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 Israeli Knesset’s elections that took place last year saw the wining of the extreme right-wing and fascist government, which was formed by the Likud party, religious Zionist parties, and Haredi parties. This government is governed by coalition agreements that the Israeli PM can’t get rid of them, what concern us in that is the ones that the Likud signed with the Religious Zionist Parties, which include settlement projects and annexation plans in any political settlement with the Palestinians. It seems that we are facing 2 camps within this government, the Likud on one hand and the Religious Zionist parties on the other. In the settlement and annexation plans, there is a minimum level adopted by the leader of the Likud, and an upper limit adopted by the leader of Religious Zionism. in an interview with American TV last week, Netanyahu said that Israel will keep all the settlements it established in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, in any political settlement with the Palestinian side, including the remote settlements, located deep in the West Bank, which former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin named political settlements to distinguish them from the security settlements.
In an interview with Netanyahu, he stressed that 90% of the approximately 500,000 settlers who live in urban blocs, will be part of the citizens of the State of Israel in any future arrangement. As for the remaining 10% of the settlers, who are scattered in small settlements in the West Bank won’t be evacuated, but Arabs were allowed to remain in Israel after it was established in 1948. He does not agree to expel the Arabs from his State and doesn’t believe that the Jews should be expelled as well, claiming that they have been attached to this land for 3500 years. He repeated the ideas presented by former President Trump in the ‘deal of the century’ at the beginning of 2020, which was based on linking areas of the Palestinian entity with tunnels and bridges that allow the continuity of Palestinian ghettos, which the US president proposes as a base for a demilitarized Palestinian state with sovereignty over about 60% of the West Bank, including Jerusalem.
On Jan. 26, 2020, President Trump sent a secret message to Netanyahu in which he declared his support for annexing Palestinian lands in the West Bank to Israel. Netanyahu responded to Trump’s message that Israel will move forward with plans to impose sovereignty in the coming days and annex more than 30% of the area of the West Bank to Israel, including all settlements and lands in their vicinity and the Jordan Valley, and he set the first day of July 2020 to start the annexation process, and he changed that with a political maneuver through which he reaped normalization processes in the Abrahamic agreements with a number of Arab countries under American auspices.
The minimum project, that adopted by Netanyahu matched by the maximum project, which Smotrich adopts, and presented clearly 2 weeks ago is based on the idea that the two-state solution model has proven its failure and has reached a dead end. In light of this, he called for a 180-degree change away from the work method used by previous Israeli governments in recent decades. He calls for ‘holding the bull from a horn because on this land there is no place for coexistence between two national movements, the first is authentic with its roots dating back thousands of years, and the second is fictitious and was invented by the people only a hundred years ago.
The daily politics and practices that serve the goals of religious Zionism, Smotrich seeks from his position as Minister of Settlement in the Ministry of the Army to impose more facts on the ground through this extreme right-wing and fascist government, which began to disclose more than other governments of the occupying state about its projects and plans. It is not content with thousands of construction bids in the settlements and the legalization of outposts, but rather it exercises a policy through which it expresses its commitment to the coalition agreements between the Likud and religious Zionist camps.
Within this context, Minister of Settlement in the Ministry of the Army, Bezalel Smotrich, is working to change the priorities of executive work in the West Bank. A plan was revealed for the settlers, prepared by Kobi Eliraz, who was an advisor on settlement affairs, and attorney Eran Ben-Ari, an expert in land and law, to gain more control over the Palestinian Jordan Valley. Nablus, according to the Israeli Deputy Minister of Economy, Yair Golan in the Lapid Government is considered a hotbed of terrorists. He described its residents as “not human” and “Avitar” on Jabal Sabih from the lands of the town of Beita to the south of the city of Nablus, changing the enforcement policy towards settlement outposts, and expanding a number of roads, including St. n 5 between the settlements of “Ariel” in Salfeet Governorate and “Ili” north of Ramallah, and building a new airport in the area, which will be under full Israeli control as an alternative to Jerusalem Airport i.e. Qaltadia.
In addition, settlers encouraged by the Minister of Settlement in the Ministry of the Army began building a new settlement outpost in the main entrance of Al-Sawahra in an area called “Sat Al-Ghazala” an area of about 250 dunums, close to the “Kedar” settlement, with the aim of linking the “Kedar” and “Boaz” settlements established on the lands of Abu Dis and Al-Sawahrah after settlers seized a citizen’s house south of the Ibrahimi Mosque in an area where there is no concentration of settlements.
The Foreign Affairs and Security Committee at the Israeli Knesset held a special session in the presence of the new settlement minister, to discuss ways to prevent Palestinian construction in areas C in exchange for strengthening settlement, especially in the Jordan Valley. The official in charge of the infrastructure file in the occupation Civil Administration, Adam Aviad said that his administration demolished 550 Palestinian buildings in those areas during 2022, out of the 1,600 buildings that were monitored. He indicated that during the year 2023, his administration demolished 220 buildings out of the 1,000 that were discovered.
In addition to serve the settlement project and move forward with the annexation project, the Israeli government intends to legislate a law allowing the transfer of revenues from industrial zones ‘within the Green Line’ to the local councils of settlements in the West Bank. The law grants the Israeli Minister of Interior the right to issue an order to transfer the revenues of the Israeli industrial zones within the Green Line to the settlements in the West Bank, and the revenues that the law talks about are from the “Arnona” roofing tax, which is imposed on shops and commercial stores.
On the other hand, the Israeli government-affiliated Mekorot water company reduced last week the quantities of water for the governorates of Hebron and Bethlehem by about 6,000 cups per day, at a time when the country is witnessing an unprecedented heat wave without giving technical or non-technical reasons for this inhuman step. This is not the first time that this Israeli government company has resorted to such a measure at the height of the summer days, or even in the month of Ramadan. It robs the Palestinian groundwater, took such a step against the cities of Nablus and Salfeet in the context of the policy of pressure, thirst and collective punishment.
The policy of reducing water quotas for Palestinian cities and villages that the Occupation Authorities resort to is not due to a shortage in the available quantities of water, but un addition to its robbery of Palestinian ground and surface water, the occupying state has developed water sources that cover its needs without obstacles. Thus, recently, Israel has turned into a self-sufficient water power that increases through large investments and advanced technology, providing it with immunity from the dangers of drought and climate change to the extent that it meets all its water needs until at least the year 2050. What the considerations that drive the occupying state to reduce the quantities of water from time to time for the cities and villages of the West Bank. The considerations are clear, they are part of the mechanisms of pressure on the Palestinian side, and at the same time it is providing larger quantities of water to the settlements for the purposes of domestic, industrial and agricultural consumptions, with the aim of developing and expanding the settlements. It is a clear racist policy, and the numbers clearly reflect this policy.
Therefore, data shows that the average Israeli per capita consumption of water is 3 times higher than the average per capita Palestinian consumption, as the Israeli share amounted to about 300 liters per day. As for the share of settlers in the West Bank, it doubles to more than 7 times the Palestinian per capita consumption, as a result of the complete Israeli control over more than 85 percent of the Palestinian water resources. The occupying state justifies its policy by claiming that this is what was agreed upon with the Palestinian side in the Interim Agreement that was signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1995 without taking into account that the effect of that agreement was for 5 years only and that since the signing of that agreement, the Palestinian population has increased by about 75%, while the quantities of water allocated to the Palestinians remained the same.
Not only the occupying power controls the Palestinian groundwater resources, but also controls surface water resources through military orders, including the one issued on June 7, 1997, a years after Oslo, which stipulated that all water in the West Bank lands belongs to the State of Israel. The Jordan River is also outside the accounts of this state with regard to the Palestinians, while the springs are almost completely controlled by the Civil Administration and the settlement councils. In the West Bank, there are more than 700 water springs, most of which are located in areas C. The water flow rate in these springs is about 26 million cubic meters, which goes for the purposes of settlement and settlers. These water sources, such as Uml-Rashrash, Fasayel, Ein Makhana, Ein Farah, Bubin, Ein Mahjor, Ein-Hilweh, and Fashkha, to name a few, have turned into a victim of the settlements.
List of Israeli over the Last Week Documented by the National Bureau:
Jerusalem:
- Demolishing houses, agricultural facilities, water tanks, and sheep tents in the town of Al-Sawahra, belonging to the Bedouins who live in the desert of Al-Sawahra.
- Storming the lands of the Orthodox Church in ‘Mount Zion’ and laid blankets on the ground and announced that they would stay in the place, claiming that ‘Mount Zion’ is for the Jew. Besides, storming a trade Center in the Salah Dein St. to join a settler opening an electronic shop, where Jerusalemites refused to receive the mayor of the occupation, and closed their shops in his face, while others poured oil on the entrance to the center in an attempt to prevent him from entering.
- Scores of settlers stormed the Old City with a provocative march, during which they raised Israeli flags, and chanted slogans against the Jerusalemites.
Hebron:
- Uprooting dozens of grape trees in the Bouira area in Hebron, tents were erected, the fence surrounding the farm was destroyed, and racist slogans were written on the walls of the land, including ‘Death to the Arabs’”
- Injuring a number of citizens and bruised others as a result of settlers’ assault on citizens and shepherds in the ‘Sedat Al-Thala’ area, and one of them tried to run over a herd of sheep, they also seized a water well in the village of Al-Tuba, and set up a tent by force of arms near the citizens’ homes.
- A group of “Hafat Ma’on” settlers released their sheep into agricultural crops in the villages of Maghayer Al-Abeed and Al-Tuba, which damaged their wheat and barley crops, which extend over approximately 10 dunums, they seized a water well in the village of Al-Tuba, and set up a tent by force of arms near the citizens’ homes.
Bethlehem:
- Pumping waste water into the lands of the ‘Ein Fares’ area, which includes a water spring, planted with different types of crops.
- Uprooting dozens of fruitful trees of olives, almonds and vines in the ‘Qadis’ area in the Husan town adjacent to the ‘Beitar Illit’ settlement.
Ramalah:
- Demolishing a commercial facility in the village of Al-Laban Al-Gharbi under the pretext of building without a permit.
- Attacking citizens’ vehicles at the western entrance to the village of Beitin, near the northern entrance to the city of Al-Bireh, smashing glass of a number of them.
Nablus:
- Attacking the homes of citizens Fadi and Baha’ Makhimar on the outskirts of the Sebastia town, northwest of the city of Nablus, and a group of ‘Yitzhar’ settlers protected by the occupation soldiers attacked the house of ‘Um Ayman Soufan’ in Burin, which led to clashes in the place resulted in the injury of a number of citizens and the burning of hundreds of olive trees planted in the area, and a group of settlers erected a ‘pergola’ on the outskirts of the village. Thy also stole 14 tents inhabited by citizens in the lands of Beit Furik, east of Nablus. to clashes in the place resulted in the injury of a number of citizens and the burning of hundreds of olive trees planted in the area, and a group of settlers erected a ‘pergola’ on the outskirts of the village. Thy also stole 14 tents inhabited by citizens in the lands of Beit Furik, east of Nablus.
- Attacking Palestinian vehicles near Hawara town with stones.
Qalqilia:
- Gathering near the junction of Jit village on the main Qalqilya-Nablus road, under the protection of the occupation soldiers, and carried banners and chanted racist slogans against the Palestinians, which led to obstructing the movement of citizens’ vehicles.
Jordan Valley:
- Storming the Bedouin communities in the Al-Ma’rajat area, north of the city of Jericho, and photographed the citizens’ homes and facilities, and Ein Al-Sultan Refugee Camp to perform Talmudic rituals, and the Auja town, terrorized the citizens, protected by the occupation forces, which launched drones in the air to monitor the citizens.
