Nablus – Ma’an – The National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements said in its periodic report today, Saturday, that the plans for encirclement and isolation in Jerusalem and displacement in Hebron are flourishing in the circumstances of the war on the Gaza Strip.
The office said in its report, ‘Once again, settlement activities are returning to completely isolate the city of Jerusalem from its Palestinian surroundings, an additional step to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, as the Israeli authorities have officially submitted the plan to expand the settlement of ‘Givat Hamatos’, known as the Hebron Road Strip, for objection, which constitutes a major step in the process of approving the plan. The official submission of the plan for public review is taking place very quickly, only three weeks after the District Planning Committee moved to approve the plan for submission on July 15. The plan aims to build 3,500 settlement units and 1,300 hotel rooms on the eastern slopes of the
settlement of ‘Givat Hamatos’ on more than 140 dunams of land along the Hebron Road. The plan is progressing at a high pace, which is not surprising given the significant increase in promotion and the fast track of settlement plans since the outbreak of the brutal war waged by the occupying state on the Gaza Strip. It also goes hand in hand with settlement plans in the area, which aim to isolate the southern side of East Jerusalem from Bethlehem and the southern West Bank, and create more From communicating with the settlements of (Gush Etzion).
‘In the context of revealing the plan, the Israeli human rights group Ir Amim noted that Givat Hamatos is the first new settlement to be built in East Jerusalem in more than twenty years,’ the report added. ‘It is clear that the Israeli government is exploiting the current climate to create more facts on the ground to strengthen its grip on Jerusalem and prevent any possibility of a future Palestinian capital in the city.’
‘The Israeli Local Planning and Building Co
mmittee in Jerusalem has approved more than once in recent years the confiscation of Palestinian lands for the expansion of the aforementioned settlement. It is worth noting that this Planning and Building Committee had approved in 2014 a plan to build about 2,600 housing units (settlement), but the plan was suspended for years due to international pressure and the tender for the approved plan was not published. However, the situation changed and the Israeli Land Authority later published the tender booklet for the construction of 1,257 housing units in ‘Givat Hamatos’ after the tender was postponed for a long time. The Palestine Liberation Organization and many countries have criticized the settlement project because it completely cuts off the geographical connection between East Jerusalem and Bethlehem and undermines the chances of reaching a political settlement based on the so-called two-state solution.’
It is worth noting here that the occupying state has implemented over the years the largest illegal s
ettlement projects between Jerusalem and Bethlehem and has illegally confiscated tens of thousands of dunams and annexed them to the so-called ‘Jerusalem Municipality’ for the purpose of expanding its settlements in Gilo, Givat Hamatos and Har Homa and to impose further measures that isolate East Jerusalem from its Palestinian surroundings in the north and south. The plan to expand the ‘Givat Hamatos’ settlement will have a similar effect to the expansion of the settlement project that the occupying state is planning in the (E1) area for the Ma’ale Adumim settlement in terms of imposing more facts for this isolation plan and for the plan to create geographical continuity between the settlements surrounding Jerusalem and the interior of Israel.
“The plan to expand the settlement of “Givat Hamatos” comes as an extension of the policy of surrounding the city of Jerusalem with more settlements and settlement belts. In the north and northwest, the occupying state established for this purpose the settlements of Ra
mot, Rekhes Shuafat, Pisgat Omer, Pisgat Ze’ev, Ramat Eshkol, French Hill, Hebrew University, Atarot, and Neve Yaakov. In the south, the settlements of Givat Hamatos-Gilo-Hargilo and Har Homa, and in the east, the settlements of Ma’ale Adumim and Kedar, which, along with the settlement of Givat Ze’ev in the north, fall within the borders of Greater Jerusalem. With these settlement belts, the occupation authorities continue their efforts to isolate Jerusalem from its Palestinian surroundings. The northern settlements separated Jerusalem from the northern West Bank, where the governorates of Ramallah, Nablus and the rest of the governorates are located, while the southern settlements isolated Jerusalem from the governorates of Bethlehem and Hebron.”
Two years ago, the heads of the European Union missions, ambassadors and consuls of European countries organized a protest visit to the settlement of ‘Givat Hamatos’ to express their rejection of the expansion of the aforementioned settlement, as the expansion of t
he aforementioned settlement and the construction of a new neighborhood in it would sever the geographical connection between the cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem. During that visit, the European Union Representative Sven Khn von Burgsdorff said that ‘the Israeli announcement of the opening of tenders for the settlement of ‘Givat Hamatos’ is a source of great concern for the European Union and like-minded countries. This is part of a worrying trend as Israel continues its policy of strengthening settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.’ He added, ‘If Israel were to go ahead with its plans for a settlement here, it would cause serious damage to the prospects for the establishment of a viable and geographically contiguous Palestinian state. More broadly, this would threaten the viability of a negotiated two-state solution, in line with internationally agreed parameters and with Jerusalem as the future capital of two states.’
The occupation state’s settlement plans in wartime conditions do not stop
at the borders of encircling and isolating the city of Jerusalem, but extend to various governorates, especially the Hebron governorate, which is subjected to silent displacement and ethnic cleansing in many of its areas, especially the southern ones, through the expansion of the establishment and care of settlement outposts and terrorist pastoral farms. The occupation army has imposed a comprehensive closure on it, disrupting life there due to checkpoints and closures, besieging the city, setting up military checkpoints and iron gates that closed its entrances, towns and exits. The occupation forces installed an iron gate at the northern entrance to Hebron – Ras al-Joura, and closed the entrances with cement blocks in all directions. They installed an iron gate at the western entrance to the town of Tarqumiya, leading to the Israeli bypass road No. 35, opposite the entrance to the town of Idhna. They closed the entrance to the town of Idhna leading to the same road and the entrances to the towns of Bani Naim
, Sa’ir and Beit Einun east and northeast of Hebron, leading to bypass road No. 60. They set up a military checkpoint at the northern entrance to the city – Halhul Bridge and another at the western entrance to the city – Farsh al-Hawa and the southern entrances – al-Fahs – with earth mounds. They bulldozed the road leading to “Khallet al-Dar” and “Aqabat Najila” and from there to the Yatta countryside. They also closed the iron gate at the entrance to the town of al-Samu in both directions. The occupation forces also tightly closed the southern entrance to Hebron, known as “al-Harayek-Hajjai”, with an iron gate that they had previously installed on the road leading from the Israeli bypass road No. 35.
Under these measures, the occupying state continued its plans to deepen settlement in the governorate by expanding the sponsorship of several settlement outposts, which were established by settlers under the circumstances of the war on the Gaza Strip, in a clear exploitation of the public’s preoccupation with t
he war on the Gaza Strip and the possibility of the situation developing into a wider war pushed by Benjamin Netanyahu. Many of these settlement outposts were established by settlers in the Hebron Governorate, which is considered the largest governorate in the occupied West Bank in terms of area and population, with a population of 845,715 people and an area of ??1,067 square kilometers. This area includes Palestinian urban areas, agricultural lands, open areas, Israeli settlements and outposts, Israeli military bases, Israeli bypass roads, and areas classified by the Israeli occupation authorities by military orders as “nature reserve areas”, “forest areas”, “firing zones”, “closed military areas”, and “settlement influence areas” and names invented by the occupation authorities in order to control the Palestinian lands in the governorate.
In light of these measures, the occupying state continues its plans to deepen settlement in the governorate by expanding the sponsorship of several settlement outposts, w
hich the settlers established under the circumstances of the war on the Gaza Strip, in a clear exploitation of the public’s preoccupation with the war on the Gaza Strip and the possibility of the situation developing into a wider war pushed by Benjamin Netanyahu. The settlers use the settlement outposts as an effective means to control more land in the governorate and transform it into a vital area for settlement expansion and silent ethnic cleansing operations, which are taking place in the governorate. The settler Shimon’s outpost and his group, which was established on the lands of citizens in Shomra from the southern side of the village of Al-Zweidin and from the side of Khirbet Umm Al-Khair “Shuaib gathering” on the northern side, and the lands of Fateh Sidra from the eastern side, began to expand to become tents, barracks and caravans, and deprived the landowners of access to their pastures and increased the attacks on them, due to the rampage adopted by this extremist settler like the rest of the settl
ements and settlement outposts, who tampered with and destroyed the agricultural crops and uprooted the fruitful trees in these areas and released their livestock to destroy what remained of them.
‘The settlement expansion has expanded to the western side of the Shimon outpost and the Karmiel settlement, reaching the eastern areas of Deirat, including the Bani Naim desert. The goal is to connect the Bani Hefer settlement to the Karmiel settlement and seize vast areas of land estimated at thousands of dunams, in addition to a plan to pave a settlement road that connects these settlements to each other, reaching the Nabi Yunis area, after the occupation administration last year put in place a settlement plan to seize citizens’ lands located between the Karmiel settlement and the Shimon outpost in order to connect the outpost to the settlement in a plan to seize lands located in the southern and eastern parts of the community and to expand the ‘Atzhar Man’ outpost and the Karmiel settlement, which are meters aw
ay from Umm al-Khair from the western side, to displace citizens from the area, which also greatly affects the people of Zuwaydin, who have been denied access to their lands. The outpost is expanding towards the village, which is located at the entrance to the village,’ he continued. And the Zuwaydin road. In addition to that, there is a great competition between the settlers who have established settlement outposts on the lands of Masafer Yatta, Ash-Shifa and Al-Badiya to expand them. On the lands of Ein Al-Baida and Al-Tha’ala, there is the “Atzkhaman outpost” which is also expanding greatly. On the lands of Umm Al-Hayman, the settler “Avichai” and his terrorist group established a settlement outpost that is devouring the lands of the citizens. It is known that the occupation has established more than 13 settlement outposts on the lands of Masafer Yatta, with a clear goal: to connect the settlements, seize the lands and displace the citizens. In fact, the residents of several villages have been displaced, d
emolished, surveyed and controlled.
The report indicated that ‘through these outposts, settlements are expanding throughout the length and breadth of the governorate and spreading like cancer, as is the case with ‘Shimon and Asfar’ in Sa’ir and Ash-Shuyukh, ‘Bnei Hefer’ in Bani Na’im, ‘Karmiel, Susya, Metzad Yehuda, and Ma’on’ in Yatta, ‘Otniel, Shanei Levna’ in As-Samu, ‘Shama, Ashtemoa, and Tan’a Amrim’ in Adh Dhahiriya, ‘Ashkilot, Sansana (A) and Sansana (B)’ near Ar-Ramadin, south of Adh Dhahiriya, ‘Nahal Na’ahot, and Givat HaBustan’ in Dura, ‘Karmi Tzur’ between Halhul and Beit Ummar, north of Hebron, and ‘Telem, and Adora’ in Tarqumiya… and other outposts and settlements. As for the Masafer area, it is surrounded by 8 settlements, including ‘Avigail,’ ‘Nof Nesher,’ ‘Mitzpe Yair,’ and ‘Khofat Tsar Man.’ “And “Maon’s Fears”, in addition to training camps for the occupation army. This pushes towards displacing more population centers there and gives the occupation a free hand to build settlement blocs,
such as “Gush Etzion”, “Ariel” and “Ma’ale Adumim”, and linking them with a network of roads and infrastructure with the south of occupied Palestine.
The report said, “On another level, and in a provocative and dangerous move, Israeli media outlets reported that a number of Knesset members from the Likud and Religious Zionism parties, in partnership with settler leaders, formed a “civilian parliamentary working group aimed at canceling the unilateral ‘disengagement’ law from the Gaza Strip of 2005, in an effort to legislate the re-settlement in the Strip, which has been subjected to a devastating Israeli war since October 8. This move comes at the initiative of Knesset members Amit Halevi and Ariel Keller from Likud, Zvi Sukkot from Religious Zionism, and the head of the Northern West Bank Settlements Council, Yossi Dagan; so that they are working to draft a bill to be submitted at the opening of the next Knesset session to join the law approved by the Knesset last March to cancel the plan to separate from f
our settlements in the northern West Bank, as part of that ‘disengagement’ plan.”
The weekly violations documented by the National Office for the Defense of the Land were as follows during the reporting period:
Jerusalem: The occupation forces demolished a house in the Al-Bustan neighborhood in the town of Silwan, owned by citizen Muhammad Abd Odeh, consisting of two rooms with an area of ??80 square meters, and housing his family of 5 children and his wife. It is one of hundreds of houses threatened with demolition in order to establish biblical gardens for settlers. At the same time, the occupation authorities delivered more than 13 demolition notices in various villages and towns in the Jerusalem Governorate, as the occupation delivered demolition notices in the Bab al-Amoud area, the town of Jabal al-Mukaber, Anata, Shuafat camp, the Al-Bustan neighborhood in the town of Silwan, the Wadi al-Joz neighborhood, the town of Kafr Aqab, the town of Hizma, and the Al-Khunideq and Ras al-Nader areas in the town
of Beit Anan, northwest of occupied Jerusalem. The occupation municipality issued a decision to demolish the Wadi Hilweh Center building in the town of Silwan within a year, and imposed a fine on its director, Jawad Siam, in the amount of 20 thousand shekels. The Jerusalem Governorate said in its report issued at the beginning of this month that the number of demolitions and notifications during the past month of July in the Jerusalem Governorate amounted to (76) demolition operations, including (10 forced self-demolition operations and 62 demolition operations carried out by the occupation’s machinery in addition to 4 bulldozing operations.
Hebron: Settlers from the “Beit Ein” settlement burned dozens of old olive trees on citizens’ lands in the town of Surif in the Al-Qurainat area and attacked citizens’ homes. In the village of Al-Jawaya in Masafer Yatta, the occupation forces filled in a well belonging to citizen Najeh Al-Nawaj’a, which has a capacity of 200 cubic meters, noting that the well was dug 24
years ago. Settlers, under the protection of occupation soldiers, attacked citizens’ homes in the village of Al-Tuba in the town of Yatta, south of Hebron, and threw stones at them, which caused bruises to citizens, including a girl. Settlers also tried to steal citizens’ livestock. The occupation forces also removed a number of tents that housed more than 10 families who had taken refuge in them after the occupation demolished their homes early last month and seized them in the village of Birin, east of Hebron.
Bethlehem: The occupation forces demolished a house in the Bir Ona area in the city of Beit Jala, consisting of a floor and an area of ??150 square meters, for the second time, and prevented the family from removing some of the belongings from the house and forced the owner of the house to sign a pledge to pay 100 thousand shekels in exchange for the demolition. Settlers attacked citizens’ vehicles southeast of Bethlehem, near the entrance to the village of Marah Rabah to the south, and on the main r
oad leading to the town of Tuqu.
Ramallah: A citizen was injured by settlers’ bullets during their attack on the village of Al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah. Meanwhile, another group of settlers gathered in the “Jabal Umm Diab” area in the village of Kharbatha Bani Harith, west of Ramallah. Settlers also stormed the “Jabal al-Ras” area east of the village of Safa, while the occupation forces stormed the village while firing sound bombs and tear gas at the citizens and their homes, and at the village mosque, which led to dozens of citizens suffering from suffocation. The occupation forces forced farmers from the village of Al-Mughayyir to leave their lands in the eastern plain area while they were plowing and preparing them for the next season. The young woman, Tasneem Faraj, was injured in the head after being attacked with stones by settlers while passing near the “Beit El” settlement, on the road between the city of Al-Bireh and the Jalazone camp. She was transferred to the hospital for treatment.
Nabl
us: Settlers stormed the outskirts of Jabal Sabih in the town of Beita, south of Nablus, and set fire to olive trees. Others from the Yitzhar settlement set fire to the lands of Burin village, and the fires destroyed large areas of agricultural land after the occupation forces closed the iron gate erected at the entrance to the village. In the city of Nablus, the occupation forces caused two large fires in the central vegetable market and a vehicle garage after they stormed the eastern area of ??the city to secure the settlers’ storming of Joseph’s Tomb, which led to the outbreak of confrontations during which the occupation forces fired bullets and tear gas bombs heavily, which led to the outbreak of the fire. Dozens of settlers also attacked citizens’ vehicles with stones near the ‘Al-Taneeb’ junction, west of the village of Deir Sharaf, which led to damage to a number of them. In the village of Furush Beit Dajan, the occupation forces demolished the village council building under construction, which consis
ts of two floors and has an area of ??300 square meters, and was built with funding from the European Union.
Jenin: The occupation forces demolished two houses in the village of Al-Jalama, the first belonging to Jamal Abu Farha, with an area of ??170 square meters, and the second belonging to Hashem Mahmoud Abu Farha, with an area of ??220 square meters, on the pretext of building without a permit. In the village of Jalboun, the occupation authorities forced the citizen Arafat Tawfiq Abu Al-Rab to demolish the wall of his house, which was 25 meters long and one meter high, and prevented his brother Mahmoud from completing the construction of the wall of his house, even though the two houses were built several years ago. In the same village, the occupation forces seized the second floor of the house of the citizen Rafiq Abu Al-Rab and turned it into a military post.
Tulkarm: The occupation bulldozers proceeded to level large areas of agricultural land at the entrance to the town of Ramin, east of Tulkarm, re
aching the Ramin plain. The land belongs to dozens of families from the town, while a group of settlers stormed the place accompanied by the occupation forces and set fire to the agricultural land, which led to the fire spreading to the rest of the surrounding lands.
Jordan Valley: The occupation forces stormed the Arab al-Malihat community in al-Ma’rajat, northwest of Jericho, and searched the homes and vehicles of a number of citizens in the area. In the village of Humsa in the northern Jordan Valley, settlers raided the homes of citizens Yasser Mahmoud Abu al-Kabbash and Sand Yasser Abu al-Kabbash, and stole two solar energy systems, two refrigerators, and the contents of the homes.
Source: Maan News Agency