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 the latest report issued a week ago by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Palestinian Territory occupied in 1967, which sheds light on themounting settler violence in the West Bank, under the Israeli government led by Netanyahu, as three settler-related incidents occur per day on average during the first 8 months of 2023, compared to an average of 2 incidents per day during the year 2022 and 1 incident per day in the year 2021.
According to the report, this is the highest level of settler-related violent incidents since 2006. This violence resulted in the displacement of 1,105 people from 28 Palestinian pastoral communities i.e. representing about 12% of them from their places of residence since 2022.
Majority of the displaced were from the Ramallah, Al-Bireh, Nablus, and Hebron Governorates, which have the highest number of Israeli settlement outposts. The report states that since 2022, the residents of four communities have been displaced, and more than 50% of 6 communities, and more than 25% of 7 other communities were distributed among the following governorates in the West Bank: 77 from 3 communities in Tubas Governorate, 276 from 7 communities in Nablus Governorate, 15 from 1 of the communities in Qalqila Governorate, 30 from 1 of the communities in Salfeet Governorate, 410 from 6 communities in Ramallah and Al-Bireh Governorate, 53 from 1 of the communities in Jerusalem Governorate, 35 from 1 of the communities in Bethlehem, and 209 from 9 communities in Hebron Governorate.
The reasons for the total or partial migration of these communities are clear. About 93% of these communities reported that the reasons were due to an increase in settler violence since the beginning of 2022, all of this is happening, according to the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs in the absence of accountability for settler violence. In 81% of the communities that were exposed to settler violence, residents filed complaints with the Israeli police in some or most of the incidents of settler violence to which they were exposed.But only 6% of the representatives of these communities were aware of any follow-up measures taken by the Israeli Authorities.
What is the background of what is happening with the Palestinian pastoral communities ‘Bedouin communities’ in the West Bank and in what political contexts are they taking place? This was absent from the report of the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs, so it may be outside the scope of its jurisdiction. However, the report maintains its importance due to its objectivity. In our weekly report on settlements, we will present within the available limits, the background of what is happening and its political contexts, that is, what these contexts relate to the official policy that the Israeli Government is pursuing in this regard.
It is no secret to observers that the violence practiced by settlers has become organized violence carried out by Jewish terrorist organizations that specifically take the settlement outposts and so-called pastoral farms as safe places under full protection from the occupation army and police. Here, these terrorist organizations, including the thugs, the “Hill Youth,” “pay Price” “Tamarud,” and others, work as a secondary agent for the occupation army. The occupying army cannot for political and legal considerations, publicly and directly carry out terrorist acts carried out by terrorist groups.
According to International Humanitarian Law and the laws of war, it is responsible for protecting civilians under occupation. These terrorist organizations have well-known political and spiritual references and others in the field, occupying prominent positions in the “Yesha” settlement council and in its regional councils, such as Yossi Dagan and Shlomo Neman.
The political reference of the Jewish terrorist organizations operating in the settlements does not hide its identity; it occupies its positions in the Knesset and in the government. The naked photo appeared here after 14 Knesset members submitted a petition to the Israeli Internal Security Service ‘Shin Bet’ demanding improvement of the detention conditions of the terrorist Amiram Ben-Uliel, who was convicted of killing the Dawabsha family in the village of Duma by burning in July 2015, and ending his administrative detention in Eshel Prison. . These are mainly led by BezalelSmotrich, who is a typical fascist and dangerous politician compared to other fascists and neo-Nazis in the current Netanyahu’s Government.
Smotrich is working to displace the Palestinian pastoral communities with a clear and announced program and with well-known tools such as the “Hill Youth” rioters, and he adopts a policy of spreading settlement outposts and so-called pastoral farms everywhere, focusing on the Jordan Valley ShafaGhor areas in the governorates of Tubas, Nablus, Ramallah, and Al-Bireh, and in the Jerusalem desert, as well asMasaferYatta. It works to legitimize not only these outposts and farms, but also the Jewish terrorist organizations, from which they launch their organized attacks on Palestinian citizens in general and Palestinian herding communities in particular.
He is pushing, according to the “Times of Israel” Electronic Magazine in its issue dated August 20, a plan to legitimize 155 illegal settlement outposts throughout the West Bank, either by moving them to what Israel considers to be Sate lands, or by applying alternative legal mechanisms that would allow them to staying in place. According to the aforementioned magazine, Smotrich’s plan focuses first on legitimizing the settlement outposts in the northern and central West Bank before working on the illegal outposts in the Hebron region and the Jordan Valley. The offices he controls in the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Army allocate millions of shekels to the settlement outposts in addition to building roads access to settlement outposts and connecting them to electricity and water networks. According to The Times of Israel, he uses contractors he knows to move projects forward.
On other level, the military government in “BeitEil” renewed the military order to seize about 350 dunums of Palestinian citizens’ lands in the villages of BeitLiqya, Ramallah, and Qatna, Al-Qubayba, and Beit Anan, Jerusalem, in the context of expanding settlement in the Green Line area and the Ras area in Al-Qubaiba, as well as Beit Anan and Khirbet Um al-Lahm in Qatana, as strategic areas near the Green Line with the aim of completely wiping it out, especially in the area of the “HarHardar” settlement, a large part of which is located on the lands of Qatana and part on the lands of the village of Abu Ghosh, and is undergoing a major expansion process.
These targeted areas are border areas that quickly turned into areas for settlement expansion, where the occupation authorities prevent citizens who own land from entering them, in a way that serves the vision of the fascist and neo-Nazi government in Israel, which made its final decision to resolve the situation in Area C according to the Oslo Accords, and to implement a project to build a new settlement on Qatana lands in the Ras area and resolve matters in the northwestern Jerusalem area, which is witnessing a rapid expansion in settlement activity.
In addition, the wheel of construction in Jerusalem does not stop, not for the Palestinians as the occupation government promised in its five-year plan to solve the housing crisis among the Palestinians, but for the settlers, as the Moshe Lion’s Municipality plans to build 250 settlement units in the “ArmonHanatziv” settlement, on the lands of JabalMukaber by removing 4 buildings containing 65 settlement units, the construction of two 23-storey towers and a 10-storey residential building, with a total of 250 settlement units on a land area of approximately 6.5 dunams, to include about 1,000 square meters for day care centers, kindergartens, Jewish synagogues, and the expansion of roads, in addition to a project another on the Hebron-Bethlehem Road, on a land area of about 4 dunams, with a 28-storey high tower that includes about 145 residential units, commercial facades, and public institutions that will be integrated into the residential complex and used for kindergartens and Jewish synagogues.
A third project also on the Hebron-Bethlehem Road has been approved on a total area of about 3.5 dunams, along the approved blue line for the light train, it includes the construction of 230 residential units in two towers, one consisting of 30 floors and the other consisting of 17 floors, providing space for public buildings to be integrated into the residential complex, and used for day care centers and Jewish synagogues.
In a provocative way, Army Minister YoavGalant, last week inspected the work of expanding the Mazmoria Crossing to the east of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc in the Bethlehem Governorate to facilitate movement through that crossing, which is not prepared for the passage of large numbers of vehicles. he accompanied by head of the Gush EtzionSettlements Council and head of the Yesha Council in the West Bank, ShlomoNeeman, who presented to Gallant the construction work being conducted by the Palestinian Authority in the region, explaining the damage to what he called the “Judean Desert” and the natural reserve in the region, “the Agreement Reserve.” And the alleged security risk represented by the establishment of a Palestinian city, which would encircle the settlements located east of Gush Etzion within an enclave, as he claimed.
Orit Struck, Minister of Settlements for the Jewish Power Party led by Itamar Ben Gvir, and Minister of Immigration and Absorption OfirSovir, for the Religious Zionism Party led by BezalelSmotrich, called on the Minister of Defense and the government to stop Palestinian construction not only in areas C, but also in areas B and described the risks involved in continuing construction aimed at establishing a new Palestinian city in the area, contrary to what was agreed upon in the Oslo Accords, where it was decided to keep this area an agreed upon reserve.
The truth of the matter is that there are initiatives undertaken by Palestinian citizens from the areas of Bethlehem and Jerusalem to build housing to solve their housing crisis, which they suffer due to strict Israeli restrictions on Palestinian construction, and not for a city and in the region that was handed over to the Palestinian side within the “Why River” agreement in 1998, with restrictions stipulating not to build on it. Worthnoting that the settlers work without restrictions and establish settlements, settlement outposts and so-called pastoral farms, unlike the people of the country, on whom the occupation authorities impose restrictions that they cannot bear, so they resort to solving the housing crisis with their own hands.
Netanyahu joined the chorus of incitement and lies, led by ShlomoNeeman and behind him the representatives of “Jewish Power” and “Religious Zionism” in the Knesset and their representatives in the government such as Smotrich, Ben Gvir, Strok and Sofer, and decided to hold a discussion in the government regarding the alleged Palestinian city, which was built east of Gush Etzion. Minister Gallant also visited the Beit El settlement in his inspection tour, where the head of the settlement council, ShaiAlon, presented to him the needs of the settlement, most notably the construction of an access to Road 60 leading to Jerusalem and the construction of 350 housing units in parallel with the implementation of the decision to evacuate the Civil Administration buildings from the place in favor of expanding settlement in on the outskirts of the city of Al-Bireh and the town of Beitin.
List of Israeli Assaults over the Last Week Documented by the National Bureau:
Jerusalem:
- Imposing a decision on citizen BadrDendis to self-demolish his house in the Ras al-Amoud Neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem within a week otherwise it will demolish it with its vehicles and bear him all the costs resulting from that.
Hebron:
- Pursuing shepherds in MasaferYatta, and sprayed pepper gas on the child, UsaidKhaled Al-Hadar, resulted in the child sustaining burns, as a result of which he was transferred to Yatta Governmental Hospital.
- Storming lands of Khirbet Karma, south of Hebron again and set up a tent, brought electrical tools and furniture to settle there. Moreover, they destroyed large areas, burned olive trees there.
Bethlehem:
- Setting up tents in the natural reserve area east of Bethlehem. They raised Israeli flags on hem in a move aimed at seizing the reserve’s lands. They also carried out orgies in the Tuqu’ Wilderness and threatened a number of citizens and asked them to leave their tents there. Some time ago, the settlers seized about 300 dunums in the Wilderness area, and installed a number of tents in preparation for establishing a settlement outpost.
- Uprooting a number of iron corners and destroyed barbed wire surrounding the lands of Khallet an-Nahla in the Khalayel area.
Nablus:
- Uprooting dozens of olive seedlings from the lands of the village of Qaryut and destroyed agricultural equipment on land located to the east of the village.
- Attacking the southern area on the road linking the towns of Qosra and Jaloud, cut off 4 poles from the electricity network.
Salfeet:
- Bulldozing 40 dunums of land in the town of Kafr al-Dik and uprooted about 300 olive, grape, and fig trees in the western area of the town.
- Issuing orders to stop work and construction in 21 houses and facilities in the village of Sarta, 17 of which are inhabited, and 4 barracks in the northern and eastern regions under the pretext of being built in area C, bringing the total number of notifications delivered during the last 2 months to 55 notifications. Moreover. They bulldozed approximately 50 dunums of citizens’ land in Broqin with the aim of expanding the “Broqin” settlement.
- Uprooting and destroying approximately 35 olive trees in the western area of theHaristown.
Qalqilia:
- Pumping wastewater from the “ShaareiTikva” settlementlocated on the lands of the “AzzunAtma and Beit Amin” villages towards the lands planted with olives, they deliberately sis so to destroy the agricultural lands and their products.
- Forming an independent volunteer military patrol made up of former soldiers and security men under the pretext of working to stop stone throwing at settlers’ vehicles and provide security for them as they passed on the 55 settlement road.
Jenin:
- Destroying more than 44 commercial stalls near the Jalama checkpoint, north of Jenin, and seized the goods inside them. A month ago, the occupation forces demolished a commercial store, removed a number of vegetable stands, and issued notices to demolish commercial facilities near the “Jalama” Military Checkpoint.
Jordan Valley:
- Fencing off areas of pastoral land in the northern Jordan Valley in preparation for seizing it south of the Ein-Hilweh community with a length of 3 km.
- Preventing shepherds in Khirbet KhalletMakhul from accessing their pastures. The occupation forces also conducted military training in Khirbet Al-Farisiya, including the use of live bullets. These training exercises pose a real danger to the lives of citizens due to the use of bullets and live ammunition
- Destroying a house under construction in the Al-Auja town in an area A and chopped trees around it.
