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 once again, the Jewish National Fund ‘JNF’ presents itself as a body concerned with confiscating the Palestinian lands, not only in the 1948 lands, but also in the West Bank, including Jerusalem. At the same time, it funds projects for organizations and entities working to establish illegal settlement outposts that, over time, will turn into Hotbeds of terrorism. Israeli Ha’aretz Newspaper revealed last week that the JNFprovided NIS 4 million over the Last 2 years, to finance a project to rehabilitate a project designed for youths dropping out of school who live in shepherd’s farm outposts in the West Bank.
These Media Means reported that in the last 10 years, shepherd farms have become the most common type among settlement outposts in the West Bank, and that the JNF encourages the establishment of such outposts and provides funds for them, until the number of these supported settlement farms in the West Bank has become greater than their number in the Negev and the Galilee, adding that it began to turn into one of the occupation’s mechanisms for seizing Palestinian lands. Among the organizations that received support is the ‘Chefs of Zion’ i.e. Return of Zion Association, which received NIS 500,000 in the previous year, and expected to receive another NIS 1.75 million this year.
The ‘JNF’ conceals its support for these dangerous pastoral settlement outposts and refuses to provide information about the sheep-farms in which this association works, however, according to posts on social media networks of the ‘Artsino – Our Land Organization,’ which operates under the auspices of the association, the program recruits volunteers to work. On those farms, they attack Palestinian citizens, graze their flocks of sheep on their lands, and release dogs at them and their sheep.
The settlement project of the ‘Artsino’ encourages volunteers to join settlement farms, which, according to the organization’s website aims to protect ’10,000 of dunums of State land from entry by parties that do not have a license to enter them, as is the case with the ‘EmekTarzeh’ farm, and other farms, managed by the organization, such as the ‘HavatDorot” farm near the “MaaleShomron[‘ settlement in the Qalqiliya District, and the ‘EretzShemeshfarm’ near the ‘Mishkiyot settlement’ in the Jordan Valley.
Other organizations that receive support from the “JNF” include the ‘HavodaHashomer Work and Guard Association’ a sum of NIS 750,000 to implement a program in an agricultural settlement outpost for extremist Haredi youth called ‘Laktila’ near the ‘Mitzpe Jericho settlement’ in the Jordan Valley, in addition to the Settlement Regional Council ‘Benjamin’ (Ramallah and Al-Bireh Governorate) that received NIS 500,000 from the JNF, expected to receive an additional NIS 1,000,000 this year as part of the program. The aforementioned council does not deny its ideological support for agricultural settlement outposts, but it claims that the aid program does not include construction, but only education and society fields.
The National Bureau indicated in a report issued in February, 2 years ago, that the Board of Directors of the ‘Jewish National Fund’ was granted, on February 15, 2021 a draft resolution that changes the Fund’s policy and legitimizes its work in the West Bank to expand settlement by financing the seizure of Palestinian lands through the purchase of privately owned lands in around the existing settlements in order to expand them. For this purpose, NIS 38,000,000 were separately allocated to purchase lands in the West Bank, within the framework of the so-called ‘land emancipation policy’, which is a Zionist term that means buying lands from Palestinians under the pretext they seized them.
Pursuant to that decision, the JNF purchases privately owned lands in the vicinity of existing settlements in order to expand them, or lands on which construction may be possible. In addition to seizing princely lands and planting them with trees to turn them into forests, in coordination with the ‘Civil Administration’ of the occupation army, priority in this area is given to the Gush Etzion area in the Bethlehem and Hebron Governorates and to the Jordan Valley areas and the area around Jerusalem and Ramallah.
Within the context, it is noted that the “Jewish National Fund,” according to Israeli human rights sources has begun to transform, especially in recent years, into the National Fund for Settlers in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and that the land and real-estate registration procedures for which more than NIS 100,000,000 have recently been allocated include thousands of files that it will be examined and registered, including about 530 files in the West Bank and 2,050 files in East Jerusalem, which would lead to the widespread dispossession of Palestinians of their property and real-estate, especially in light of the complicity of the Israeli courts and the Jewish National Fund’s resort to basing its claims on the discriminatory law that Passed in 1970 ‘the Legal and Administrative Matters Law’ enables Jews to return to property they lost in East Jerusalem before 1948, while Palestinians do not have such a right.
It is no longer a secret to anyone that the Fund’s Board of Directors, in which representatives of Israeli Political Parties’ representatives of Jewish groups in the so-called diaspora, and representatives of Zionist organizations manages a major part of its work in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem through companies affiliated with the JNF, including a “Himanota” settlement companyregistered with the Civil Administration of the occupation army, which now requires international intervention to impose sanctions and boycott on the Jewish National Fund and to deal with it as an organization that supports the settlers and their terrorist organizations and practices and as an organization that manages its activities in Palestine based on racist discriminatory laws with its function is to strip the Palestinians of their rights and their property and expel them from their lands with a policy that does not resemble ethnic cleansing only from afar.
On the other hand, Judaization plans are still plaguing the occupied city of Jerusalem, as the District Planning and Building Committee of the Israeli Ministry of Interior approved a plan to build a park belonging to the “PisgatZeev” settlement on 700 dunams of BeitHanina land in the area called “Wadi Al-Ghazal” in order to connect the “PisgatZe’ev” settlement and the ‘NabiYa’akov settlement’ to the north of East Jerusalem. This park includes a visitor center, sports and community center, a swimming pool, and a parking. The occupation authorities seek to seize open lands in East Jerusalem to prevent Palestinian urban expansion and turn them into what they call “gardens” as a first step towards settlement expansion there.
In Jerusalem, the Occupation Authorities also opened a Judaism museum under the Umayyad Palaces, scores of meters away from the Al-Aqsa Mosque with the aim of promoting the false Zionist narrative. The museum is an old building seized by the occupation at the Old Wall of Jerusalem. It was restored and opened recently under the supervision of the Israeli Ministry of Tourism, the Ministry of Judaization of Jerusalem, and the Occupation Municipality, in addition to the Temple Heritage Fund. It contains a clear Judaization of the landmarks of the city and the surroundings of Al-Aqsa Mosque.
It is also a promotion of what is called the alleged ‘Temple, with the aim of changing the identity of Jerusalem. The museum is few meters away from Al-Aqsa Mosque and leads to a photo gallery that the occupation claims is the history of the city of Jerusalem. It claims that ancient Al-Aqsa was a passageway to the alleged “Temple”. It also displays a picture showing the placement of offerings in the Dome of the Rock Mosque. Then pass through the Way of David, according to their narration, and the tour includes a screening of a film in three languages, Arabic, English and Hebrew, promoting the alleged “Temple” and hinting at the presence of a Christian church around the Dome of the Rock Mosque.
The ‘Amidar Co. that is responsible for public housing and absorbing new immigrants, and the Israeli Ministry of Construction and Housing also announced the completion of the tender for establishing a large construction project obtained by the ‘Acro and Beit Gag’ companies. The project extends over an area of about 80 dunums northeast of the ‘Gilo’ settlement near the light-rail track. It includes the construction of 1,324 residential units in 15 towers, ranging in height from 12 to 25 floors, in addition to commercial floors and public places. The project allocates about 6000m2 for trade and employment, 6,500m2 for public buildings and institutions, about 16 dunums for open areas, and a park in the middle of the plan linking its interior to the surrounding streets.
Humanrights report issued by the ‘IrAmim’ and ‘Bimkom’ associations revealed that 200 plots of land in theoccupied East Jerusalem were included in the land ownership settlement procedures administered by Israel in the city, and that 75% of them were actively managed in the procedures with the aim of establishing new settlements, contrary to the claim that it aims to help residents of East Jerusalem establish their rights in the real-estate registry, which is submitted without residents being informedon that, so they are deprived of the possibility of confirming their ownership.
According to the report, this settlement is used to register Palestinian lands in the names of settlers or in the name of the occupying State, so that this procedure has become the basic mechanism that Israel uses today to seize lands on a large scale in East Jerusalem, as is the case in the WadiHilwehNeighborhood in Silwan. The report proves that the goal behind the land ownership settlement procedures is to judaize and seize lands for the benefit of settlement outposts and settlement associations such as ‘Elad’ and ‘AtratCohanim’.
Once again, the ‘Jerusalem Wilderness’ returns to the forefront, where the Occupation Authorities consider part of what they call the ‘Jewish Desert’ is subjected to continuous attacks from settlers, who set up barriers in the area and prevent citizens from reaching their landsusing pepper gas, which is the same gas used by the occupation army against participants in the popular resistance, which has become an extended phenomenon in many Palestinian towns and villages, with citizens participating every weekend throughout the West Bank. Noteworthy that the settlers under the protection of the occupation forces escalated their violations against citizens in the Tuqu’ wilderness area, by setting up tents, assaulting citizens, and preventing them from accessing their lands, especially after the occupation authorities notified citizens in August 2021 to evacuate their lands and removing everything there. The occupation surrounds the Taqutown with 6 settlements on the eastern and northeastern sides, while a settlement road extends along the town on the western and northwestern sides, and the Civil Administration is working to connect the eastern and northern settlements based on its lands to each other
At the same time, it becomes clear that the settlers’ ambitions and their extremist government do not stop at the limits of encroaching on areas C, but rather go beyond them by also moving the battle to areas B, after Israel allocated recently an amount of NIS 32 million to develop the archaeological sites in Sebastia, which is located in an area under full Palestinian control within the agreements signed between the Palestinian and Israeli parties, this government is working to implement the largest Judaization project in the region, especially after the Israeli Antiquities Authority classified Sebastia as one of the Israeli archaeological sites.
Accordingly, on the occasion of the celebrating the Jewish holidays last week, large forces from the occupation army stormed the town, closed the archaeological area there, prevented entry and exit, and terrorized the citizens, forcing some families not to send their children to school. They also closed all roads leading to the archaeological area and the old town, and converted several homes into military barracks to ensure settlers entry of the archaeological area to celebrate their Jewish holidays.
For this purpose, the settlers set up tents in the archaeological area, while the street between the cities of Jenin and Nablus witnessed an intense presence of the occupation army, and citizens’ identities were being checked at the ShafiShomron Military Checkpoint. National Bureau sources report that the Occupation Authorities are planning to impose a de facto on the ground by establishing a settlement nucleus in that region and are allocating tens of millions for that.
Moreover, feverish attempts are being made to falsify history with the aim of seizing the summit of Mount Eibal in the city of Nablus, claiming to have found in the place what they claim is the altar of ‘Joshua ibn Nun’ in one of the strangest stories of searching for history in the region, and in a way that reveals the extent to which settlers can exploit myths and use them in their ambitions to control Palestinian land.
For this purpose, the settlers recently built a settlement road on the lands of the northern town of Asira in order to facilitate the movement of the settlers during their religious holiday celebrations in the place, whose nature and original connection to the legendary Joshua ibn Nun, in archaeological schools, in a step towards seizing hundreds of dunums in a strategic area. The occupation establishes a main military base on it overlooking the villages of Rujib, Salem, Azmut, BeitDajan and BeitFurik to the east of the city of Nablus, the Palestinian Jordan Valley and Tubas Governorate, as well as the western slopes of the Jordanian mountains.
Furthermore, theSettlements Council in the northern West Bank organized Last Augustprovocative mass marches for settlers in Sebastia, Masoudiyah, and Mount Ebal in Nablus in an attempt to erect terrorist outposts thereto Judaize the area, which is considered a dangerous move close to the Sebastiatown, specifically in the ‘ShaveiShomron’ settlement, which is located on the lands of the neighboring town and villages. Knowing that settlement crowds gather from time to time there and set off in their armored buses and under the protection of the occupation army to those sites, starting from Sebastia, passing through Masoudiyah and ending with Mount Eibal, where the alleged altar of ‘Joshua ibn Nun’ is.
List of Israeli Assaults over the Last Week Documented by the National Bureau:
Jerusalem:
- Forcing citizen Fayza Hussein Atta Al-Obaidi to demolish her 2 residential apartments in the BeitHaninatown under the pretext of building without a license, and to avoid the occupation municipality imposing heavy fines on her if it demolishes them using its machinery.
Hebron:
- Storming the Old City, including the Ibrahimi Mosque in the center of Hebron, with the protection of the occupation soldiers. They organized a provocative march that started from the vicinity of the Mosque and reached the Osama bin Al-Mundhid School, which the occupation turned into a religious institute for graduating rabbis and called it the “Beit Romano” settlement. They also roamed the streets and alleys of the Old City celebrated their Jewish holidays and chanted racist, anti-Arab slogans, most notably “Death to the Arabs.”
- Demolishing an agricultural room east of the Yattatown in the Al-Maraba area.
- Preventing citizen from working and reclaiming his land in the “Wadi Al-Sheikh” area of the town of Beit Umar.
- Storming citizens’ lands in the “Al-Dalba” area, and performed Talmudic rituals there.
Ramallah:
- Gathering near the ‘BeitEil’ settlement checkpoint attacked citizens’ vehicles near the northern entrance to the city of Al-Bireh, threw stones at them and opened fire protected by the occupation forces.
- Injuring a young man by settler bullets during a settler attack on citizens’ homes in the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah.
Bethlehem:
- Storming the areas of “Jabal Baku,” “Al-Attan,” and Khirbet “Wadi Al-Khoukh,” near the Suleiman Pools tourist area, and raised Israeli flags on the place.
- Attacking sheepherders and beat them in the village of Al-Rashaida, east of Bethlehem, while they were grazing their sheep on nearby land.
Nablus:
- Attacking homes of citizens in the Jaludvillage,injured a number of citizens while the people of the town of Qasra responded to an attack by settlers of “YeshKodesh.”
- Destroying an electricity network between the towns of Qasra and Jalud, cut down wooden electricity poles along the road connecting them, and damaged the fence surrounding agricultural lands there.
Salfeet:
- Storming the “Al-Qaada” area, north of the town DeirIstiya, and detained a number of farmers for several hours, before arresting the elderly citizen, NaelMahareq, 67, and seizing his agricultural tractor.
- Attacking the “Dar Al-Dharb” archaeological site in the QarawatBani Hassan town amid strict military measures closed the site and the roads leading to it.
Jenin:
- Carryingout orgies near citizens’ homes in the Jalboun village northeast of Jenin, coinciding with the occupation forces’ storming the village. Scores of settlers from the ‘Merav’ settlement built on village lands, adjacent to the homes also carried out a provocative march along the wall and carried out orgies and chanted racist slogans against the Arabs, and performed provocative Talmudic rituals.
