المكتب الوطني للدفاع عن الارض ومقاومة الاستيطان منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية
مقالات مشابهة
By: Madeeha Al-A’raj
The national Bureau for Defending the Land and Resisting Settlements stated in its latest weekly report , that in their brutal war, leaders of the Israeli Occupation Army keep beating the drums of ‘Joshua Ben Nun,’ on the Gaza Strip, and Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir along with settlers are also doing the same in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Thus, the “Hilltop Youth” and “Price Tag” gangs fund, arm, and absorb the so-called “emergency teams” i.e. the Jewish extremists, who wear the uniform of the Israeli army to fight in the West Bank parallel with the aggressive war on the Gaza Strip. Those emergency teams began the war by terrorizing the Palestinian citizens at residencies, roads and farms, as well as in their pastures in all governorates, especially in Masafer Yatta, Hebron in order to displace them from their homes and works.
Scarcely a day passes by without storming a Palestinian village or threatening its residents to leave their homes within 24 hours. Bezalel Smotrich, Minister of Finance and Minister of Settlements in the Ministry of the Army, pledged to fund, and insisted to allocate more aids for settlement and its terrorist arms in the appendices of the new Israeli budget for the year 2024. As for the person responsible for the armament center for the new militia, it is Itamar Ben Gvir, who distributed rifles to every obsessed and leper officers and soldiers, who are responsible for the security of the areas, as an Israeli journalist described it.
In this context, the spokesman for the municipality of the Beitar Illit settlement, west of Bethlehem, said that Rabbi Meir Rubinstein received from the army last Sunday the second shipment of long weapons allocated to the settlement’s veteran residents. So far, dozens of city residents have received machine guns, and another phase of distributing weapons to the security forces will begin in the coming days.
In parallel with the formation of this militia, which the occupation government called “emergency teams,” according to Israeli media, a propaganda battle was launched to repel all external pressure on the occupying State. Along a number of highways and crossroads, exciting advertisements can be seen: “The Palestinian Authority equals Hamas.” As for the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, these announcements placed at his head a Green Hamas’ sticker. This is the new manifestation of the activity of the “religious Zionist” youth, who signed these propaganda announcements.
As for social networks, they promote films in which armed soldiers from these militias appear, walking and in the background slogans that say: “The authority has a well-trained army equipped with a quantity of weapons and is waiting for the opportunity to kill our children and families. This is happening in Kfar Saba, Petah Tikva, Shoham, Elad, Arad, and Ben Gurion Airport, Beersheba, Netanya, Haresh, Beit Shemesh, and Mevaseret Zion. The Israeli government and the occupation army turn a blind eye to the activity of these terrorist groups, which are included in the emergency teams. Within its framework, outpost militias operate in the West Bank
Under the pretext of the lack of security and safety after the events of last Oct. 7, Israeli media and press circles gathered that the various security arms in the occupying State encouraged the establishment of 600 civil guard teams in Jewish towns far from areas of hostilities and in West Bank settlements, and made room for Ben Gvir to build his own militias. Just as it made room for the wide demand to apply for a license to carry weapons, and gave in to the tendencies of Ben Gvir, Smotrich, Moshe Neman, and Yossi Daan, it was quick to abolish the conditions restricting the possession of weapons, especially after the Parliamentary Security Committee approved it in the first week of the war of extermination in Gaza received regulations that expand the conditions and criteria for obtaining a license to carry weapons, prepared by Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir. According to estimates heard by the Security Committee, the new regulations mean that around 400,000 additional Israelis will be able to apply for a weapons license.
These facilities include all settlers in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, so that every settler, even if he does not serve in the army, can apply for a license to carry a weapon. Thus, according to the Israeli newspaper ‘Haaretz’, the Israeli Ministry of Security issued more than 35,000 licenses to carry private pistols to Israelis since Oct. 7th, compared to about 12,897 licenses in 2022. Official statistics from the Israeli Ministry of Interior indicate that before Oct. 7th, there were more than 200,000 Israeli civilians possess weapons under licenses from the ministry, in addition to the weapons licenses granted to civil guard companies that have tens of thousands of licenses to carry weapons.
This large number of weapons proliferation comes in the wake of the easy criteria presented by Ben Gvir to gun bearers, the most dangerous of which was granting preference to the settlers. According to the criteria of this fascist minister, a gun license is entitled to be granted to anyone who is 21 years of age or older, who has served as a soldier for one year or completed 2 years of military service, and to a woman who has provided one year of national or civil services, if they live or work in a settlement, they can also have the right to bear arms.
Furthermore, the Minister of Finance and Minister of Settlement in the Ministry of the Army, Bezalel Smotrich, succeeded in allocating tens of millions of shekels in the appendix to the new Israeli budget for the year 2024 in order to finance settlement in the West Bank, despite the increasing cost of the war against the Gaza Strip, according to the latest reports of the Peace Now movement, the budget annex, according to Smotrich’s proposals, includes NIS 40 million i.e. ‘$10.6 million’ for the Settlement Ministry to further control Area C and enhance settlement there, 100 million i.e. $26.7 million for the Settlement Department, and NIS 33 million i.e. $8.8 million for the Settlement Education Directorate, and NIS 9 million i.e. $2.4 million for the Directorate of Jewish Identity, NIS 40 million i.e. $10.6 million for strengthening “Jewish identity,” and nearly one and a half million shekels i.e. $401,000 for the Local Council in Hebron.
For his part, Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union, commented on this as saying, “It is shocking that in the midst of war, Israel is allocating new funds to build more illegal settlements. This has nothing to do with self-defense and will not make Israel safer. The settlements are a serious violation of international humanitarian law and are Israel’s largest security burden.
At the same time, settlement activities continue in many governorates of the West Bank. Last week, the Local Planning Committee at the occupation Municipality approved a plan to build 2 hotels and settlement towers in a project being implemented at the Hebron – Bethlehem road, and a plan to expand the Ramat Shlomo and Ramat Rahil settlements by establishing 2,356 new settlement units north and south of Jerusalem. The first plan includes the construction of 2 hotels with 39 rooms, 75 settlement units, and hundreds of meters for a ‘commercial complex,’ government buildings, a post office, a synagogue, and other public needs. In the details of the plan that was approved, it provides an active interface for trade towards the Hebron road, where the Light Train will pass.
According to the plan, a public area dedicated to public needs will be created in marketable areas. The mayor of the extreme right-wing occupation, Moshe Leon, said these construction plans as part of the municipality’s policy to develop, increase the supply of settlement units and hotel rooms, and improve public space. It is mentioned that those towers and the 2 hotels are in a separation area that cuts off communication between Jerusalem and Bethlehem due to its proximity to the Bethlehem-Jerusalem border and constitutes a closure of the settlement circle south of the city.
The Committee announced the expansion of various areas in the western and eastern parts of the city of Jerusalem, most notably the expansion of the Ramat Shlomo settlements on the lands of Shuafat and Ramat departure of the building on the lands of Sur Baher to the south. At the same time, the Israeli Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Construction and Settlement approved the allocation of a budget to prepare the infrastructure for about 1,500 new settlement units to expand the “Ramat Shlomo” settlement towards the town of Shuafat and the “Ramot” settlement by building a new neighborhood in the western slopes near the bypass road 443 Jerusalem – Tel Aviv to develop the settlement of “Ramat Shlomo” and opening a new entrance from the aforementioned bypass road.
It is notable that this is the fourth expansion of the settlement, which swallowed up hundreds of dunams of land in the towns of Shuafat and Lifta, as the occupation municipality in Jerusalem approved in less than a year ago, the establishment of 1,700 settlement units in the southern part of the settlement along St. N. 1, Jerusalem with the French Hill settlement. Uri Barnoom, one of the contractors within a coalition that received a bid to build 265 settlement units in the settlement, explained that the contracting company obtained another bid days before the aggressive war on the Gaza Strip to expand the “Ramot” settlement on the lands of the towns of Beit Iksa and Lifta in Jerusalem by 490 settlement units.
According to the approved plan, work will began to extend the train infrastructure to enhance settlement and connect the new settlement units with the “Ramat Shlomo” settlement, to enhance settlement expansion in that area north of occupied Jerusalem, in the area of the contact line between the eastern and western parts of the city of Jerusalem, after it was decided to expand the settlement ‘Kiryat Heoval’ with the approval of the Israeli Planning Commission on a project to double the number of apartments in the settlement by 50 new ones.
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Clockwise, the Bethlehem Governorate is subjected to a massive settlement attack. The occupation authorities seized 1,500 dunums of land from the villages of Husan, Wadi Fukin, and Al-Jab’a, in for settlement purposes, according to a new military order issued last Tuesday, bearing the number RJ5-465-3-8 in favor of constructing a settlement road extending from Khallet Al-Azrawi in Husan village passing through the village lands, then Wadi Fukin and Al-Jab’a, arriving at the Hala crossing adjacent to the Surif and Al-Jab’a towns, northwest of Hebron, which resulted in the theft of more citizens’ lands and the creation of widespread negative impacts on the Palestinian environment in general and on the western countryside of the governorate in particular.
This is at a time when settlers uprooted dozens of olive trees, almonds, and vines in the town of Al-Khader accompanied by a large bulldozer, attacked the Shushahla area, south of Al-Khader, and bulldozed 15 dunums, uprooted about 100 olive trees, almonds, and vines, and destroyed 15 beehives, owned by 2 citizens from the Salah family. Meanwhile, settlers uprooted about a thousand olive trees, almonds, and vines, belonging to citizens of the Salah family, in the lands of the town of Al-Khader, south of Bethlehem. They also bulldozed land in the Ras Salah area, south of the town, adjacent to the “Daniel” settlement, estimated at 50 dunams.
Meanwhile, settlers seized about 300 dunams in the Khallet al-Nahla area, on the lands of the village of Wadi Rahal in the south, and prevented their owners from approaching them at gunpoint. The lands were planted with forest trees located between the “Efrat” settlement and the “Kivat Eitam,” outpost with the aim of expanding its borders, the occupation forces seized hundreds of dunums of citizens’ lands in the village of Al-Rashaida and Arab Al-Ta’amra, east of Bethlehem, estimated at 100s of dunums, with the aim of expanding the “Ma’ale Amos” settlement.
As for Salfeet, settlers under the protection of occupation soldiers built a settlement road in the Qarawat Bani Hassan and Deiristiya towns, northwest of Salfeet, to connect the settlement outpost of “Hafaat Yair” and the “Al-Ras” area north of the towns, thus, seizing more than 3,000 dunums of land from the towns, while settlers uprooted 100 olive trees and bulldozed 6 dunums of agricultural land in the ‘Sidon’ area in order to seize them.
List of Israeli Assaults over the Last Week Documented by the National Bureau:
Jerusalem:
- Forcing Rami Al-Zeer to self-demolish his house in Jabal Al-Mukabber under the pretext of building without a license, to avoid paying a fine if the occupation demolished it. The same thing was done with Tala’t Hassasna, who is going to demolish his house consisting of 4 flats, in Jabal Al-Mukaber under the same pretext. Osama Khader Al-Rajabi was also ordered to demolish his house in Wadi Al-Dam in Beit Hanina, and so Fadi Abu Subeih in the Ras Al-Amud neighborhood.
Hebron:
- Demolishing 2 houses, fences, stone chains, and bulldozed land planted with 120 olive trees, covering an area of 3 dunums, and destroyed a water network as well as smashed water tanks in the Birin village, southeast of Hebron belonging to Moataz Da’na.
- Seizing an agricultural tractor, owned by Ishaq Al-Jabareen, while plowing the land in Sha’b Al-Butm in Masafer Yatta.
- Preventing farmers from reaching their land to pick olives in the Wadi Ma’in area near the Batam people under the protection of the occupation army,
- Seizing an “excavator” near the village of Khallet al-Mayya, east of Yatta, owned by Najib Ali Al-Adra, and demolished Talal Yasser Al-Adra’s house.
- Uprooting a number of fruitful trees, bulldozed land surrounding a house in the Al-Deirat village, east of Yatta. Moreover. in the Abu Shagban community, the occupation forces raided east of Yatta, and demolished a house belonging to Fares Jamil Awad.
- Stormng the “Yaqin” community and demolished a house in the Bani Naim town.
- Seizing a bulldozer belonging to the Beit Ummar Municipality and beaten the driver there while working to facilitate an alternative agricultural road for citizens to take as a result of the occupation forces closing the main entrance to the town, transported it to the ‘Kermei Tzur’ settlement. They assaulted the driver, Rani Akhilil, 48, he sustained bruises, after which he was admitted to hospital for treatment.
- Attacking houses in Masafer Yatta, beating and insulting the people, threatened to kill them.
Bethlehem:
- Destroying iron wall separating Al-Khader Girls’ Secondary School from the 30-meter-long Annexation Wall, made up of reinforced iron sheets and barbed wire, erected to protect female students from attacks by occupation soldiers and settlers.
Nablus:
- Plowing private lands estimated at an area of 9 dunums east of Khirbet Yanun, belonging to the municipality of Aqraba, in preparation for seizing it. At the same time, they stole olives in the Rumi area, east of Khirbet, noting that the occupation forces and settlers forcibly prevented citizens from picking their fruits more than once. They destroyed the olive fruits in the areas and expelled them from there, in order to come back and steal them.
- Building a new settlement road towards the south and east, and burned agricultural lands in the Btisha area in the village of Qariot, located within the lands of Areas B, noting that the occupation and settlers have been preventing farmers from reaching the aforementioned area since the beginning of the aggression on the Gaza Strip.
Salfeet:
- Throwing stones at citizens’ vehicles at the entrance to the village of Haris and carried out a provocative march there.
- Cutting down 10 old olive trees, more than 80 years old, in the “Derya” area, west of the town of Kafr Al-Dik, expelling farmers from their lands in the area, west of Kafr Al-Dik, and preventing them from picking their olives on an area of more than a thousand dunums, and shot sound bombs at them to force them to leave the place, knowing that there are more than 1,500 dunums of olive fields that have not been picked in the town as a result of the occupation’s prevention.
Qalqilia:
- Bulldozing more than 100 dunums, and uprooted about 150 olive trees, in the villages of Imatin, Farata and Jeit, east of Qalqilia to expand the “Havat Gilad” settlement. They also uprooted more than 150 old olive trees.
Tulkarm:
- Injuring a number of farmers after settlers severely beaten them with sticks and stones, while they were on their lands in the town of Ramin, east of Tulkarm, they sustained injuries throughout their bodies.
Jenin:
- Demolishing 5 residential rooms, made of brick and zinc, housing more than 20 people, each house measuring 40-80m2, without prior warning, and prevented them from taking out their belongings in the Farasin village, near the town of Ya’bad, west of Jenin, they also destroyed water and electricity lines and the solar panel, water tanks and agricultural materials.
- Uprooting and bulldozing 500 fruitful trees ‘peaches, apples, and avocados’, demolished the entrance to an archaeological cave and closed it.
Jordan Valley:
- Removing 3 tents in the town of Al-Auja, north of Jericho, and stolen their contents belonging to the citizen Musa Rashayda.
- Burning 4 tents belonging to citizens in Wadi Al-Faw in the northern Jordan Valley, knowing that he forcibly abandoned them about a month ago after the escalation of settler attacks.
- Attacking the Bedouins community west of Al-Malihat on the Al-Mu’rajat road, northwest of Jericho, and stolen their sheep and severely beaten them, including Muhammad Suleiman Ka’bneh and Jibril Mleihat, and stolen a number of sheep belonging to his brother Jamal Mleihat and Muhammad Ka’bneh.
