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’s far-right security Minister Ben Gvir always presents himself as a typical bloodthirsty fascist graduated from the rabbi Meir Kahane’sschool, founder of the ‘Kach’ Terrorist Movement that is banned in Israel,but actually operates in the field through ‘OtzmaYehudit.’ Withthe barbaric Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, he ordered last Tuesday to purchase 27,000 weapons, 10,000 of which allocated to arm settlers, and in the first phase, 4,000 ‘Sa’ar rifles’ were purchased from an Israeli weapons factory to be handed over tothe settlements along the contact line in the north, south and center, in addition to equipment, including helmets and bulletproof vests.
Terrorist settlers including the Hilltop ‘Youth’ and ‘Pay Price’ thugs, who take safe havens from the settlement outposts and the so-called ‘Pastoral Farmshave demanded the protection of the Occupation Army since fascist Ben Gvir assumed his position as minister in the Nazi-Govt. The new movement headed by Netanyahu allows them to permanently carry weapons to protect ‘their farms and families’ from the risk of being attacked by Palestinians.
In a letter sent by those settlers to the aforementioned minister after Netanyahu announced a month after the formation of his government that the government’s intention to accelerate the procedures for allowing Israelis to carry weapons to confront Palestinian Guerrillas’ operations. The letter also stated that there is a necessary and urgent need to change the policy used with the owners of settlement farms in the West Bank to allow them to carry personal weapons for the purpose of ensuring their security, as they claim.
As known, in recent years the settlers have become the spearhead in the seizure of tens of thousands of Palestinian dunums by establishing ‘farms and barns’ in rural lands of the West Bank, especially in the vicinity of remote and small villages, such as in southern Hebron and the northern Jordan Valley, the Tubas, Nablus, and Ramallah -Al-BirehGovernorates. The demands came through an organization called ‘Hashomer – the Guardian’ which called for carrying rifles and weapons that are clearly visible, which increase the deterrence capacity, and unleash their attacks on Palestinian citizens, their lands, and their property.
It is obvious the Ben Gvir Ministry’s data that, 86% of the settlements in the West Bank have a high percentage of those who carry weapons, and the settlements of Adora in the south of Mount Hebron, KiryatNetafim in the Salfeet Governorate, and Ngohot in the Hebron Governorate are the places with the highest percentage of weapons carriers, as the percentage reaches to 1/3 of its population, the settlements of Yitzhar, Eli, and Shilo in the Nablus Governorate and the Ariel settlement in the Salfeet Governorate also top the list, where the percentage of those carrying weapons is 9.2%, and the ‘Ma’aleAdumim’ settlement is 6%, and a similar percentage in the Qalqilya and Bethlehem settlements, the %s do not include security personnel, soldiers, police, and guards, as for the settlement outposts and the so-called pastoral farms, weapons licensed by the Ben Gvir Ministry are remarkably widespread.
In light of the spread of weapons in the settlements established by the Occupying State throughout the West Bank, and in the settlement outposts and so-called pastoral farms contravenes the International Law, the Palestinian citizen, especially in the countryside stands in the position of defenseless, looking for protection from Jewish terrorism. The more the Israeli government expands arming of settlers and their terrorist organizations, the situation becomes more dangerous with time, as the number of settlers carrying weapons at the beginning of this year was close to 148,000, expected that with the new wave of armament the number will jump and by the end of this year it will approach about 200,000 settlers carrying weapons, which is equivalent to 25% of the number of settlers.
This widespread proliferation of weapons in settlements, outposts, and so-called pastoral farms has become a grave threat to the lives of Palestinian citizens in the Palestinian countryside. This is indicated by the number of martyrs who rose as a result of this spread at the hands of Jewish terrorist organizations that launch their terrorist activities from settlement outposts and pastoral farms.
During the last week, the toll approached about 8 martyrs, bringing the number since the beginning of the year to about 23 martyrs who were killed by settlers, to whom the occupation army provides field protection and the Israeli Supreme Court and the courts in Israel provide them with a judicial iron dome. As for the number of attacks that Palestinian citizens were subjected to in the Palestinian countryside at the hands of armed and unarmed settlers, including the “Hill Youth” and the “Pay Price” thugs, and “Hashomer – the Guardian,” by the end of this week it is close to 1,700 attacks on citizens and their property.
Their terrorist attacks are concentrated in a number of governorates in the West Bank. They cover all governorates, but some governorates have a greater share, namely the Nablus, Ramallah/ Al-Bireh, and Hebron Governorate, especially in MasaferYatta. As for the latest crimes of those settlers, they were in the Qusratown, southeast of the city of Nablus, where terrorist settlement outposts spread throughout its surroundings and the surroundings of the Qariot, Jalud, and Goreshvillagesin the “YeshKodesh,” “Ahya,” “Keda,” and othersettlements, as last weekwitnessed in the olive harvest season two terrorist acts, the first on the Qusratown’s lands, killing 4 martyrs, and the second in the Al-Sawiyah and Al-LubbanAl-Sharqiya’s Plain, when armed settlers, under the protection of the occupation army, intercepted a convoy of cars carrying the bodies of the 4 martyrs, killing 2 martyrs from the same town.
This acceleration of arming the largest possible number of militants has turned into an official policy approved by the Israeli Government. Ben Gvir builds his terrorist militia, Smitrich handles the financing, and Netanyahu provides cover and full support for this policy. The aggressive war on the Gaza Strip provides more pretexts for a policy of this kind. It is a multi-faceted war, destructive and brutal in the Gaza Strip and multi-faceted in the West Bank.
Crimes are committed by armed settlers, sieges and dismemberments carried out by the occupation army in the West Bank, and collective punishments, the most recent of which were the call by the Minister of Finance and Minister of Settlement in the Ministry of the Army, BezalelSmotrich to Netanyahu, to issue an order to keep the Palestinian stores in the town of Huwwara, south of Nablus, closed until the completion of work on building a bypass road for settlers, work has been underway to build it since 2 years.
Last week, Smotrich made a provocative tour in the Huwaratown, and Netanyahu called on senior defense officials to intensify efforts to combat attacks in the West Bank and accelerate the construction of the bypass road. Smotrich was accompanied on his tour by Knesset member Zvi Sukkot of “Religious Zionism” and head of the Northern West Bank Regional Council. In the West, Yossi Dagan, a typical fascist, was the first to call for burning of Hawara and wiping it out of existence.
In such an atmosphere, the occupation army takes a set of measures on the ground, such as closures and limiting the movement of citizens. The most recent of that was to seize for military purposes scores of dunams of citizens’ lands in the Azzun town, east of Qalqilya, allocating them to build military fences and roads that prevent citizens from reaching their lands overlooking Nablus Street to secure the movement of settlers. Such arrangements, and many others like them, would increase the suffering of Palestinian citizens and lead to a deterioration of the situation in the West Bank and push it towards explosion, especially since the murder of violations committed by the settlers go hand in hand with widespread of the herds of settlers and their terrorist organizations and daily attacks, which the National Bureau has tried to monitor and document in order to clarify the picture and the possibilities ofthe development of events.
In Hebron, the occupation forces demolished 2 houses in the Al-Janiya village, claiming that they were close to ‘Talmon settlement’s road. They attacked the Al-Tuwanah village, assaulted the citizens, destroyed a number of fruitful trees, and raised their flag on the citizens’ lands. Others set fire to 2 tents for livestocklocated in the “Al-Qanoub” area of the Sa’ir town, near the settlement of ‘IbiHanahel”, while settlers from the settlement of ‘KiryatArba’ fired heavy live bullets towards citizens’ homes in JabalJawhar, Al-Kassara, and Al-Hareeqa.
In MasaferYatta, the citizen, SalamahShehadehMakhamreh, and his wife, Izdiharand their two children were wounded as settlers beaten them after raiding the cave that sheltered them. Moreover, armed settlers from the “Avigal” settlement attacked citizens in the village of Al-Mafqara, destroying solar energy cells, cutting down a number of fruit trees, and damaging drinking water tanks.
In Bethlehem, armed settlers attacked the Jab’avillage and the vicinity of the schools, they assaulted citizens, beating them in the Taqu’ town, while a settler attempted to run over others in the town as they passed on the main street in the Khirbet Al-Deir area. Settlers also closed the road lead to the town under the protection of the Israeli occupation forces by erecting a checkpoint in the “BirFarash” area, and prevented citizens from reaching their lands to prevent them from theolive season. Settlers from the ‘Maale Amos’ settlement destroyed a water network in the village of Al-Rashayda, which supplies citizens with drinking water, and others raised the flags of the occupying state over an old building called the ‘Um Al-Saman’ building, located near the apartheid wall, along bypass road no. 60 west of the Al-Khadertown. They threw stones at solid waste transport vehicles in the Al-Minya area, which led to smashing their glass. A citizen from the city of BeitSahour was injured by settler bullets while his vehicle was passing near the IshAlghorab area,shooting him in the thigh, after which he was admitted to hospital for treatment.
In Ramallah and/Al-Bireh, settlers who came from the “Adi Ad” settlement outpost opened fire on citizens’ vehicles in the Turmusayya town of as they were heading to the neighboring Mughayyir village, others attacked the Mikhmastown and set fire to rubber tires at its entrances near the settlement road located between the Ramallah, Al-Bireh and Jerusalem Governorates.
At the same time, settlers stormed the EinAyoub area near the village of RasKarkar, and others attempted to burn a house after they stormed the village of DeirIbzi’ by throwing Molotov cocktails at it, but citizens confronted them, a citizen also from Qabalan was shot in the foot as a result of shooting at his car at the Turmusaya Junction. Fyrthermore, the village of Barqa was attacked by settlers, who attacked citizens’ vehicles at the entrance to the village and tried to storm them, which led to material damage to 3 vehicles.
In Nablus, scores of settlers attacked Khirbet Yanun, belonging to the lands of Aqraba, under the protection of the occupation forces, and closed the road between Qusra and Jalud with soil mounds. In turn, the Hawaratown was not spared from the orgy of settlers, who attacked the town and spread out on the main road amid acts of orgy and provocation.They destroyed some shops in the town near the ‘KantiriHawara” Park, at a time when the extreme right-wing Knesset member Zvi Scott set up a tent inthe town center under the pretext of ensuring protection for the settlers. Not far from his Hawara, more than300 settlers attacked the town of Einabus, amidst shooting towards citizens’ homes, which led to a number of injuries and set fire to 2 houses and a vehicle.
The Red Crescent crews transferred 2 injuries in the foot with live bullets to Rafidia Hospital in Nablus and provided field treatment for about 12 injuries in an attempt to prevent citizens from heading to the olive fields during the harvest season, they attacked the residents of Qaryut, Asira al-Qibliya, Douma, and Tel under the protection of the occupation forces, amidst firing rubber-coated bullets and gas grenades, they also burned a number of vehicles at the western entrance to the Madamavillage.
In Qalqilya and Salfeet, the orgy of settlers and their terrorist organizations continues, focusing on the main streets, transportation, and crossroads that connect the governorates, especially the Za’tara Junction, under the protection of the occupation forces, 2 citizens were injured by live bullets and 5 others suffocated after settlers from the “Tafuah” settlement at the Za’tara Junction in the Yasufvillage attacked citizens’ homes on the eastern side of the village and burned 2 houses, which led to confrontations breaking out between them and the farmers while they were picking olive fruits in the “Al-Sanasil” area, in the Harisvillage.
Theyseized the olive fruits and agricultural equipment, and opened fire on the farmers on their lands in the town of Kafr al-Dik and the village of Marda while they were picking olive fruits, with the aim of intimidating them and expelling them from their lands. They closed a side road in QarawatBani Hassan, which leads to the “Nuwaitif Spring” area, and settlers from the “Gilead” settlement attacked the olive pickers in the village of Jeit, and assaulted citizens in an attempt to prevent them from picking their olives.
In Jordan Valley, settlers attacked citizens on the eastern side of KhalletMakhol, unleashing dogs on the livestock, and forcing them to leave the lands, while others are trying to isolate the southern Jordan Valley from the rest of the Governorates with orgies and attacks on citizens’ vehicles, especially on the “Al-Ma’rajat” road linking Ramallah and Jericho, where citizens were injured following an attack by settlers wearing occupation army uniforms on the Al-Marajat road, causing damage to them, while a number of injured people were transferred to hospitals in the Ramallah hospitals.
