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 estimation results during the current Israeli government showed that, settlers have established record numbers of random settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank, in the aftermath of the war on Gaza in Oct. 7th, supported by Smotrich, the Israeli Minister of Settlement, and head of the Civil Administration, noting that since the beginning of 2023, almost 29 settlement outposts were established, including 14 outposts and pastoral farms, the most recent of which 4 outposts this March in the Sinjil town and in Ein Al-Sakot in the Jordan Valley, and Al-Murajat areas north of the city of Jericho, as well as, the Al-Nahlah area near Wadi Rahal, south of Bethlehem.
Noting that ministers and Knesset members of whom, heads of the Religious Zionism Party, Smotrich, and Jewish Power Party, Ben Gvir, encouraged the settlers to establish outposts and settlement farms, and retroactively legitimized about 15 settlement outposts in 2023. According to Israeli associations that monitor such activity, the Kerem Nabot Association stated that the outposts and farms fall within the framework of corruption, as those who established them are relatives of employees working in the Nature and Parks Authority and in the Civil Administration.
Within the context, settlers not only control the land, but also systematically control the water springs, especially in the northern Jordan Valley, which are used by farmers and shepherd groups in the Palestinian villages that are besieged by these outposts and farms, and push them towards abandoning their lands and pastures under a joint pressure by the settlers, the occupation forces and the so-called emergency teams.
In addition, settlers are constructing roads to ease work and movement between the outposts and farms, and between them and nearby settlements, as is the case in Ein Al-Sakot in the northern Jordan Valley and in the Wadi Qana Natural Reserve in Salfeet Governorate, for creating a link between the settlement outposts in the place, and between the Emmanuel settlement and near the Qarawat Bani Hassan village, and other roads on private Palestinian lands, including other roads near the sewage treatment corporation affiliated to Salfeet city, as well as the construction of a number of roads in the South Mount Hebron area.
Noting that the occupation authorities had issued 3 military orders to confiscate 329,522 dunums of land in the Tammoun town, southeast of Tubas Governorate, Deirystia in Salfeet Governorate, the towns of Al-Khader, Battir, and Husan, in Bethlehem Governorate, and Deir Dibwan in Ramallah Governorate in order to expand a number of settlement roads.
Moreover, extremist parties and associations vow to assist in building these settlement outposts and empowering the Hilltop Youth Organization, a.k.a ‘Price Tag’ and Nahala organization, led by the extremist Daniella Weiss, who pledges to provide political support and organize crowd_funding campaigns for the settlements, and she is supported by public figures, such as, Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionism Party, the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, Aryeh Stern, the Chief Rabbi of Safed, Shmuel Eliyahu, and a number of settler mayors in the West Bank.
It should be noted here that the Nahala Movement has been launching campaigns to build such settlement outposts for years with the support of a large number of ministers and members of the Knesset from Likud and its allies in the Israeli government, such as Yuli Edelstein, Yisrael Katz, Yariv Levin, Zeev Elkin, Gilad Erdan, Ayelet Shaked, Miri Regev, and Tzachi. Hanegbi, Yoav Galant, Gila Gamliel, Ophir Anokis, as well as Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir.
Those outposts now house more than 4000 extremist settlers in nearly 2000 mobile homes and permanent buildings, 80 of which are located on land owned by Palestinians, and they control about 35% in Areas C in the West Bank. The Movement’s statements indicate that it promote a plan dating back to the era of former PM Yitzhak Shamir, and according to the plans, it intends to settle 2,000,000 Jews in Judea and Samaria i.e. the West Bank.
Residents of these settlement outposts and the so-called pastoral farms, who carry out their activities encouraged by the occupation government, especially Smotrich and Ben Gvir, and the heads of settlement councils such as Yossi Dagan, are not content with stealing Palestinian lands and property, but their criminal actions go beyond that and affect the Palestinians in their security and in their lives. The statements of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last week shed light on their terrorism when he stated that “a large majority of the Palestinians killed in the West Bank since Oct. 7 were not necessarily killed for convincing reasons, not by qualified Israeli security forces, but by individuals such as the Hilltop Youth, to raise questions regarding their nature and the activities they carry out.
Adding that, ‘With a government minister supporting violent groups of settlers, they are beating Palestinians and looting their homes.” Ehud Olmert, who accused Netanyahu of failing to defend the Israelis due to overconfidence and arrogance, pointed out in this context that the Prime Minister is intentionally directing Israel into an all-out war, not only against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, but also in the West Bank as well. Noting that the number of those killed in the West Bank at the hands of the occupation army units operating in the West Bank and the ‘emergency teams’, which are practically an armed settler militia and criminal ‘Price Tag” thugs since Oct. 7, is close to about 450 Palestinian citizens.
The settlement outposts and the so-called pastoral farms, which are built by settlers from the criminal “Price Tag” groups with the blessing of the occupation government and the Civil Administration, which is controlled by Bezalel Smotrich and his aides, are practically hothouses of terrorism, which the National Bureau for Dehending the Land and Resisting Settlement has warned about their criminal activities. Thus, the American Administration tend to expand sanction on the settlement outposts that commit terrorist acts, and to impose sanctions on them, this is also what the National Bureau and many other anti-settlement Israeli organizations confirm.
Within this context, it should be noted that during recent months, settlers have carried out a series of attacks on Palestinian villages and towns in the West Bank, the most violent of which were in Hawara, Burin, Qasr, Asira al-Qibliya, and Khirbet Tana in the Nablus Governorate, and the towns of Sinjil and Deir Dibwan in the Ramallah Governorate, where they burned 6 houses and agricultural rooms as well as 35 vehicles. They also broke the windows of 26 vehicles and caused damage to their structures.
Moreover, they attacked 36 houses and smashed their windows, solar cells, and water tanks, stole money from residents, besides, stealing sheep, confiscating agricultural vehicles and tractors in the town of Sinjil, Ramallah Governorate, and damaging the electricity network in the village of Naqoura in the Nablus Governorate. In addition to turning the lives of Palestinian citizens in the mountains of southern Hebron and in the Palestinian Jordan Valley, especially the northern area into a hell, with the aim of displacing them from their lands and pastures in a policy of ethnic cleansing sponsored by the occupying state.
In spite of the clarity of the picture and the actual increase in settlers’ violations and attacks on Palestinians and their property, the Israeli police claim that the number of settlers’ attacks on Palestinians decreased by half during the period of the war on Gaza. Colonel Abishai Moalim, the police’s public complaints officer revealed in a special session at the Knesset that the number of settler attacks in the last 5 months reached 270, compared to 537 in 5 months of last year.
Accordingly, international reactions against settlement outposts and settler violence began to increase and moved from sanctions on settlers, who practice violence against the Palestinians, as is the case in the American Administration, and other Western countries’ language, to sanctions settlement outposts that practice violence against the Palestinians after the American Administration announced its intention to impose sanctions on two settlement outposts, the “Havat Zvi Bar Yosef” pastoral outpost in the Ramallah Governorate, and the Moshe Sharvit herding farm in the Jordan Valley area, and three new settlers, this would likely open the door for other countries to deal with the settlement outposts as hothouses for Jewish terrorist organizations. .
In a related context, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, warned that the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories constitutes a war crime and carries the risk of eliminating any practical possibility of establishing a ‘viable Palestinian State.’ He explained that the expansion of Israeli settlements constitutes a population displacement by Israel, which amounts to a war crime’ under international law.
Regarding settler violence, Türk added that it has reached to shocking levels, especially since the start of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7. In his report, he relied on a monitoring carried out by the United Nations itself, in addition to other sources, where 24,300 new Israeli housing units were established in the occupied West Bank within one year until the end of Oct. 2023, saying that it is the highest recorded increase ever since the start of monitoring in 2017. It should be noted here that the occupation government has approved plans to build 18,515 housing units in the occupied West Bank this year, which is the largest number of housing units approved in a year.
List of Israeli Assaults over the Last Week Documented by the National Bureau:
Jerusalem:
- Closing a number of streets and roads in the occupied city of Jerusalem to secure an annual Judaization marathon organized by settlers, thus, the occupation forces prevent citizens from entering the Old City and reaching the Al-Aqsa Mosque to perform prayers.
- Destroying tombstones in the Bab al-Rahma Cemetery after storming it. The cemetery is also subject to excavation work by the occupation in order to establish a base for the Judaization cable car surrounding the Old City.
- Attacking citizens’ homes with stones and damaged the tires of about 10 vehicles in the Al-Sawana Neighborhood, placed barbed wire in the vicinity of Lions’ Gate leading to Al-Aqsa Mosque for the first time since 1967.
Hebron:
- Injuring 3 citizens in Fateh Sidra” area, . in Al-Masafer Yatta, assaulted, beaten, and sprayed them with pepper gas, destroyed agricultural crops and attacked foreign activists in an attempt to prevent them from documenting the attacks.
- Raiding and searched a number of citizens’ homes, others destroyed the agricultural crops of a number of citizens near Wadi Al-Jawaya in the village of Tuba, released their herds of livestock into the citizens’ fields.
- Releasing their sheep in the citizens’ agricultural crops, and chased the sheep herders in the Batm and Al-Jawaya, preventing people them from entering their lands to graze their sheep, and detained a number of shepherds and their sheep in the Sarura area in Al-Musafer.
Bethlehem:
- Destroying solar energy cells in the village of Wadi Rahal in the Khallet al-Nahla area, south of Bethlehem, belonging to a number of farmers, and in the village of Marah Ma’alla, the occupation authorities notified to stop construction in 3 agricultural rooms belonging to citizens under the pretext of not having a license.
- Attacking a protest by citizens against the leveling of lands in the Al-Muteena area in the Husan village, to expand settlement road no. 60, which extends from the main western entrance to the villages of the western countryside all the way to Husan, they also bulldozed 4 dunams in the area between Husan and Nahalin, and uprooted 51 olive trees, including 15 vine trees, belonging to the citizens, Saleh Ali Hamamra and his brothers, attacked a citizen and his wife, severely beaten them while working on their land in the Abu Najim area.
Ramallah:
- Attacking the Burqa village, burned a house and a car park, destroyed a livestock barn, and opened fire on citizens’ homes.
- Setting up a tent and a mobile home north of the Sinjil town, near the military checkpoin, prevented citizens from reaching their lands in the town since the last Oct. 7th.
- prevented the family of citizen Awad Abu Abdullah from transporting building materials near his house in the Turmusaya town, at gunpoint.
Nablus:
- Storming a water spring in the village of Qaryut and carried out orgies in the place, in an attempt to prevent citizens’ vehicles from entering Nablus. Beating citizen Jabr Muhamad Jabour in the Salem village, east of Nablus, while he was on his land in the Hamra area, he was transferred to the Turkish Hospital in Tubas.
- Attacking the village of Burin, burned a vehicle belonging to the citizen Adel Eid, destroyed 3 other vehicles and attempted to burn them, they also attacked and seized a vehicle belonging to the citizen Ahmed Abu Rida
- in the town of Qasra. They also attacked a house on the outskirts of the village, during Tarawih prayers.
- Destroying 50 fruitful trees of olives and almonds for the third time during the past two weeks in the village of Majdal Bani Fadel.
Salfeet:
- Continue bulldozing large areas of land in the “Al-Ras” area, northwest of Salfeet, to create infrastructure for a new settlement that the occupation called “Amirim Neighborhood”, as it was a pastoral center. According to a report issued by the Israeli Peace Now Movement, the new settlement will be residential and will include 1,600 unit, after it was considered part of the “Ariel” settlement, adjacent to the city of Salfeet, which its establishment means separating the Palestinian villages located northwest of Salfit, such as Kifl Haris, Haris, and Qira, from the governorate.
Jenin:
- Assaulting citizen Imad Khalil Alawneh, 50, abused him, and forced him to take off his clothes in the village of Jalboun, northeast of Jenin, fired live bullets at citizens’ homes and the village school, under the protection of the occupation army that stormed the village.
Jordan Valley:
- Establishing a settlement outpost in Ein al-Sakot in the northern Jordan Valley, with a touristic nature, brought cows and expelled the Palestinians from the area with the aim of seizing it.
- Sieging a settlement outpost, 100 meters aaway from the Arab Al-Ka’bna School in Al-Ma’rajat, demolished 2 commercial shops, a restaurant belonging to the citizen, Atta Ahmed Salama Roman, with an area estimated at 140m2 on the main street, under the pretext of not having a license, attacked Palestinian citizens and assaulted them west of the Ghazal Spring area in Khirbet Al Farisiya.
