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 over the last week, the city of Jerusalem occupied media front pages at local, regional and international levels in two serious events, as the first was, the storming of thousands of settlers into the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, led by ministers from the occupation government and KMs.. The second was the Cabinet)’s decision to moving forward with the establishment of a new settlement to connect the ‘Gush Etzion settlement bloc’ to the city of Jerusalem. As for the first event, 2 Israeli ministers and several thousand extremist settlers stormed last Tuesday morning the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem under the protection of the occupation police, to commemorate the so-called ‘memory of the destruction of the Temple’.
The Islamic Endowments “WAQF” Department in occupied Jerusalem said that more than 2,958 settlers and extremists stormed the Mosque since that day, including Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir and the Minister of Negev and Galilee Affairs Yitzhak Wasserlauf from the ‘Jewish Power Party, which Ben Gvir leads, in addition to Amit Halevy, a member of the Knesset from the ‘Likud Party’.
During his storming of Al-Aqsa, Ben Gvir said, ‘there has been very significant progress in imposing sovereignty and authority on the Temple Mount i.e. ‘Al-Aqsa Mosque’, and our policy is to allow the Jews to pray here.’ While the office of Israeli PM Netanyahu issued a statement saying that “policy-making regarding the Temple Mount ‘Al-Aqsa Mosque’ is directly subject to Netanyahu’ and that ‘there is no change in the status quo and there is no special policy for any minister regarding this, not for the Minister of National Security.” Itamar Ben Gvir nor any other minister.’
Netanyahu, as usual, was lying. The Israeli police deployed hundreds of its members in the Old City of Jerusalem and the Buraq Wall area, starting Monday evening, with the aim of securing settlers during the raids to perform Jewish prayers. It turned the Old City into a military barracks, especially at the gates of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the gates of the Old City, and tightened its military measures on entry of Muslim worshipers.
To confirm Netanyahu’s lie, Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf said that he informed Netanyahu that he intends to storm Al-Aqsa Mosque, on what is called “the anniversary of the destruction of the two Temples,” and that he coordinated the storming with all the parties that should be coordinated with, adding, “two weeks ago I addressed the Prime Minister.” The government, with a letter asking me to go up ‘to the mosque’, and by the way, I have done so since I entered the government and to go up on the day of ‘the anniversary of the occupation of’ Jerusalem and on the 9th of August.”
Thus, Wasserlauf’s statements show that Netanyahu didn’t prevent him, nor did he prevent Ben Gvir, and thousands of settlers from storming the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque. He said, “We do not ask for Netanyahu’s authentication, but rather we only inform him, and he received the message and everything was fine and coordinated with the personal guard.”
In the second event, the ‘Civil Administration’ affiliated to the Israeli Ministry of Finance and the Minister of Settlement in the Ministry of the Army, Bezalel Smotrich, last Wednesday ended the so-called ‘Blue Line’ procedures that aim to establish a new settlement called ‘Nahal HaLtz’ on lands bel;onging to the Battir town, listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, in the extension of the ‘Gush Etzion settlement bloc’ south of occupied Jerusalem, a settlement that the occupation government describes as one of five settlements that it decided to establish under the pretext of responding to the steps of the Palestinian side in international forums against the occupation’s practices and the recognition of the Palestinian state and its capital by European countries. Jerusalem . The size of the area, on which the settlement is located, is 602 dunams, according to the Israeli ‘Kan’ radio.
Smotrich was satisfied of the decision and said, ‘Linking Gush Etzion to Jerusalem through the establishment of a new settlement is a historic matter. The political-security cabinet had approved, two months ago, my proposal to establish 5 new settlements in Judea and Samaria i.e. the West Bank. Since that time, the Directorate of settlement has been working in the Ministry of Security and Civil Administration in order to implement the decision, including paying the ‘Blue Line’ to the new settlement ‘Nahal HaLtz’, which allows construction to continue in the settlement.’
He considered that any anti-Israel and anti-Zionist decision would not stop the continued development of settlements, and he will continue to fight the dangerous idea of a Palestinian state and impose realities on the ground. This is the mission of my life and I will continue it with all my might, and we will continue to implement Zionism. We build, develop, fight and win,’ as he put it. Head of the ‘Gush Etzion’ council, Yaron Rosenthal, also celebrated the decision and pointed out that the area of the settlement expanded by hundreds of dunams, and that the new settlement will create a connection between the ‘Gush Etzion bloc’ and Jerusalem, between Etzion and Zion.
It should be noted that there is a crew working in the Civil Administration called the “Blue Line Crew” whose mission is to prepare for declaring Palestinian lands as “state lands” that the occupation army seizes on under the pretext of using them as camps or military training areas, and then they are later leaked to the public settlements for the purposes of expansion of settlement activity and construction. The crew is called the “Blue Line Crew” because the borders of the maps prepared by this crew are colored blue.
At the same time, the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Settlement in the Ministry of the Army, Smotrich, is working to push the occupation government to legitimize 70 out of 200 settlement outposts in Area C in the West Bank and connect them to water and electricity networks, despite most of the sites allocated for settlement are useless, or the chances of settlement are slim, especially since most of them were built on private Palestinian land, according to the latest reports issued by the Israeli ‘Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights Association’, which is active in defending the rights of Palestinians to Area C in the field of housing, construction, infrastructure, lands and planning.
The report of this association sheds light on the discrimination practiced by the occupation authorities in light of a large gap in the area of land allocated for development for both population groups in the West Bank; While the area in which Palestinians can legally build constitutes only 0.5% of the area of Area C, the approved plans for settlements extend to 28% of the size of these areas.
To clarify discrimination in planning against Palestinians in Area C, the report reviewed “recent data indicating that since 2011, the Israeli Authorities have approved only 7 out of 115 settlement plans that were submitted for existing Palestinian buildings for the Palestinians,” stressing that all of this is happening. In light of a large gap in the area of land allocated for development for both population groups in the West Bank, while the area in which Palestinians can legally build constitutes only 0.5% of the area of Area C, the approved plans for settlements extend to 28% of their area In the settlement outposts that have been classified as settlement sites, the basic conditions for promoting a settlement plan are not met, as in 32 of them there is no feasibility for presenting a settlement plan, while the feasibility of 12 of them is considered low, no more, and in addition to 6 sites. Some of the settlements have moderate feasibility, and only in 9 sites there is high feasibility.
The Nablus Governorate was also the scene last week of events that reflected the racism of the occupation and the brutality of settlers and Jewish terrorist organizations in a number of settlement outposts surrounding the city of Nablus. Those settlement outposts , especially, the “Yitzhar” and Itamar settlements, are the most violent and are major centers for Jewish terrorist organizations, spawned by the “Hill Youth” such as the “Price Tag” group and the “Tamarud” terrorist group. The “Givat Ronen” terrorist outpost was occupied last week.
Headlines in the Israeli media, after the terrorists Hillel David Ben Shushan and David Hai Hasdai, who is subject to US sanctions and an investigation conducted by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, attacked four women and a girl from Rahat Bedouin in the Negev desert and burned their car, after they mistakenly entered that terrorist settlement outpost. One woman narrated what happened, “We entered the place by mistake, and then people started running towards the car and throwing stones from the hill. After they smashed all the windows, they sprayed us with tear gas. What they threw were not stones, but rocks. They were all armed and there were many of them.
They told us to get out of the car. We told them that we, Israeli citizens, had done nothing. We got out of the car and fled for our lives. The settlers burned the car.” The four women and a three-year-old girl were injured as a result of being exposed to that attack. The girl and two women were taken to a hospital for treatment after they suffered injuries to the heads, shoulders, and knees as a result of the terrorist attack. The police arrested these terrorists and transferred them to the Shin Bet for investigation. They refused to cooperate and did not provide a convincing statement, according to the police, so it was decided to extend their detention for seven days.
Here, the fascist right in Israel erupted just because of their arrest and interrogation. Member of the Knesset from the “Jewish Power” party, Limor Son Har Melech, did not hesitate to speak about women from Rahat in racist language. She said rudely during a meeting of the Law and Constitution Committee at the Knesset last Sunday, “This is not an Israeli Jewish family’, and an innocent event like this may be an espionage operation, aimed at gathering information. This matter cannot be ignored.’ She expressed her support for the terrorist settlers who attacked the women and girls of “Rahat.”
It should be noted here that 4 main settlements surround the city of Nablus, named, Elon Moreh, Itamar, Yitzhar, and Bracha, in addition to about 25 settlement outposts established by settlers in its vicinity on the lands of 14 Palestinian towns and villages located in the eastern and southern regions of the city. Yitzhak Rabin, the former Israeli Prime Minister, called these settlements political settlements ‘dismantling them’, to distinguish them from security settlements, as he put it. All of these settlements turned into permanent settlements, and settlement outposts spread around them, the worst in practicing violence and terrorism in the West Bank.
For serving those settlements, the occupation authorities built what is called the Hawara by-pass road, which is a main road linking the settlements and their terrorist hotbeds to other settlements in the south and southeast of the governorate and in the Palestinian interior without the need to pass through populated residential areas, such as the Hawara town, for example, the “Eilon Moreh” settlement includes a school and a religious institute and is considered one of the industrial settlements. In 1980, settlers established an industrial zone that includes many industries, such as a factory for sheet metal used in armoring tanks, and another for military spare parts.
As for the “Itamar” settlement, to the southeast of the city of Nablus, it was established by the occupying state in 1983 on the lands of Awarta, Rogeb, Beit Furik, and Yanun. The settlers initially called it “Tel Haim” in reference to the resumption of so-called Jewish life at the site before it expanded and transformed. To a settlement called “Itamar”. The settlement is surrounded by large areas of land that prevent Palestinians from accessing it. On the southern side of this settlement, there are a number of settlement outposts, such as the “Hankouda” outpost, on an area of 185 dunums, and the “Tel Yanun outpost” on an area of 19 dunums.
To the east of this settlement, 5 settlement outposts were established in the first years of the Oslo Accords. A number of surrounding hills are “Hill 851” on an area of 141 dunams, “Hill 836” on an area of 135 dunams, “Givat Olam” on an area of 80 dunams, “Hill 782” on an area of 135 dunams, and “Hill 777” on an area of 74 dunums. As for the “Bracha” settlement, which until 1982 was a military point on the outskirts of Mount Gerizim on the lands of the villages of Kafr Qalil, Burin, and Iraq Burin, it was transformed into a permanent settlement in 1983.
The terrorism that emanates from those settlement outposts is a daily scene after the settlement outposts and so-called pastoral farms have turned into hothouses for Jewish terrorist organizations under the nose and eyes of the occupation authorities and forces. A lot of evidences on this, the most recent of which was the storming of dozens of settlers last week in the village of Jit in Qalqilya Governorate, including terrorists Bin Ghafir provided them with weapons and opened fire on citizens, which led to the martyrdom of the young man Rashid Mahmoud Abdel Qader Sedda, 23.
Others were injured, and 4 houses and 6 vehicles were burned. The terrorists belong to the ‘Alert Teams’ that were formed in the first weeks of the Gaza war and included in their ranks large numbers of terrorist “Hill Youth” thugs, who were armed by Ben Gvir. They came in organized groups that included about 50 terrorists in nine vehicles from the ‘Havat Gilad settlement outpost’ to the east of the “Qadumim” settlement. The danger of those terrorist organizations has worsened in the circumstances of the brutal war launched by the occupation army in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank as well.
According to a report issued by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ‘OCHA’, settlers, under the protection of the occupation army, and through violence and restrictions on movement and access, were able to displace about 1,390 Palestinians, including 660 children, from 29 Bedouin and herding communities in the occupied West Bank, since last Oct. 7. The report stated, settlers in various parts of the West Bank, launched 1,084 attacks targeting the Palestinian presence, 107 of which resulted in a number of casualties, including a martyr and a wounded person, while 859 attacks caused damage to property, during the period between Oct. 7, 2023, and July 8 this year.
The same period also witnessed the establishment of 17 new settlement outposts in he occupied Palestinian territories, bringing the total to 150-200 outposts controlling an area of about 412,000 dunums, in addition to 165 settlements inhabited by about 740,000 settlers.
List of Israeli Assaults over the Last Week Documented by the National Bureau:
Jerusalem:
- Demolishing a house belonging to the Maher Nasser family, and a facility consisting of a laundry and a fuel station in
- to impose taxes on them, and distributed leaflets threatening citizens, while the town of Al-Tur, belonging to the Al-Kiswani family, under the pretext of building without a license. They also cut off electricity to the homes and shops in the neighborhood targeted by the demolition operations, knowing that the goal of the demolition is to complete the construction of a settlement street there.
- Storming the Anata, Al-Issawiya towns, and the Shuafat Refugee Camp, and distributed demolition orders, under the pretext of building without a license. They took house measurements in order settlers from the extremist “Ateret Cohanim” settlement association seized a residential building in the Batn al-Hawa Neighborhood in the Silwan town, under the pretext of Jewish ownership of the land on which the building was built since 1881.
Hebron:
- Attacking shepherd, Ali Sabah Rashid, and sprayed him with pepper gas, while he was herding sheep in the “Khallet Odeh” area, near Khirbet Emnizel, east of Yatta, while the occupation forces demolished with bulldozers four homes and a tent and two “caravan” facilities, belonging to the citizen Yasser Al-Hathalin and his sons, Uday, Anis and Ali, at the “Um Al-Khair” gathering in Masafer Yatta, and displaced 30 people from their families into the open.
Bethlehem:
- Preventing the Al-Faroukh and Al-Tarwa families from harvesting their agricultural crops in the Minya wilderness, located between the towns of Kaisan and Al-Rashayda, east of Bethlehem. Meanwhile, the Maale Ammous settlers grazed the barley and wheat crops grown on an area of 300 dunums, which constitute part of 1,500 dunums owned by the families, and prevented them from harvesting them.
- Attacking farmers in the village of Al-Minya, southeast of Bethlehem, while they were on their land, while shooting bullets in the air in order to intimidate them into leaving their land in Khalayel Al-Lawz, southeast of Beit Lahk, they also burnt old olive trees belonging to citizens of the Abayat and Al-Mawaleh families.
- Installing 8 mobile homes ‘caravans’ on citizens’ lands in the village of Al-Minya in the areas of Al-Tineh, Hajjar, Wadi Al-Abyad, and Al-Saroujiat, east of the village, in preparation for establishing a settlement outpost.
Ramallah:
- Attacking the Ni’lin town and burnt agricultural lands in its vicinity, a vehicle, and stole agricultural equipment, closed the road linking the villages of Al-Mughayir and Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah, and settlers from the “Beit El” settlement established on citizens’ lands north of the city of Al-Bireh attacked citizens’ vehicles near the northern entrance to the city of Al-Bireh with stones,
Salfeet:
- Notifying to seize 14 dunums of the Bardoun Basin, part of the lands of Qarawat Bani Hassan, and Al-Buraiji, part of the lands of Haris. This decision comes in favor of the “Kiryat Natafim” settlement, located east of the village. The settlement has been witnessing extensive construction work over the past few months. T
- Bulldozing large areas of Iskaka land in the “Qinya” area and uprooted old olive trees in order to build roads for the “Neve Nehemiah” settlement, noting that the area that the occupation is bulldozing is 100 meters away from citizens’ lands. The settlers also bulldozed large areas and uprooted 100 olive trees from citizens’ lands in the village of Yasuf in order to expand the aforementioned settlement, while settlers attacked citizens’ vehicles with stones at the entrance to the town of Deir Ballut, near the military checkpoint erected at the entrance to the town.
Tulkarm:
- Uprooting dozens of olive trees in the Ramin Plain and set fire to large areas of agricultural land in the plain, extending eastward toward the lands of Deir Sharaf, west of Nablus.
Qalqilia:
- Assassinating Rashid Abdel Qader Sadda, 23, from the Jeit village, east of Qalqilya, , and another was critically injured during their attack on the village, set fire to a number of homes and vehicles.
Jordan Valley:
- Storming the Al-Malihat Arab community, northwest of Jericho, and carried out rounds of provocation against citizens in the area, while other shepherds in the Al-Juba area in the northern Jordan Valley assaulted and beat the citizen, Ahmed Hussein Zuhdi Abu Mohsen, and kidnapped him before he was found in another area near the “Mikhola” settlement, with marks of severe beatings on him, and a foreign activist was assaulted by the same group.
- Detaining a group of citizens in the Um al-Jimal area in the northern Jordan Valley, stolen to the Ras al-Auja Bedouin community, about 200 sheep north of the city of Jericho, belonging to Odeh Ammarin Ka’bneh family.
- Closing the Maleh Junction in the northern Jordan Valley and attacked Palestinian vehicles.
- Notifying to stop work in more than 15 homes and gave the owners of these homes until the 3rd of next Sept. to implement the decision to stop work. In the Jabal Al-Nuweimah area.
