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 a wave of condemnation of the terrorist settlers in the West Bank is spreading throughout the world including the Jewish circles in America, where the Israel Policy Forum that was established in 1993 to mobilize support in the American Jewish community and in Washington for the diplomatic vision of the late PM Rabin – which consists of 7 prominent American Jewish organizations – sent a letter last week to the Israeli Government urging PM Bennett, FM, Yair Lapid, and Army Minister, Gantz to condemn terrorism and ongoing political violence perpetrated by Israeli Jewish extremists in the West Bank.
In a tweet by Gantz last week, where he described the escalating settler attacks in the West Bank against the Palestinian or Israeli lift-wing activists, or Israeli Army, as terrorist, in response to the settlers’ attacks that took place in the Burin and Hawara villages, south of the city of Nablus. Adding that he recently held discussions on that to enhance the deployment of the army, the police and the Shin Bet, to prevent such crimes, at a time when Bennett has downplayed the seriousness of the situation, and described it as a marginal issue.
For his part, the Israeli Minister of Internal Security, Omer Bar-Lev, acknowledged the settlers’ practice of “organized terrorism” against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, commented on the attack by masked settlers on Israeli and Palestinian activists in Hawara and Burin, south of the city of Nablus, where 10 activists were injured, including 4 Israeli settlers – some of them over 70 years old – in a violent attack carried out by Israeli settlers with sticks and stones, and torched their car. Minister Bar-Lev had previously announced, on December 27, that he was under heavy guard for 24 hours, after receiving threats “not from Arabs, but from Jews” as he used the term ‘settler violence’.
Reports issued by the Peace Now, and Yesh Din organizations, showed that 63% of the settlers’ attacks took place near the settlement outposts, knowing that there are 150 outposts in the West Bank. Despite this, Defense Minister Benny Gantz is seeking to approve linking dozens of settlement outposts, ‘young settlement projects’, and settlement farms in the occupied West Bank to the electricity network, which means paving the way for the legalization of settlement outposts based on lands privately owned by the Palestinians, and to justify linking the settlement outposts to the electricity network, Gantz is looking forward to ratifying the connection of Palestinian homes and Palestinian residential communities located in Area C, to the electricity network.
The National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements has indicated in previous reports that the occupying power has seized more than 2 million dunams of West Bank lands for the benefit of settlement, and established more than 280 settlements and outposts in the West Bank, excluding Jerusalem, including 158 settlements recognized by Israel officially, and about 130 outposts and settlement farms are not, but acknowledge their actual existence and the need to regularize their situation. Knowing that third of the outpost were established in the last decade, and they were classified as settlement farms.
In a new provocative way, Yossi Dagan, head of the settlement bloc in the northern occupied West Bank, announced laying the foundation stone for the construction of hundreds of settlement units on Mount Gerizim in Nablus. He said, “Construction on Mount Gerizim includes 127 settlement units out of 800 units that the government promised to build within 4 years.”
List of Israeli Assaults over the Last Week Documented by the National Bureau:
Jerusalem:
- Rejecting a request by the Salheiya family to return to their land in the Sheikh Jarrah Nneighborhood and to rebuild their demolished their house.
- Storming the lands of Wadi al-Rababa in the Silwan town, and preventing farmers from entering the place.
- Demolishing 2 apartments belonging to the family of Karamah and Qarash in the al-Tur town, east of Jerusalem, and attacked their owners.
Hebron:
- Bulldozing 50 dunums in the Al-Fqiqis area in the Dura town, in preparation for annexing the land in favor of settlement expansion, and prevented the residents of the village of Zanouta, south of Hebron from plowing their land.
- Assaulting civil citizens and throwing stones at them, causing bruises to a young man, and smashing several pottery and heritage utensils in a shop owned by a gathering of tourist craftsmen in the old Hebron town.
- Erecting an outpost called “Givat Maon”, from which attacks are launched against farmers, especially during the olive and grape harvest season.
Bethlehem:
- Notice of demolition of 2 schools east of Bethlehem, where the “Raqafim Settler Organization” posted demolition notices on “Kisan” and “Tahadi 5” schools in the Jubbet Ad-Dib area, knon the grounds that they are illegal. Knowing that the Kisan School was demolished for 5 times n a raw before it is rebuilt again, and it was previously notified to stop construction.
Nablus:
- Wounding a 17-year-old boy in the Hawara town, and smashed the windows of a vehicle and a shop, during a march organized by settlers from Za’tara Checkpoint towards Hawara.
- Handing stop-building notices to a number of buildings in the Khallet Rajeh area, claiming that they are located in Area C in the Rujeeb village.
- Attacking the house of Ahmed Ghazal in the Sebastia town, northwest of Nablus, and injured a number of its members with burns, as they were sprayed with pepper gas.
Salfeet:
- Handing over a notice to stop-building stone-chain in the Kafr ad-Deik town, west of Salfeet.
- Uprooting about 200 olive trees in the Banat Barr area, west of the town, under the pretext that it is an archaeological area.
- Seizing a vehicle for collecting waste in the Al-Zawiya town, destructed 60 dunums in the Kafr Al-Deek town, and cut the fence surrounding the land, closed the roads leading to them with stones, and put up a warning for the owners of the land to prevent them from accessing their lands.
Jordan Valley:
- Sabotaging the crops of citizens east of Khallet Makhoul in the northern Jordan Valley, and forcing the citizens to leave the nearby pastures, and forcing shepherds to leave the pastures.
