المكتب الوطني للدفاع عن الارض ومقاومة الاستيطان منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية
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By: Madeeha Al-A’raj
The National Bureau for Defending the Land and Resisting Settlements stated in its latest weekly report that Israel gives no value to the international reactions that condemn its settlement activities and the terrorist of settlers against Palestinian people, their homes, properties and crops in the Palestinian countryside. It turns its back to the international community believing that its resolutions is no more than lip service, but pays all attention to the settlers and their settlement project in the West Bank, and rewards them for their terrorist attacks with more construction in the settlements scattered throughout the West Bank, against the international law and international legitimacy’s resolutions.
Within this context, the ‘Supreme Council for Planning and Building’ at the Civil Administration in the Occupation Army approved last week the building of 5,623 new settlement units in the occupied West Bank, including the deposition of plans to build 4,291 new settlement units in an advanced stages. Besides, submitting 1,332 building plans for approval after a session held to hear the objections before the final approval and preparation of tenders.
In addition to approving 1,000 new settlement units in the ‘Eli settlement’ built on the lands of the villages of Al-Sawiya, Al-Laban Al-Sharqiya, and Qariot, to the south of Nablus, as well as the retroactive approval of 3 settlement outposts namely: “Hayovel,” “Nof Harim,” and “Balgi Maim located near Eli.
In accordance to the National Bureau’s data, the distribution of construction according to the Israeli plan indicates that 359 settlement units in ‘Elkana’, 381 in ‘Rivava’, 29 in ‘Givat Ze’ev’, 42 in ‘Karmiel’ and 7 in ‘Harmesh’, besides, 4915 settlement unit in an advanced stage of planning and construction ahead of tenders for the implementation of construction projects, including: 1,563 in ‘Eli’, including 347 in the ‘Balgi Ma’im’ outpost and 407 housing units in the ‘Hayovil’ and ‘Nof Harim’ outposts, as well as 98 in ‘Ariel’ and 714 in ‘Givat Ze’ev’, 340 in ‘Ma’ale Adumim’, 312 in ‘Beitar Illit’, 310 in ‘Adora’, 264 in ‘Etz Ephraim’, 152 in ‘Ma’ale Amos’, and 78 in ‘Asfar’.
It was clear that the Occupation Authorities’ decision came to cheat the International Community, and to ignore Netanyahu’s promise that had made to the American Administration on 22nd of last March, where he said his government would not Establish new settlements in the northern West Bank following the American protest against the Knesset approval of a law to cancel the evacuation from 4 settlements in the northern West Bank that were dismantled in 2005, as part of an approach to legitimize many random settlement outposts that were established by hilltops youth organizations and other Jewish terrorist organizations.
Netanyahu’s statements came after the United States summoned the Israeli Ambassador in Washington to a consultation session on Israeli law, in a move described by the Hebrew media as ‘unusual and rare’. Which means pushing Bezalel Smotrich’s plans forward to double the number of settlers in the West Bank during the coming years, it is known here that at the end of the year 2021, the number of settlers, according to official Israeli statistics, reached about 450,000 in the West Bank, excluding Jerusalem, of whom 36% Haredim, 35% religious Zionists, and 29% secularists.
According to follow-up by the National Bureau for Defending the Land and Resisting Settlement, it was found that those settlers are residing in 158 settlements, where more than 200 outposts have grown around, we say more because they breed as is the case in an incubator. All of them ‘settlements and outposts’ fall under the influence of local or regional councils, as for their total area according to the structural plans, it amounts to about 500,000 dunams, or what constitutes 15% of the area ‘C’, or equal to about 2.9% of the area of the West Bank, while its vital area covers the entire areaC”.
Furthermore, about 37 Palestinian commercial and industrial establishments out of 200 in the Wadi-Joz Neighborhood, northeast of the Old City of occupied Jerusalem face the threat of demolition, in favor of a huge settlement project that the Occupation Authorities call the “Silicon Valley” project, which was announced at the beginning of the year 2020, and it will be implemented on the ruins of the industrial zone in the aforementioned neighborhood, through which, the occupation aims to transform the Palestinian neighborhoods close to the walls of the Old City and the Al-Aqsa Mosque into a technological, industrial and commercial center, and an area of attraction and settlement investment at the expense of the lands and interests of the Jerusalemites.
The danger of the project, if implemented, stems from the fact that it is located in the area between Sheikh Jarrah Neighborhood and the Old City, where settlement outposts are spread, and be used as a basis for expanding the circle of those outposts within the Palestinian neighborhoods, especially if the outpost of ‘Seddik Shimon’ extends to reach the Wadi-Joz
It should be noted that the Israeli District Committee rejected last week the objections submitted by the owners and tenants in the industrial zone in Wadi-Joz, against the Israeli project called ‘Silicon Valley’, which aims to establish a commercial complex for advanced technology and Israeli hotels in the place. The objectors confirmed in their objections that the project aims to strengthen control, annexation, and change the Arab-Palestinian character of the city of Jerusalem, and that the project was adopted away from the social, economic, and cultural needs of the residents of East Jerusalem, and it is out of financial benefit to the local population and real estate owners, as well as it side effects will be disastrous for their interests, after about 40 business owners, workshops and shops in the region have already received eviction orders. As for the objections, the District Commission claimed that the project was built to develop the area and transfer it an unorganized area with its uses such as garages and light industries to a hotel commercial uses, advanced technology and large investments. The cost of the project is NIS 2.1 billion i.e. $600 million. It allocates 250,000m2 of real estate to high-tech companies, besides, another 100,000m2 distributed between shops and hotels, which means complete disregard for the needs of the indigenous population.
On the other hand, settlers’ fires move freely throughout the villages and towns of the Palestinian countryside, from Hawara, Jaloud, and Al-Mughayer to Turmusaya and Um Safa, Jewish terrorist organizations carry matches to ignite more fires, which are fires lit by organized groups, which the occupation army cannot do, due to political considerations. It is noted that these organized groups don’t pay much attention to criticism of their criminal behavior, after they moved from working in secret cells to working in organized groups in broad daylight as in the darkness of the night, and started publishing their posters on the Israeli military checkpoints scattered in the West Bank, calling for revenge against the Palestinians without any interference of the soldiers on the checkpoints, not only that, but they also started setting up tents in open areas, as is the case happened recently between Deir Sharaf, Sebastia and Borqa, on the road linking Nablus and Tulkarem, and attacking farmers and shepherds.
As for the ‘Yedioth Ahronoth Newspaper’, it commented on the ublication as saying that there is a direct relationship between ministers among Netanyahu’s government and settlers, who carry out mass attacks on Palestinian villages and towns in the West Bank, contrary to their repeated allegations that the perpetrators of the attacks are minor settlers, and therefore are not prosecuted, the newspaper’s report made it clear that the perpetrators are adults and armed with a firearm, adding that the mass attacks they carry out has increased in recent weeks. The Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, had said that the Administrative Detentions against settlers are a very cruel and undemocratic measure, and using it against settlers is severe discrimination, and the collective punishment that is carried out in the Ateret settlement is ‘cruel’, krnowing that “the army only closed the gate”. Smotrich incited against the Palestinians in the town of Um Safa, as he did during the barbaric attack on the Hawara town, describing it as a town from which the Arab rioters came out in recent days. He also attacked leaders of the security services, accusing them of suppressing the settlers during their terrorist attacks, knowing that settlers have carried out more than 85 terrorist attacks in Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank over the last week. The ‘Ynet website’ also revealed last week that settlers from the ‘Hills Youth’ terrorist organization are in direct and continuous contact with ministers and Knesset members, especially from the Religious Zionist Party headed by Smotrich, and the Otzma Yehudit party headed by Ben Gvir.
It became clear that the transfer of powers in the Ministry of Army to the additional Minister, Smotrich began to bear fruit for them, as the law enforcement activities against illegal Jewish construction decreased to a minimum, and the occupation government approved the shortening of the procedures for approval of construction in the West Bank, and concentrated it in the hands of Smotrich. The outposts, which were established recently, will not be evacuated, despite their illegality, even according to the laws of the occupation authorities. They are not affected by Netanyahu’s statements, who declared them as illegal occupied land, and ‘unacceptable and must cease immediately’, his statements were merely lip service directed to the outside only. As for Smotrich, Ben Gvir and Struck, they focus on the field. Ben Gvir goes to Avitar, to encourage the ‘hilltop youth” to move forward, Smotrich rebukes his critics and refuses to compare Arab ‘terrorism’ with the settlers’ civilian counteractions, while Struck escalates the situation by talking about an Israeli ‘Wagner’ that invades the occupation army.
In such atmosphere, under the pressure of the Minister of Army, Smotrich, and representatives of ‘religious Zionism’ in the ruling coalition, Netanyahu instructed to examine the so-called allegations of using excessive force against settlers, who carried out terrorist attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank during the last week. This was an additional indication of the escalating pressure of the religious Zionist movement, which enjoys wide power in the ruling coalition, to push the Israeli security services to unleash the unruly settlers in the occupied West Bank. The rise of the strength of the religious Zionist and the Jewish parties has reached a point prompted the Israeli Minister of Settlement and National Missions, Orit Struck, to liken the Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army, the Inspector General of the Police, and head of the Shin Bet to the Russian military ‘Wagner’” group, which rebelled against the Russian Government, on the background of the joint security statement of the leaders of the services against settler attacks. The voices of the religious Zionist movement in Netanyahu’s government are grown to harm the security forces of the occupation by claiming that they suppressed the settlers during their attack on the Um Safa town in Ramallah, during which they burned the houses and vehicles of Palestinian citizens and fired live bullets against their homes and facilities.
Furthermore, on 26th last June, settlers expelled the commander of the Ramallah Region at the Israeli army, Eliaf El-Baz, when he arrived at the home of settler Harel Masoud, who was killed in a shooting attack at Eli settlement, and prevented him from entering the house in the Yad Binyamin outpost, they insulted him and described him as a traitor, a murderer, and a coward, blaming him for the operation and the security failure, and that the 4 settlers were killed due his failure, in an indication of the brutal incitement by political figures who encouraged extremists in settlements and outposts to work against the law, referring to the 2 extremist ministers, Smotrich and Ben Gvir.
List of Israeli Assaults over the Last Week Documented by the National Bureau:
Hebron:
- Bulldozing stone chains and large areas of the citizens’ lands planted with forest and fruitful trees near the ‘Bani Hefer settlement’.
- Attacking a number of citizens and 3 foreign activists, including the Israeli activist against settlement, Yahili in the village of Um Al-Akhous in Masafer Yatta, Hebron, after they confronted the settlers’ attempt to build new tents.
Bethlehem:
- Uprooting about 70 perennial olive trees planted on an area of 3 dunums in the ‘Khatt al-Qattan’ area, settlers stormed the yard of Taqoa’ Municipality, southeast of Bethlehem, performed Talmudic rituals, protected by the occupation army.
Ramallah:
- Wounding Bahaa Absi, 29 in the head and face, near the Ein Ayoub junction near the village of Ras Karkar, west of Ramallah, then transferred to the hospital.
- Torching 6 dunums planted with wheat in the village of Turmusaya.
- Storming the Ein Al-Rashash area, northeast of the village of Al-Mughair, and beat the Bedouin residents, demolishing 6 residential tents, and destroying solar cells there.
Nablus:
- Erecting tents in an area located between Deir Sharaf, Sebastia, and Borqa, on the road connecting the cities of Nablus and Tulkarem.
- Bulldozing areas of citizens’ lands south of Qaryiot, to link the settlements of Aley and Shilo with a settlement road.
- Chasing a vehicle near the town of Jamma’in, south of Nablus, and sprayed its passengers with pepper gas. S
- Closing and organizing a provocative vehicle rally on the main road in Huwwara.
Salfeet:
- Erecting a new outpost on the lands of the Derastia town in the Al-Qa’dah area, built a road, and extended water and electricity networks.
- Attacking Palestinian vehicles at the entrance of the Yasuf village, damaged many of them.
Tulkarm:
- Writing racist slogans calling for the killing of Arabs on the walls of agricultural greenhouses located near the Shufa Military Checkpoint.
Jordan Valley:
- Chasing shepherds in the Arab al-Malehat Community in Al-Ma’rajat, attacked them at gunpoint, seized a flock of sheep, and forced them to leave the pastures.
