the first reading by a majority of 58 votes out of 120 Knesset members, despite the availability of a majority of 64 votes for the government coalition, knowing that the Yesh Atid ‘Lapid’ and the general camp ‘Benny Gantz’ voted for the law.
Once again, the Israeli government is planning to hand over 13,000 dunams to settlers in the occupied West Bank, and about 70 buildings in Hebron, claiming that they owned them before the Nakba in 1948. This comes according to the coalition agreement between the Likud and Religious Zionism Parties. According to this coalition agreement, the government should instruct the commander of the Central Region in the occupation army to amend military laws in order to transfer property from the hands of ‘the officer in charge of Government Property at the Civil Administration to the hands of its original owners.’ This opens the door wide to facilitate the expansion of settlements and the control of buildings that have been rented to Palestinians, as is the case in Hebron.
Dangerous excavations were also carried out by the occupation authorities in the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the southern and southwestern sides, which threatens the collapse of the foundations of the mosque, its walls, and its ancient buildings, the Old City, and the northern entrance to Silwan, as evidenced by the presence of workers, equipment, and machinery for excavation work in the targeted area, in addition to unloading and extracting rocks and soil from the bottom of the area.
The excavations are supervised by the occupation municipality, the so-called “Wailing Wall Heritage Fund,” and the “Antiquities Authority of Israeli’ and Settlement Associations, run under the administration of the extremist Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir. On the other hand, thousands of settlers plan to spend the night of the Jewish Passover on April 5 in the Homesh and Eviatar outposts, and to stay there, taking advantage of the shift in policy shown by the hard-line government and considering it a turning point, especially, after the occupation government’s intention to cancel major parts of the disengagement law, and the possibility of re-legitimizing the four settlements in the northern West Bank from which Israel withdrew in 2005 – Homesh, Ganim, Kadim, and Sanur.
Settlers intend not to leave the two outposts, both of which have a long history of legal battles and previous evictions. One of the organizers said: “This will be the real test of the new government on the field. These are no longer coalition agreements and Supreme Court statements. Thousands of us will return to the settlements, legally, knowing that we will no longer be evacuated.” “My next home will be in Sanur,” promised head of the Samaria Regional Council, Yossi Dagan.
List of Israeli Assaults over the Last Week Documented by the National Bureau:
Jerusalem:
- Demolishing 4 facilities and retaining walls in the Anata town, and a fence for a school in Area B along the Separation Wall, and a retaining wall surrounding a main street in Anata, and the destruction of a ‘container’ and wrote racist slogans on the walls of the Armenian Patriarchate in the Old City of occupied Jerusalem calling for Revenge and death for the Arabs, the Armenians and the Christians.
- Attacking a Christian cemetery on Mount Zion and destroying dozens of tombstones.
Bethlehem:
- Attacking citizens’ homes in the Khlet Al-Nahla area, south of Bethlehem, resulted in the injury of Thamina Ali Obayat, 55, in the head, and a young man, Firas Obayat, with bruises. Then they were admitted to Beit Jala Governmental Hospital.
- Notifications to remove a fence around 100 dunums of agricultural land in Al-Khader town
Ramallah:
- Destroying scorers of olive saplings in the lands of the village of al-Mughayir in the eastern region, and toxic pesticides were sprayed on olive saplings, which led to the destruction of 150 saplings and the theft of 50 barrels, and barbed wire 30 meters long.
- Attacking young men near the ‘Halamish settlement’ west of Ramallah, under the protection of the occupation forces.
Nablus:
- Bulldozing lands in the village of Burin in Khallet Amer area, stole seedlings from a nursery near Deir Sharaf roundabout, and stole a fence in Burqa town.
- Preventing citizens from plowing their land near the village of Ain Shibli, and they attacked them with sticks and stones. The citizen, Shtayyeh and his wife, sustained bruises and wounds as a result of the attack, while his son Muhamad was wounded in the head.
- Attacking a store and destroying its contents in the town of Hawara
- A number of olive saplings were destroyed in the lands of Qusra and water pipes as well.
Salfeet:
- Uprooting olive trees in the lands of Yasuf village
- Demolished a house in the town of Kafr Al-Dik, consisting of two floors, each of which has an area of 150m2, and filled a water well with stones near the house.
Jordan Valley:
- Seizing an agricultural tractor in Khirbet Humsa al-Tahta in the northern Jordan Valley.
- Demolishing a 350m2 villa in Al-Dyouk Al-Tahta village, and 4 facilities built about two years ago, owned by Mukhalled Abd al-Karim Nujoom.
- Seizing an agricultural tractor and a cart in al-Ras al-Ahmar in the northern Jordan Valley.
