المكتب الوطني للدفاع عن الارض ومقاومة الاستيطان منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية
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By: Madeeha Araj
At the opening session of the Israeli cabinet last week, the Israeli PM Netanyahu spoke about the Israeli position on building at settlement and its borders, adding his government would allow that, and that the so-called “banning building in settlement” is less described as throwing dust in the eyes and an obvious call for maximizing the construction.
Through following-up the Israeli settlement, it was seen the Israeli occupation authorities has started to cancel orders that ban building in the settlements following the enactment of the Settlement Law, which officially allows Israel to loot Palestinian lands as the Civil Administration affiliated to the Israeli Army has cancelled orders to stop the construction of 4 buildings in the Psagot settlement near Ramallah under the same law. Moreover, the Civil Administration is expected to cancel orders that halt building in Modi’in Illit and Kochav Yaakov settlements.
As the 50th anniversary of occupying the West Bank, including East Jerusalem drew nearer, building in the occupied city of East Jerusalem and its surroundings multiplies. The Israeli “Aharon” company announced the sale of 41 housing units of the Habark project in Pisgat Ze’ev and began marketing the 2nd phase of the project by building 65 housing units. In turn, the Euro-Israel Co. began a new marketing at Eurovie Pisgat Zeev settlement at which 122 housing units are built.
Another Israeli company called Beauty Hitchon announced that about 30 non-marketed housing units of the Top Arnona Project that consists of 12 storey. Furthermore, the Tsarfti Shimon Co. announced that it has marketed 94% of the buildings in the Har Homa settlement i.e. 142 housing units, while Gold Harhoma Co. is constructing a settlement project consists of 122 new units, and the Dona announced the marketing of a new project Donah in Gilo, where 113 housing units at a cost of NIS 240,000,000 will be built.
At the same time, the Israeli Ministry of the Interior approved the transfer of 250 donums of a land near Abu Ghneim Mountain in Jerusalem, belonging to the so-called “Council of Mateh Yehuda and Ramat Rachel” to the Israeli occupation Municipality in Jerusalem, which means the establishment of 2,000 housing units named as Arnona Foothills Settlement. Last week, the Israeli Ministry of Finance published a tender for the construction of 70 housing units in the settlement of Beitar Illit. Moreover, the Euro-Israel Co. is building 78 housing units in the “Nabi Ya’akov,” 32 in Ariel and 96 in Modi’in settlements.
On the other hand, following a tour carried out by the Israeli Minister of Environment, Zeif Elkin, along with Benny Ksrael, Mayor of of Ma’ale Adumim settlement, and their technical staffs, it was decided to set up an area near the Ma’aleh Adumim settlement for the treatment and recycling of waste. Al-Keen and Ksrael also discussed several issues, of which setting up a waste treatment facility in the Al-Tayyib Al-Salih area in Abu Dis.
The Israeli Ministry of Finance announced a success of a tender called “Price for the Resident,” which related to the construction of 3607 new housing units in the new Bakim – Raot neighbourhood in Modiin settlement. The Donna Co. got the most of the plots offered in the tender, and it is expected to build 2170 housing units i.e. about 60% of the total units. As for the Morchat neighbourhood, it is the third one to be marketed for settlement construction in the wake of the agreement signed between the Modi’in settlement municipality and the occupation authorities 3 years ago, under which the municipality undertook to build 12,000 housing units.
Al-Buraq Wall or “The Wailing Wall Heritage Fund” has recently launched a tender to build infrastructure of the Beit-Halibah project in the Al-Buraq Wall (the western wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque). The project’s area is 4,000 sq.m, it consists of 2 floors, one of them is 1500 meters, the other is 1550 meters, a third is 200 meters includes a library, rooms for visitors and archaeological hall. The occupation claims that the project was planned to develop the Western W yard, which also includes establishing of “Davidson Building”, south of the Western Wall near the Umayyad Palaces, besides, the “House-Htaraws Building”, which is currently being built in the northern part of the wall.
All this and that is to create a Talmudic character on the Old Town, especially, the very close to the Al-Aqsa Mosque. moreover, the so-called Israeli municipality in Jerusalem plans to build a bridge for pedestrians south of the Al-Aqsa Mosque to link Abu-Thoor neighborhood with Mount Zion.
Noting that the Interior Committee at the Israeli Knesset approved in the second and third readings an amendment to the Planning and Building Law in order to accelerate Arab houses’ demolition as it started preventing the Palestinians from filing petitions to the Israeli courts, besides imposing NIS 700 per day as fine if they refuse to demolish their houses, as well as, confiscating building materials and equipment from buildings.
Within the context, the EU called on Israel to stop demolishing Palestinian homes in the West Bank C Areas, particularly, at the Al-Khan Al-Ahmar Bedouin village near Ma’aleh Adumim settlement, which leads to forcible transfer of Palestinians, and violates the International Law and the Geneva Convention.
During a meeting held between EU’s representatives and the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Director General, where the EU’s Ambassador to Israel, Lars Anderson handed over a strong worded letter describing Israel as an “occupation force” that seeks forceful transfers, forceful evictions, forceful demolitions of houses and confiscation and properties, including properties funded by the EU, and its hindrance of delivering humanitarian aid to the needy people, thus violating the 4th Geneva Convention.
Over the Last Week, the Following Israeli Occupation Army and Right-wing Settlers’ Violations were documented by the National Bureau:
Jerusalem:
- The alleged Temple Mount Organizations called on Jewish settlers to participate in rallies to invade the Al-Aqsa Mosque in preparation for major events for the Passover, which begins mid of this month. Leaflets and posters were circulated to the social networking sites to attend and participate in the activities of the so-called “Easter Sacrifice”, near the Umayyad Palaces adjacent to the Al Aqsa Mosque.
- Demolishing a barracks in Beit Safafa Neighbourhood under the pretext of being unlicensed.
- Demolishing a residential building belonging to Al-Shibr family in the Sheikh Anbar Neighbourhood consists of 3 floors. Israeli bulldozers also demolished 3 houses belonging to Al-Natsheh family, another to Abu-Esbeitan family, and the third belonging to the Hafez Rajab family that was forced to demolish its house in Beit-Hanina to avoid paying the cost of the demolition, which may reach NIS 250,000.
- Issuing a resolution to evacuate and close 3 apartments belonging to the Aweidah family in Silwan, because of the cracks and collapses resulting from Israeli digging tunnels under them. The apartments residing 16 people including 10 children.
- Demolishing 4 houses at the Al-Zayim village, east of the occupied city of Jerusalem, as well as bulldozing large areas in the village.
Hebron:
- Scores of Israeli settlers escorted by Israeli occupation forces stormed the Archaeological Muwaraq Palace near the Dura city to perform their rituals there, and prevented the Palestinian citizens from reaching it.
- On the other hand, Moh’d Al-Alami, 25, and Said Al-Salibi, 20, survived A settlers ran over while crossing the Jerusalem – Hebron road.
Ramallah:
- Notifying to demolish a house of the prisoner, Bajis Nakhla at the Jalazoon Refugee Camp within 3 days under the pretext of building without a permit.
- Handing over 2 notifications to the prisoners, Abbas Qar’an and Rami Eshtawi from Al-Bireh city to demolish their houses under the same pretext.
Bethlehem:
- Bulldozing a land in Al-Khader town, where they filled a land with piles of dirt and rocks in the Ein-Qaysis area, belonging to citizen, Ruben Salah.
- Notifying Moh’d Zawahra from Beit Ta’mir east of Bethlehem to stop erecting water well under the pretext of Israeli sovereignty.
- Bulldozing agricultural 100-donum to the south of Bethlehem city under the pretext of being “state land.”
- Uprooting olive trees and bulldozing agricultural lands at the Khilat-Katin and Jabal Abu-Zaroor near Bethlehem city.
Nablus:
- Attacking houses in the Burin town, and started firing tear gas, rubber bullets and throwing stones against the people, causing many cases of suffocation.
- Right-wing settlers stormed the eastern part of the Nablus city toward Joseph’s Tomb, and performed their prayers ther.
- They also called for invading the Sebastia area to the north of Nablus city days before the Palestinian Spring Festival, which will be held on the 13 – 14 of this month. Moreoverm they posted ads on their websites calling to visit the Sebastia and Al-Masodeieh area on the same dates.
Salfit:
- Bulldozing 20 agricultural donums in the Bruqin town at Khallet-Zajran to expand the Ariel Zone Area to build more factories.
- Bulldozing and building of new settlement units in the Kana and Shua’ari Tekfa settlements on the Mesha village land in order to establish a technical school there.
- Handing demolition orders to citizen, Moh’d Shabir from Deir-Ballot village, to demolish 7-baracks belonging to him under the pretext of being in the C Area.
- Uprooting 135 olive trees in the Wadi Qana area to the north of Salfit, and destroying a 40-meter-long stone wall under the pretext of being a natural reserve.
- Demolishing tents and barns at Abu-Raysh area between the villages of Deir Balut and Luban-Gharbeih, west of Salfit, owned by Moh’d Sheber, who said the Israeli occupation bulldozers have demolished a number of family tents and barns, and gave the people there a week to remove the remaining one.
Jordan Valley:
- Handing over the citizen of Ras-Ahmar village near the Tamoun town to the north of the West Bank, notifications to evacuate the village in order to carry out military manoeuvres.
- Storming the Zubaidat and Um-Abr areas, and destroying more than 20 donums of agricultural lands there, as well as uprooting and confiscating more than 500 palm trees belonging to the Moh’d Zubeidat and Hussein Abu-Shaddad Families.
