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 a deadly attack, Israeli settlers break into the Palestinian town of Hiwara near Nablus in north occupied Palestine last week, backed by Israeli soldiers, saying that the town must be wiped out and/or its people must be killed. Gangster settlers from the settlements and outposts in the southern Nablus area attacked the town on a bloody night described as the German Crystal Night in the Israeli way .
What happened in this town last Sunday was incited by the occupation leaders, ministers in the government, and leaders of the Settlement Council, and deputy head of what is known as the ‘Shomron settlement’ regional council, David Ben-Zion, who called, hours before the crime of burning homes and shops, in a tweet on his Twitter account, to ‘erase Hiwara from existence today before tomorrow,”
Where the occupation forces closed the barriers surrounding the city of Nablus, and prevented citizens from passing through them in both directions, detained them and fired stun grenades and tear gas at them, which resulted in the death of the young man, Sameh Hamdallah Mahmoud Aqtash, 37, from the nearby village of Za’tara, as a result of being shot with live bullets, and wounding more than
Clockwise, the occupation forces closed the barriers surrounding the city of Nablus, and prevented citizens from passing in both directions, detained them and fired stun grenades and tear gas at them, which resulted in the death of the young man, Sameh Hamdallah Aqtash, 37, from the nearby village of Za’tara, as a result of being shot with live bullets, and injuring more than 390 others and more than 30 houses and more than 100 vehicles were burned.
Within the context of the successive settlement plans, the Occupation Municipality in Jerusalem announced that it has decided through the Local Planning and Building Committee to recommend depositing a plan to build 212 settlement units in the French Hill settlement. The plan includes the demolition of two 5-storey buildings to build 53 units in the place, and the construction of 2 new buildings: a northern building with 9 floors and a southern building with 30 floors with a total of 212 units. The plan provides underground parking and the possibility of a commercial frontage on the ground floor.
At the same time, military orders continue to rob Palestinian lands and property as the occupation army issued a new military order to seize more than 193 dunums and fully expropriate it in the archaeological area, north of the town of Al-Auja in Jericho. Moreover, they distributed a military order stipulating the appropriation and the right to dispose of the archaeological site for a period of 5 years, and the seizure of a land of 193,292 dunums from the lands of Al-Auja.
For his part, Minister of the Occupation Army, ‘Yoav Gallant’ also approved a military order to confiscate hundreds of Palestinian agricultural dunums between Qalqilya and Nablus, in preparation for the establishment of a settlement bypass road. The decision came a day after the Israeli pledge at the Aqaba summit not to confiscate more Palestinian lands during the next 4 months. ‘Galant’ said that he approved a project to build an alternative settlement road no. 55, which passes through the hotel village between Qalqilya and Nablus, and will be used by settlers as well. The road will be built at the expense of the lands of the villages of Al-Funduq, Jinsafut, Imatin and Baqa Al-Hatab.
In the Salfit Governorate, settlers of ‘Eli-Zahaf” established a cemetery on the lands of the citizens of the town of Kafr al-Dik, west of Salfit. They seized lands, fenced it, and created a cemetery to bury their dead at the expense of the citizens’ properties, in the northern area of the town, known as the Balat Rakba area “Khilat al-Qamh”. And in Tulkarem Governorate, the occupation bulldozers began to level lands in the village of Shufa in the ‘Al-Marabi’ mountain area, south of the village, and the neighboring towns, especially the villages of Al-Ras, Kafr Sur, Safarin, and Shufa, and even the Al-Taybeh borders in the 1948 lands.
On the other hand, the Israeli Ministry of Justice informed the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs and Security Committee at the Knesset that there is no legal status for the Palestinian Land Registry in Area C, which constitutes 60% of the area of the West Bank. The Committee chaired by Knesset member Yuli Edelstein held an urgent session on the issue of the ‘Palestinian Tabu Registry’ at the request of Zvika Vogel, a member of the Knesset from the far-right ‘Jewish Power party’, and a member of Knesset from the right-wing ‘Likud party’, Ariel Kellner, and extremist Knesset member Ariel Kellner claimed that the Palestinians are trying to control the lands by registering it in the Palestinian Tabu and that this is being done by the Palestinian Authority through what he called a violation of the agreements and financial support of tens of millions of euros provided by the European Union countries and international organizations.
Attorney, David Shany, head of the Land Registration and Settlement Authority at the Israeli Ministry of Justice, responded to him, confirming that land registration and settlement procedures have been carried out in East Jerusalem. This has not happened for decades, as he claims, adding that the Israeli Land Registry Authority started doing so in 2018, and that in the first years it put in place the appropriate procedures to start doing so. It is a complex and organized process that is carried out step by step with many obstacles and opposition.
As for Adam Avidan, head of the Infrastructure Field at the so-called Civil Administration, who explained that the occupation authorities do not recognize the survey and registration carried out by the Palestinian Authority, adding that there is no legal status for that, and through the three official directions in the years 2018, 2020, and 2022, we asked the Palestinians to stop and we made it officially clear to them, and whenever we notice activity in the field to implement land settlements, on the technical or material level, we prevent it, explaining that the decision about carrying out land settlement is in the hands of the political level.
List of Israeli Assaults over the Last Week Documented by the National Bureau:
Jerusalem:
- Closing a road near the Lions’ Gate in the Old City to re-activate the electronic barrier that prevents vehicles from entering the Old City.
- Converting the “Hamra land” in the Silwan town into a private parking lot for settlers’ vehicles.
- Demolishing a house in the Al-Issawiya town under the pretext of not having a permit, and another in the town of Jabal Al-Mukaber, and handed
- Over a notification to evacuate a house in the “Wad Qaddum” Neighborhood in the Silwan town.
Ramallah:
- Attacking citizens’ vehicles with stones near the entrances to the villages of Jaba’ and Mikhmas, northeast of occupied Jerusalem, and damaged windows of a number of them.
- Vandalizing an agricultural room, destroying its contents, stealing some of it, and destroying trees in in Silwad.
- Injuring 3 citizens, and their vehicle was destroyed, at the outskirts of the village of Jibia, north of Ramallah.
- Cutting down more than 80 olive trees in the village of Sinjil in Ras al-Aqaba.
Nablus:
- Attacking the Burin town, south of Nablus, and throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at citizens’ homes.
- Torching 2 vehicles, prevented Civil Defense crews from extinguishing the fire.
- Stormng the town of Qusra and attacked citizens’ homes with live bullets, wounded a citizen with in the abdomen.
- Demolishing tents and barracks in the town of Aqraba, in the Afjem area, east of the town.
- Cutting down 50 olive treesin the lands of Deir Sharaf, and demolished a house in the village of Frush Beit Dajan, under the pretext of being built in areas “C“.
Salfeet:
- Attacking a citizen and his children sustained bruises while working on their land, forcing them to leave the land by force, and damaged their vehicle.
- Seizing a bulldozer in the town of Qarawat Bani Hassan while working near the main entrance to the town under the pretext that the area is area C.
- Handing over a notice to demolish a citizen’s house in Marda village under the pretext of building without a permit
Jordan Valley:
- Besieging shepherds in the pastures of the Al-Ma’rajat area, west of Jericho, and forced them to leave the place.
- Seizing a vehicle and two agricultural tractors from Khirbet Humsa al-Tahta, in the northern Jordan Valley.
- Attacking citizens’ homes in Khirbet Yarza, smashing their contents, destroying water tanks and solar cells, and fixed a sign at the Ain al-Hilweh Junction calling for ‘revenge’ against the Palestinians.
- Erecting a tent and fenced a land north of the city of Jericho in Basin 44 to seize it.
- Excavating antiquities in Khirbet Samra in the northern Jordan Valley to steal them, as was the case in the Central Jordan Valley.
