المكتب الوطني للدفاع عن الارض ومقاومة الاستيطان منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية
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By: Madeeha Al-A’raj
The National Bureau for defending land and resisting settlements ( nbprs ) stated in its latest weekly report , that during a session held by the Higher Council for Planning and Building in the Civil Administration of the Israeli occupation army, the Israeli Government headed by Naftali Bennett has approved a plan to build 2,200 new settlement units in the occupied West Bank, including outposts, in return for allowing the Palestinians to build 1,000 units in C areas. Knowing that the settlement units will be distributed as follows 58 settlement units will be built in Bit Eil, 286 settlement units in the Har Bracha settlement, 292 in the Kfar Etzion settlement, 83 in the Karnei Shomron settlement, and 42 units in the Givat Ze’ev settlement, 105 units in the Alon Shvout settlement, 28 units in the Berkan settlement, and 14 units in the Ma’aleh Makmash settlement. Besides, 1,315 new settlement units will be built in isolated areas in the occupied West Bank, including the so-called random settlement outposts.
According to identical local and international sources including the latest reports of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) stated that the occupation authorities have demolished since the beginning of 2021, at least 421 Palestinian-owned buildings, including 130 donor-funded buildings, or confiscated them or forced their owners to demolish them, displacing 592 people, including some 320 children, across the West Bank, representing a 24% increase in the number of targeted buildings and a nearly 110% increase in the targeting of donor-funded buildings and a rise of more than 50% of the displaced population, compared to the year 2020, and since the beginning of the year, more than 81 buildings have been demolished in East Jerusalem, since the beginning of this year, which doubled the risks of evacuating hundreds of Palestinians from their homes where they resided for decades in the Sheikh Jarrah Neighborhood, and the town of Silwan for the benefit of the settlers and their settlement associations, whose activity in East Jerusalem has increased in an unprecedented way.
Within the context,
in the Occupied West Bank said that Israeli PM Naftali Bennett did not approve the settlement building plans that his army minister, Benny Gantz, had agreed to implement. The settlers are upset about Bennett’s policies, especially in the wake of what was published about allowing the construction of 1,000 housing units for Palestinians in C Area, and they decided to protest in front of Bennett’s office and push him to oppose this approach.
On the other hand, the Jewish National Fund intends to implement a dangerous settlement plan aimed at a major expansion of settlements in the West Bank, and the expulsion of hundreds and perhaps thousands of Palestinians from their homes, especially in East Jerusalem, where NIS 100 million have been allocated to register lands in Israel and the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem. The management of the Jewish National Fund will adopt this plan on August 19. In this context, the Israeli Peace Now movement said that the Jewish National Fund will be transformed into the National Fund for settlers. The project aims to search in the records of the Jewish National Fund for lands and deals that have not been completed or registered in the Land Registry Office, and try to complete and register them, according to the Fund, there are about 17,000 files of documents in its records. Among them are documents that testify to the deals and properties that can be implemented, and among those files that will be examined and registered, there are about 530 files in the West Bank, and 2,050 files in East Jerusalem of an area of 2,500 dunams that were purchased or were under acquisition by the Jewish National Fund before 1948.
Member of the Executive Committee of the PLO, and head of the National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlement, Tayseer Khaled called for declaring the Jewish National Fund as a terrorist organization in light of its settlement activities in the Palestinian territories occupied by the 1967 aggression, and in light of the Fund’s board of directors directing the registration of lands and real estate in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, as belonging to it or to Jewish ownership, whether before 1948 or after 1967, with all the risks that this entails from a large expansion of settlements and the dangers of expelling hundreds and perhaps thousands of Palestinians from their homes, similar to what is happening in Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan and other neighborhoods East Jerusalem.
Within the context of the ongoing Judaization operations in Jerusalem, the occupation authorities issued a secret tender for the construction of the Moroccan Gate Bridge, and contractors who submitted a tender for the construction works which connects between the Al-Buraq Wall to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and is used to storm the occupation police forces and settlers in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, were asked to sign an item confidential regarding the bridge construction work. And the secret clause stated, I hereby pledge to maintain complete and absolute confidentiality of confidential information and everything related to or stemming from it, and not to publish or disclose in any way to any person or body, and all for an unlimited period, according to the Yediot Aharonot, the tender was issued by the so-called Western Wall Heritage Fund, which is responsible for the Al-Buraq Wall by the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office. Annex “H” in the tender stipulated the obligation to maintain the confidentiality of the entire tender. And the Western Wall Heritage Fund commented, we are working under the directives of the Prime Minister’s Office. The newspaper quoted an official involved in this case as saying that the solution for building a safe and legal bridge is in the hands of the prime minister, and he must decide whether he works for the King of Jordan or for the public at the Western Wall.
List of Israeli Assaults over the Last Week Documented by the National Bureau
Jerusalem:
- Freezing a demolition order in the Al-Bustan Nneighborhood in Silwan for 6 months until February 2022, except of 17 facilities subject to the law of “Kamenets”, in preparation for the establishment of a Biblical Garden. It should be mentioned that the Al-Bustan neighborhood has an area of 70 dunums and is inhabited by 1,550 people.
- Forcing 7 brothers to demolish their own homes which displaced about 40 people in a tent on their land located in the Al-Ashkariya neighborhood in the town of Beit Hanina, north of Jerusalem.
- Demolishing a residential apartment in the Bir Ayoub neighborhood in Silwan town, under the pretext of not having a building permit.
- Injuring a 47-year-old bus driver in the town of Silwan in Jerusalem as a result of an Israeli settler attack.
Ramallah:
- Erecting a new tent on the lands of the Ein Yabroud village, north of Ramallah, in preparation for the seizure of hundreds of dunums of land and the establishment of a new settlement outpost in the area.
Hebron:
- Attacking the Bassam Abu Eisha family under the Israeli protection.
- Demolishing a house, a well and agricultural facilities east of Yatta, south of Hebron in the Khalit Al-Dabea area under the pretext of being in C Area.
- Demolishing an agricultural barn for the second time in the Al-Fakhit area, east of Yatta.
- Demolishing an agricultural tin room for the coordinator of the Resistence Committees, Fouad Al-Amour, for the second time in addition to a house with an area of 100 m2 and housing more than 12 people.
Bethlehem:
- Cutting down dozens of olive trees in the lands of the village of Jabaa, southwest of Bethlehem.
- Bulldozing the lands surrounding the settlement of “Ibi Hanahel”, in order to expand it in the Kisan village, east of Bethlehem.
- Attacking the citizen Hussein Abdullah Abayat and his sons, while being in a rented land for its cultivation.
- Bulldozing a 2 km long paved road in the town of Battir, west of Bethlehem.
- Demolishing orders an agricultural room and a water tank in the town of Al-Khader, south of Bethlehem, in the Wadi Al-Shami area under the pretext of not having a building permit.
- Demolishing a poultry farm in the village of Al Walaja, northwest of Bethlehem under pretext of not having a building permit.
- Notifying two citizens of evacuating their land in the wilderness of the town of Taqwa, east of Bethlehem as well as removing all the barns within 14 days.
Qalqilya:
- Bulldozing agricultural lands planted with olive trees and grain crops to expand the settlement of “Tzofim” at the expense of the lands of the town of Jayyous, which is located behind the apartheid wall, with the aim of establishing settlement projects and expanding the borders of the settlements.
Jenin:
- Assaulting farmers and opening fire towards them in addition to smashing their cars on the Jabal Abu Al-Shawareb which has as area of 160 dunams in the Kafr Ra’i in Jenin.
- Demolishing commercial facilities in the town of Ya’bad, in addition to a pond and a water tank used to irrigate agricultural crops on the street connecting the towns of Ya’bad and Arraba. The demolition included butchery, a restaurant under the pretext of not having the necessary building permits.
The Jordan valley:
- Attacking the citizens’ vehicles near the Tayseer military checkpoint, east of Tubas, and smashing the windows of two citizens’ vehicles.
