المكتب الوطني للدفاع عن الارض ومقاومة الاستيطان منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية
مقالات مشابهة
By: Madeeha Al-A’raj
Introduction:
The national Bureau for Defending the Land and Resisting Settlements stated in its latest weekly report , that according to data from the Settlements Council ‘Yesha’, the number of settlers in the West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem in past Oct. 2023 exceeded 500,000, after it was about 502,678 at the end of 2022. As for East Jerusalem, the settlers growth had continued until exceeded 250,000 settlers, which means their number in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem exceeded 750,000 settlers, living in 158 settlements, and in some estimates 176 settlements, taking into account the occupation government’s whitewashing of a number of settlement outposts last year and the legalization of the occupation, and in more than 200 settlement outposts and pastoral farms inhabited by about 25,000 settlers from the ‘Pay Price’ group, or what they sometimes call the ‘Hilltop Youth’ to soften the impact of the name.
The largest number of those settlers lives in ‘Modi’inIllit’, ‘BeitarIllit’, and ‘Ma’aleAdumim’ and ‘Ariel’, where 214,676 settlers live in, constituting 42% of the total settlers. According to the ‘Regional Council of Settlements in the Jordan Valley,’the highest % of increase was in the Palestinian Jordan Valley area, where it reached 4.7%, while in the rest of the regional settlement councils, it increased between 2.2% and 4.2%. Haredi settlers constitute 36% of the settlers, religious Zionists 36%, and secular settlers 28%.
At the beginning of past year, a new wave of construction began in the settlements, after the settlers strengthened their positions in the Israeli government, which was formed after the last elections for the Knesset in Nov. 2022, as votes rose with the increase in the number of settlers, especially in the northern West Bank, which is about 170,000 to 1.000.000 by 2050, according to a plan they presented to PM Netanyahu, which included the establishment of new cities and industrial zones that provide job opportunities, in addition to hospitals, an airport, a train network, infrastructure, and new bypass roads, besides extensive Judaization operations in Jerusalem and its surroundings.
In its first term, the new Netanyahu – Smotrich – Ben Gvir’s government took the initiative to allocate 3 billion and 200 thousand NIS, to confiscate tens of thousands of dunams and prepare large settlement cities in the West Bank linked by wide streets, a train network, and an airport at the expense of citizens’ lands that are being planned to be confiscated with the aimof furtherdismembering the West Bank, establishing settlement outposts and settlements throughout it, and separating cities and villages from each other to provide a better security situation for the occupation.
Hence, since the beginning of last year, the occupation government has pushed forward plans to establish 12,885 settlement units in the West Bank. The largest of which was in the “MaaleAdumim” settlement plan east of the occupied Jerusalem, where 1,475 settlement units were approved, and the “Eli” settlement northeast of Ramallah, where 1,81 settlement units were approved. In addition to the “Kochav Yaakov” settlement in the middle of the West Bank, Where 627 settlement units were approved, and “GivatZeev” northwest of Jerusalem, where 559 settlement units were approved, in addition to the construction of 350 settlement units in the “Alkana” settlement near Nablus, and 374 units in the “KiryatArba” settlement in Hebron, south of the West Bank, and 380 units in the “Kedumim” settlement in the northern West Bank, besides expansions in many other settlements.
As for the city of Jerusalem, the occupation government announced plans to establish 7,082 settlement units in various areas of the city, and among those plans is to establish 3,500 settlement unit south of the city within the “New Talpiot” settlement plan, and a plan to build 730 settlement units in the “PisgatZeev” settlement on the BeitHanina lands north of the city, as well as a plan to build 1,918 settlement units in the “RamotAlon” settlement north of the city, and a “settlement plan” “Kadamat Zion,” which includes 384 settlement units east of the city, knowing that settlement projects are the highest since 2012.
All that was happening despite the Netanyahu government’s pledge in meetings held in Aqaba and Sharm El-Sheikh in which countries such as the United States of America, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and the Arab Republic of Egypt participated alongside the Palestinians, which began on Feb. 26, 2022, in which the occupying State committed to freezing settlement activity for 4 months, and stopping the legalization of settlement outposts for 6 months, according to the final statements of those meetings.
As usual, the occupying State ignored its obligations and didn’t content itself with continuing work on building settlements and expanding the establishment of settlement outposts and so-called pastoral farms at the hands of “Price Tag” terrorists, which began to spread like mushrooms in the Palestinian countryside in areas C. What is new about these outposts is that the Civil Administration under the guidance of the fascist right-wing government headed by Netanyahu has begun to legitimize a number of them, from GivatArnon, GivatHarel, GivatHaruya, Homesh, and Avitar in the Nablus Governorate to Avigail, Ashhal, and BneiKedem, where a member of the Knesset from the “Religious Zionism” party resides.
“The extremist SimchaRotman, Chairman of the Constitution, Law and Judiciary Committee at the Knesset, and Malachi HaShalom on the lands of the village of Al-Mughayir, east of Ramallah, BeitHijla in Jericho, Mitzpe Yehuda in Jerusalem, and Sde Boaz in the Bethlehem Governorate, out of 77 settlement outposts,” demanded the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvirto legitimize them, so since the beginning of the year, 22 settlements that were previously considered illegal settlement outposts have been legalized. During the seven months of the year, a larger number of settlement outposts were legalized than in all previous years, under intense pressure from the Minister of Settlement in the Army Ministry, BezalelSmotrich, and the Minister of National Security. Itamar Ben Gvir, four out of 22 settlements approved by the current government also received retroactive planning permits from the West Bank Civil Administration, after illegal construction had already taken place.
At the same time, the policy of expanding settlement construction and establishing settlement outposts and so-called pastoral farms in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, was taking place alike. What is new about the establishment of settlement outposts is that it has been taking place over the past year alongside an accelerated policy of ethnic cleansing that is taking place in Area C in the West Bank, especially after Smotrich took over the settlement profile in the Civil Administration. According to data from the National Bureau and several Israeli human rights organizations concerned with following-up the activities of the occupying state, as well as international organizations and bodies affiliated with the United Nations and other independent bodies, it turns out that the occupation authorities rejected 95 % of Palestinian building permit applications in these areas, and that over the past twenty years the average granting of building permits for Palestinians have been less than ten permits per year in an area where 300,000 Palestinian citizens live, at a time when the army authorities demolished more than 1,500 Palestinianhomes and facilities, compared to less than a hundred in the settlement outposts surrounding the settlements between 2022 and 2023.
The ethnic cleansingpolicy practiced by the occupation authorities focuses on areas of Bedouin Gatherings, using the Jewish “Price Tag” terrorist organizations and their civilian cover the “Hill Youth,” as one of their main tools. Throughout the year 2023, settlers launched more than 2,000 attacks on Palestinian citizens, focusing on Bedouin and herding communities and villages adjacent to settlements in the governorates of Nablus, Salfeet, Ramallah, Tubas, the northern Jordan Valley, and Hebron, pushing some of them to forced migration, as was the case with the Qaboun Bedouin community to the east of Ramallah, just as happened before with the Bedouin community in AinSamiya, the Bedouin community in Al-Marajat, another in MasaferYatta, and the Bedouin village of Zanuta, south of Hebron, this is the 5thPalestinian community to be displaced due to repeated attacks and threats by settlers, which resulted in the displacement of hundreds of Palestinian families throughout the year 2023.
Despite the brutal conditions of the war waged by the occupying state on the Gaza Strip and the mobilization of resources it requires to cover the cost of that war, settlement activity and the accompanying violations and attacks on the Palestinians, their lands and property have not stopped. Since the first day of the war on Gaza, the invasion of the West Bank by the occupation army and herds of settlers has escalated. The West Bank is subjected to an escalating silent massacre that does not stop with a comprehensive siege imposed on Palestinian cities, towns and camps under the pretext that one of its goals is to protect settlers who move freely on bypass roads. Both Army Ministry Minister BezalelSmotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir are waging their own war in the West Bank in an openly deceptive attempt to distort the facts and show that the settlers need the state’s protection in the face of the threat of Palestinians hostile to their existence.
Smotrich repeats on more than one occasion his abnormal premise that the settlers are the next victim of what he called “Palestinian terrorism,” similar to what happened in the settlements of Gaza envelop on Oct. 7th. For this reason, lucrative budgets amounting to billions of shekels were allocated to meet the needs of the settlement and the settlers. As for Itamar Ben Gvir, he was busy activating a program to arm the settlers and establishing more than 600 armed guard teams. In this context, the rate of settler attacks has increased, which are carried out silently, and in light of the complicity of the Israeli judicial apparatus represented by the Investigation Service and the Israeli courts, most notably the Supreme Court of Justice, which provides a judicial iron dome’ for settlers and their organizations.
At the same time, the Planning Committee at the Occupation Municipality approved the construction of 3 residential towers of 21-22 floors in the ‘ArmonHanatziv’ settlement, built on the lands of JabalMukaber, where 48 existing housing units will be demolished and 240 housing units will be built in their place on an area of 21 dunams, the building includes a commercial floor with an area of 950 m2, and the average area of the residential unit is 88m2 + 12m2 of security room. This is in addition to the plan to build 2 towers, one with a height of 30 floors and the other with a height of 15 floors in the ‘Talpiot settlement, which was established on the lands of Sur Baher after it was approved by the Local Planning Committee to be submitted to the District Committee on an area of about 5.6 dunums.
List of Israeli Assaults over the Last Week Documented by the National Bureau:
Jerusalem:
- Storming an agricultural land belonging to Alyan family in the village of BeitSafafa, and proceeded to bulldoze it and uproot olive trees in the vicinity of the family’s homes, in preparation for constructing a settlement street on an area of land amounting to 20 dunumsto connect the “GivatHamatos” settlement established on the lands of BeitSafafa. The occupation municipality crews, accompanied by members of the police and border guards, also stormed the Al-Bustan neighborhood in the town of Silwan, and distributed demolition notices for homes in the neighborhood under the pretext of building without a license.
- Imposing heavy fines on a number of merchants in the Anatatown, northeast of Jerusalem under the pretext of not paying taxes
Hebron:
- Attacking the citizen, MahmoodIssa Ahmed Mohammad while he was herding sheep, and the citizen Malik Maher Ahmed Mohammad in Khirbet Janba, and took them to a center after handcuffing and blindfolding them and subjecting them to interrogation.
- Forcing the citizen, Moh’d Al-Jabareen to remove the tin from his home in Shaab al-Batam area, which is a dwelling built of bricks and was demolished several times by settlers.
- Expelling citizens while they were grazing their sheep in Wadi al-Jawaya and Khallet al-Adra, while an armed settler pursued citizens’ sheep in Khirbet al-Tuba. Settlers attacked Ali Asila’s house in the Taibe neighborhood, west of Hebron, which he uses as a residence during the summer. They smashed its windows and internal belongings, and wreaked havoc on its contents.
- Attacking farmers from the Alyan, Abu Eid, Al-Shawahin, and Abu Hamid families, while plowing their lands threatened with seizure in the “Al-Thaala” area in MasaferYatta, south of Hebron.
Bethlehem:
- Demolishing a number of agricultural rooms, belonging to the brothers Raed, Muhammad, Yasser Mahmoud Manna, Abd Muhammad Kawazbeh, FarisIssaKawazbeh, and Habes Ahmed Kawazbeh, under the pretext of not having a license in the village of Al-Minya, near the town of Tuqu’.
- Erecting a number of electricity poles, in the Tuqu’ wilderness, specifically in the “Fathura” area, in preparation for establishing a new settlement outpost near the “Takwa” settlement, which is located on citizens’ lands.
- Bulldozing lands from the “Hanjaliyah” lands in the Qusair Basin is part of the land of the town of Battir, which has an area of 50 dunums and contains “Tabu” ownership papers, with the aim of establishing a settlement outpost.
- Uprooting about 100 olive trees and vines in the Baniyas area from the lands of theNahalintown, owned by the citizen Jamal Ahmed Mustafa.
Nablus:
- A group of armed settlers wearing occupation army uniforms prevented citizens from reaching the water springs in Khirbet Tana, east of Nablus.
- Fixing several mobile homes “caravans” on the lands of the Qasratown on the opposite side of the “Majdlim” settlement, on the lands they bulldozed earlier, the number of caravans installed during a week is 9.
Salfeet:
- Demolishing an agricultural room in the Wadi Al-Wah area in the village of Sarta, owned by citizen Aziza Abdel Rahim Mahmoud Salah, and destroyed its contents.
- Demolishing an agricultural room in the Wadi Al-Wah area in the village of Sarta, owned by citizen Aziza Abdel Rahim Mahmoud Salah, and destroyed its contents.
Qalqilia:
- Demolishing 2 “agricultural and industrial” rooms and a wall on the lands of the village of Nabi Elias in the northern area of the village, and an industrial room with an area of about 200 m2 under the pretext of building without a license.
- Demolishing 2 “agricultural and industrial” rooms and a wall on the lands of the village of Nabi Elias in the northern area of the village, and an industrial room with an area of about 200 m2 under the pretext of building without a license.
Jenin:
- Cutting down olive seedlings on land owned by the citizen Fathi Al-HajjarAtatreh from Ya’bad, located inside Khirbet Al-Mukhal, southwest of Jenin. They destroyed the farmers’ water meters, and established a settlement outpost there in a mountainous area, and they are working to expand it tothe south of Tulkarm Governorate.
Jordan Valley:
- Seizing a residential tent belonging to citizen Moh’d Fares Sobeih, in the Burj area in the northern Jordan Valley, at a time when the occupation authorities imposed a fine on citizenQadriDaraghmeh amounting to Nis 49,000 in return for releasing 19 heads of cows, which they seized a few days ago while grazing in the Jordan Valley.
