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 in a way that attracts attention on stances of the American Administration, the EU’s states, as well as, Britain and Australia call on the Israeli Gov’t to curb the settlers and control their attacks on Palestinian citizens in the occupied West Bank, and threaten to impose sanctions against them, such as, banning entry visas to America or EU. Such stances are not new, but attracted our attention as they are issued at an unusual pace. They seem to be coordinated, directed, and taking place in light of the brutal Israeli occupation war waged against the Gaza Strip Gaza that touches people, stones, trees, hospitals, schools, mosques, churches, and everything. By the end of last week, more than 20,000 citizens were killed, including 8,000 children and 6,000 women, as well as 50,000 wounded.
Such stances issued a year ago by the American Administration. In Dec. of 2022, the ‘Israel Hayom’ Hebrew newspaper revealed that the American embassy in Jerusalem considered adding settlers who carry out attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank to the list of those prohibited from obtaining entry visas to America. The newspaper commented on that as saying the the move was a strongly worded message to the Israeli government, which Netanyahu formed with the extreme right-wing parties after the 25th Knesset elections, that stipulated the government was not doing enough to prevent attacks by settlers on the Palestinians, and said such a measure is considered to be as an unprecedented and cruel step.
In accordance to the ‘new policy by the US Embassy in Jerusalem, settlers suspected of committing acts of violence against Palestinians or carrying out acts of intimidation or incitement to violence may not get a visa. The new policy is expected to include people who are not convicted by the Israeli courts, but the American Authorities have information about their participation in acts of violence. However, a year on that, the American Administration didn’t take a single measure against settlers who committed violence against the Palestinians, and it knows very well that they are in the United States, operating openly, collecting donations for the so-called ‘pastoral farms’ in the West Bank, and producing terrorists who not only launch attacks on the Palestinians, but also work tirelessly to displace them from their lands and settlements, as is the case with the Bedouin communities in the northern Jordan Valley, Jericho, and in Masafer Yatta, Hebron.
We have also heard official of the EU states and Britain of ‘threatening’ to ban visas and prevent extremist settlers from entering their countries. We’ve heard Joseph Borrell, High Representative of the EU for Foreign, Political and Security Affairs often speaking about the violence of the settlers as he announced last week that he would propose imposing sanctions on extremist Israeli settlers in the West Bank, and expressed his concern about the Israeli government’s approval to build another 1,700 housing units in East Jerusalem to expand the settlements.
For his part, French FM, Catherine Colonna also threatened, after her return from a tour that included Israel, the Palestinian territories, and Lebanon last week; to take national measures against extremist Israeli settlers, who practice violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, and said, “I saw the violence committed by extremist Israeli settlers everywhere.
Last week, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, the EU, Finland, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Britain collectively called on Israel to take immediate and concrete steps to address the high levels of violence committed by settlers in the occupied West Bank.
What is meant by violence, is it the individual or organized settlers violence, that not only affects the Palestinians, their land and property, but also their life. What about their militias, Israeli military formations, and the so-called protection squads that were formed by the Occupying State in the settlements, including outposts and ‘pastoral farms’” starting with the ‘Kfir Brigade’ and the ‘Nitzach Yehuda Battalion’, through the Smotrich and Ben Gvir’s militias, and ending with terrorist organizations, such as, ‘Hilltop Youths and Price Tag organizations’ that are two names for a title. Hilltop Youths organization is the civilian name but its real name is ‘Price Tag’.
To make it more clear, Shahar Glick, correspondent of the Occupation Army Radio in the West Bank reported 2 years ago that the ‘Price Tag Organization posted a message containing a list of terrorist attacks carried out against Palestinians during that ‘Hebrew year’ included a list of physical abuse of about 60 Palestinians in 20 attacks, burning a school and 2 mosques and writing slogans in Hebrew on their walls, setting fire to 30 dunams planted with wheat and barley, burning 17 Palestinian cars, and writing slogans glorifying their organization, writing racist slogans against Palestinians, cutting down 188 trees, puncturing tires of 866 vehicles in 27 attacks, and throwing stones against 69 Palestinian cars in 9 terrorist attacks, and fially concluded their message by saying ‘Happy New Year’.
Settlers’ violence doesn’t stop, but increases day by day as Haaretz Newspaper reported that the Israeli army’s own data indicates that from 7th until the end of Oct. about 116 violent incidents occurred by settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank, compared to 90, 60, and 70 attacks in the months of July, August, and September, and in Nov. 65 violent acts.
To further clarify the image of settlers organized terror before the American Administration and the EU states, who reside in a series of settlements named ‘Gav Hahar’ practices organized terrorism under the seen and hear of the Occupying State, which leads and directs it, and even the leaders of the settlement councils and members of the Knesset and the government participate in it.
The series consists of relatively large settlements namely, ‘Itamar’ on the lands of Awarta and Beit Furik, ‘Alon Moreh’ on the lands of Beit Furik, ‘Har Bracha’ on the lands of Burin, Kafr Qalil, and Iraq Burin, ‘Yitzhar’ on the lands of Burin, Madama, and Asira al-Qibliya. Orif, Einbus, and Hawara, each of which has a large number of settlement outposts that are considered strongholds for the Price Tag organization. The outposts are: “Givat Lehiva”, “Tkuma”, “Megd Shamayim”, “Havat Shaked”, “Nahala”, “Shalhebet”, “Shalhebet Ha”, “Kumi Ori”. The total of these settlements forms a cluster that separates the city of Nablus from the Jordan Valley and its southeast.
The number of settlers in the Gav Hahar settlement bloc is 8,500. Settlements in the group are classified as the ideological solid core of settlement, and majority of them belong to the Religious Zionist Movement, and the rest belong to the Haredi Movement, which leans towards the nationalist settler movement. It was clear that the electoral behavior of the Gav Hahar settlers in the recent election rounds supported the settler Bezalel Smotrich, who currently holds the portfolio of the Ministry of Finance and is also responsible for the Civil Administration, though one understands that the opposition leader, Yair Lapid’s description of the terrorists who carried out yesterday’s attacks as ‘“Smotrich’s militias’.
Banning visas for settlers if happens does not stop settler violence after it has turned into organized terrorism practiced by state-sponsored organizations, and continues to treat them as organizations being unlicensed. Whatsoever, a banning visa step that must be followed by more important steps with a more significant impact, including a clear and frank declaration that the “Hilltop Youths” thugs and their parent organization, “Price Tag are terrorist organizations, in addition to withdraing the citizenship of the terrorists, who hold dual European and American citizenship.
On the other hand, Minister of Finance and the Minister of Settlements in the Ministry of the Army, Basalel Smotrich is taking advantage of the brutal conditions of the war on the Gaza Strip to fatten the allocations of the Ministry of National Tasks, headed by Orit Struck of the Religious Zionism Party ‘the Ministry of Settlements’, and to quadruple it from about NIS 133 million within the original budget for the year 2024 to NIS 343 million, then to NIS 543 million. This increase sparked reactions from representatives of both the Labor Party and the Yesh Atid Party at the Knesset, considering it a political step to strengthen the positions of the Religious Zionism Party among the settlers.
Struck responded that this increase in the general budget is to meet the security needs of the settlers, who live In Judea and Samaria i.e. the West Bank in light of the current situation that Israel is experiencing after the 7th of October. Smotrich defended the budget increase saying that the criticism was part of ‘a terrible campaign of incitement against the settlements’. He continued during his party bloc’s meeting in the Knesset last week as saying, keep your attention away from dozens of mothers and wives of those ‘soldiers’ who were killed from the settlements, and who were killed defending the residents of the Gaza border area as well as the State of Israel’, referring to the high % of soldiers and officers in the army who come from the national-religious settlements.
As for the settlement activities of the Occupying State, Jerusalem remains the focus of these activities, as the Planning and Building Committee in the Occupation Municipality approved last week a number of settlement plans in East Jerusalem to build 326 settlement units on the lands of Jabal Abu Ghneim, including schools, kindergartens, a synagogue, and another on the lands of Sur Baher. It plans to cross the Green Line with large settlement construction projects called the Lower Canal Project, in addition to thousands of settlement units in both parts of the city, including 400 settlement units in East Jerusalem on Mount Scopus, with a 15-story tower for Hadassah Al-Isawiya Hospital, an emergency building, expanding clinics, and a helicopter landing pad, increasing the area of land on which the hospital is based five-fold in a framework for building rehabilitation centers for large numbers of soldiers who were injured or suffered psychological trauma during the battles in the Gaza Strip, and to contribute to developing the capacity of the Rehabilitation Department affiliated to the Ministry of Army.
List of Israeli Assaults over the Last Week Documented by the National Bureau:
Hebron:
- Attacking the shepherds in the Tuba area, Massafir Yatta, Hebron, and forced them to leave their lands.
- Provoking citizens, tampered their property, and scared their children in the Sadat Ath’ala area, spraying pepper gas during the evening prayer in the Ibrahimi Mosque.
- Seizing large areas of lands of citizens in the Yatta town, ploughed 10 donums south of Hebron, seized dozens of vehicles in Carmel village.
Bethlehem:
- Seizing the contents of an agricultural room in the village of Kisan, east of Bethlehem, in the ‘Wadi Basas’ area adjacent to the settlement of ‘Ma’li Amos’ built on the lands of citizens.
Ramallah:
- Building a road on the lands of citizens that mediate the villages of Ras Karkar and Kharbatha Bani Hareth and Kafr Na’ma in Jabal Al-Raysan, west of Ramallah, located in area C, and within more than 600 dunums that Israel seized by a military order made 4 years ago. Noteworthy that the occupation government decided in 2019 to turn the Jabal Al-Raysan into a settlement.
- Attacking citizens near the Rawabi Junction, fired live bullets against them, while others threw stones at the vehicles, damaged a number of them.
Nablus:
- Storming the spring in the village of Qaraiot and performed Talmudic rituals in the place, seized agricultural tractor for the citizen Shanar Mahmoud Zaki Amer from Sara area.
- Demolishing a house in the village of Majdal Bani Fadel and a 2 km electric network, located between the towns of Majdal Bani Fadel and Aqraba, south of Nablus.
- Preventing citizens from planting olive seedlings in the Asira Ashamaliya village in lands threatened with confiscation in Jabal Abal.
- Seizing 10 vehicles, stormed 15 homes in the Al-Liban al-Sharqeia, south of Nablus, broke their doors, destroyed property, and 14 housing baracks in Khirbet Al-Tawil, east of the village of Aqraba, they also destroyed barracks belonging to citizens Osama Anas Bani Fadl, and Sadqi Hamad Bani Fadl..
Salfeet:
- Smashing a vehicle belonging to Iyad Al-Qaq, from the town of Kafl Haris, north, he miraculously survived of injury, while passing near the town of Bruqin, west of the city.
- Destroying a vehicle during the storming of the town of Deir-Estia, northwest of Salfeet,
Qalqilia:
- Revealing to seize 104 dunums of land behind the Apartheid Wall in southern Qalqilya, planted with olives and owned by citizens of the villages of Sineria and Masha, in order to build about 250 settlement units in favor of the settlement of ‘Atfarraem’ built on the lands of Qalqilya and Salfeet.
- Stoning brothers, Hamid and Mohamad Ibrahim Radi while picking the olives near the town of Kafr Thuni, south of Qalqilya.
Jenin:
- Building parts of the Apartheid Wall over the lands of the village of Al -Jalamah, northeast of Jenin. Mayor of the Village, Amjad Abu Farha stated that the occupation forces began building parts of the wall on the northern and eastern sides of the village, pointed out that there is fear that the occupation would seize more lands, and isolate them behind the wall.
Jordan Valley:
- Injuring citizen Barakat Ali Zuhdi in the Naba Ghazal area in Khirbet al -Farisia in the northern Jordan Valley, killed a number of his sheep.
- Attacking the Arab Al-Malihat Gathering on the road to Al –Ma’rjat, west of Jericho and threw stones at them, set fire to 3 baracks for sheep, while the occupation forces stormed the Homsa Tahta area in the northern Jordan Valley, seized an agricultural tractor, and transferred it to a nearby Israeli Army Camp.
- Preventing farmers at gunpoint from grazing their livestock in the pastures the ‘Thra’ Awad’ area, and they brought their cows and let them in the nearby pastures.
- Chasing the shepherds in the Moufia Plain in the northern Jordan Valley and arrested 2 of them.
- Destroying a house in the village of Al-Jathelak in the central Jordan Valley belonging to Majdi Al-Damen, under the pretext of building without a license.
