By: Madeeha Araj
The Israeli Occupation Authorities continue to support and expand the settlement project through annexing largest area in the Palestinian territories. The Knesset enacted the racist “National Law” which places the settlements in the forefront of the Israeli government’s interests. The government’s claims that the laws of the Knesset override any standard of international law, and therefore the Knesset’s authority to enact laws in the so-called occupation government and its civil administration in Judea and Samaria, therefore, appeal on the Knesset and the Civil Administration’s duties to pass in the West Bank obviously means the occupation government practices the policy of effective annexation of the West Bank to its full sovereignty, as it did in occupied Jerusalem and the occupied Golan Heights.
Moreover, the Israeli government decided to confiscate scores of donums from the land of the Silwan town, south of Al-Aqsa Mosque, where it distributed notices to confiscate tens of dunums near the neighborhoods of Wadi Rababah and Wadi Helwa, Beer Ayoub, Al-Nabi Dawood and the Greek Orthodox Church. All the land belongs to the residents and families of the town, who have documents and papers. The notifications also stipulated that “The mayor wishes to exercise his authority under section 2 of the Local Authorities Act 1987 – temporary use of vacant land, where there is no construction.” The municipality claimed that horticulture included “planting trees, installing irrigation networks and channels, developing nature landscapes, arranging roads for walking, and installing seating areas.”
The settlement legitimization processes are taking place elsewhere in the West Bank, alongside the Adi Ad and Amihai, the Gush Etzion Settlement Council illegally provides some outposts with large sums of money as in 2017, it transferred NIS 600,000 to illegal activity in West Bank areas.
The Israeli occupation forces continued to chase Bedouin communities around Jerusalem as the Israeli soldiers stormed the residential compound of Jabal Baba near Eizaria in occupied Jerusalem. They also protected the civil administration crews, who confiscated a truck, equipment and building materials. The compound consists of 56 Palestinian families i.e. 300 people. The people were shocked by that. The Civil Administration of the Israeli occupation army is legitimizing the settlement of “Adi Ad”, which is located near Tirmseya, Mughayir, Jalud and Qariut villages, southeast of Nablus. The outpost was established in 1998 near the settlement of Shilo, It was recently allocated to resettle settlers who were evacuated from the Amona settlement outpost. According to the plan the Israeli authorities are seeking to expand the settlement by adding 60 housing units in the first phase and then 300 one.
On the other hand, the Israeli occupation authorities are planning to start a new project by setting up a garbage dump and a recycling plant on the Palestinian land east of Ma’aleh Adumim settlement at a cost of more than NIS 1.4 billion as the Knesset member Mozi Raz said that the plan aims at “devising policies and realities of creeping annexation under the guise of protecting the environment through providing mechanisms to build” civil “infrastructure in the occupied Palestinian territories through which Israeli settlements can be financed.
The Israeli occupation authorities also plan to implement a massive settlement project that isolates 4 villages from Bethlehem, a step on the way to annex them. They are trying to turn the villages of Battir, Wadi Fukin, Nahalin and Husan to the west of Bethlehem for isolated communities from the Bethlehem Governorate; they have a population of about 20,000. The occupation plans to connect the area with the settlement Road 60 around the villages until “Beitar Illit settlement”, besides the existence of 3 schemes initiated by the occupation authorities and civil administration to implement them with a cost of NIS 185 million. The plan is to increase the number of settlers in the Beitar Illit settlement from 60,000 to 120 in the coming years.
In the Bethlehem governorate, Israeli bulldozers also bulldozed land between the settlements of ‘Etsion and Alon Shivot, south of Bethlehem, to establish new settlement units. They also bulldozed lands in the village of Artas to implement the plan approved by the Government of the occupation to build 1700 settlement units over the next 5 years. The occupation authorities are launching a fierce attack on the land adjacent to the settlement as it uprooted 200 fruitful trees. It was said, US delegations have visited the region to implement investment projects there.
In the Nablus governorate, the Israeli occupation forces seized 25 dunums of the land of the “Haraiq al-Awail” area on the eastern side of the territory of Jamain village, south of Nablus belonging to Hamed Moh’d Hamdan and Musa Omar Abu Shu’aib. This comes within the framework of the occupation plan for the construction of a railway that starts from the town of Kafr-Qasim to the Ariel settlement on the land of Salfit Governorate.
In the Salfit Governorate, 4 occupation industrial zones continue to pollute the environment in the governorate, especially underground water due to pouring sewage in the valleys of the governorate, especially adjacent to the villages of Sartah and Qarawat Bani Hassan.
A list of Israeli Occupation and Settlers’ Assaults over the Last Week, Documented by the National Bureau:
Jerusalem:
- Demolishing 3 rooms and barks in the village of Jabal al-Mukaber, south of Jerusalem, belonging to the Abu Sakran family under the pretext of being built without a permit. The owner of the company, Hussein Abu Sukkar, said that he was surprised by that saying the municipality employees gave him only 15 minutes to remove the contents of the company, which resulted in the losses of about NIS 500 thousand.
- Demolishing of 2 structures in the town of Shu’fat, north of the occupied city belonging to the family of Muhtasib.
- Levelling a number of roads in the ‘Issawiya village, northeast of the city, and handing over demolition notices to a number of houses built 5 – 20 years ago in the Silwan area south of Al-Aqsa Mosque under the pretext of being built without a permit.
Ramallah:
- Killing an elderly man, Moh’d Habishan, 85 after being run over by 2 settler vehicles on the bypass road near the Bedouins in Ein Samia. He was admitted to the hospital, where he died there.
- Attacking Palestinian family in the Bedouin village of Ma’arjat east of the village of Taybeh, northeast of Ramallah.
Hebron:
- Assaulting volunteers of the “Youth against Settlers” group during their volunteer work in the “Tel Rumeida” area in the city of Hebron. Breaking into a house belonging to Yousef al-‘Ezzah, during which the group’s activists carried out repairs and cleaning of the house
- Demolishing a 70-year-old house in Beit Baraka area, north of Hebron, where the Palestinian guard of Bait Al-Barakah lives.
Confiscating a shop for the sale of vegetables, fruit and other necessities near the Al-Dhahiriya Junction
Jenin:
- Military trainings near the villages of Faqou’a and Jibloun east of Jenin. Local sources said that the Israeli forces used bombs, live ammunition, and a massive deployment of soldiers inside the agricultural land. A similar training took place near the town of Mutla, south of Jenin.
Jordan Valley:
- An agricultural road was razed in the Khan Ahmar area in the northern Jordan Valley, to be used for military vehicles. Two weeks ago, the Israeli occupation forces bulldozed part of the same road with a length of 2.5 km and destroying a 1.5 km long line of water. 4 Palestinian families were evicted from their tents in Khirbet Yirza, east of Tubas under the pretext of military training.
- Demolishing a grocery store in the village of Marj Na’ja, north of Jericho under the pretext of being built without a permit.