Settlements occupies Jerusalem inside , besieges it with belts from the outside

By: Madeeha Al-A’raj


The National Bureau for Defending the Land and Resisting Settlements stated in its latest weekly report that , Israeli Minister of National Security, Ben Gvir, settlement organizations, including ‘Elad Association,’ the Moshe Lion’ municipality consider changing the status quo in Jerusalem, especially the Sheikh Jarrah and its surroundings in order to change features of the city, expecting that the District Planning Committee at the Israeli Ministry of Interior to discuss on 24th this month the so-called ‘New Talpiot Plan’ parallel with the approval of the Moshe Lion’s Municipality many building permits in the ‘GivatHamatos settlement’ and the construction of 3,500 settlement units as well as 1,300 hotel rooms on the eastern slopes of the settlement to the south of the city of Jerusalem.
This coincides with progress in discussing a number of other settlement plans to establish new settlements´-or-expand existing ones in and around East Jerusalem, such as Kidmat Zion, NofZahav, PisgatZe ev and RamotAlon ‘A’ and ‘B’ and, and Om Leeson. The new ‘Talpiot Plan’ comes within the 5-year plan that approved by the occupation government to strengthen settlements in East Jerusalem and change its demography in favor of the settlers.
It extends over 140 dunums in the southern region of Jerusalem to the southeastern region near the BeitSafafa, Um Tuba and Sur Baher towns i.e. the area separating Jerusalem from Bethlehem. The plan would cut off all geographical contiguity between the city of East Jerusalem and the Bethlehem city. Thus, the Netanyahu-Smotrich-Ben Gvir’s government has put on its agenda the launch of a wave of settlement construction in the vicinity of the city of Jerusalem, ignoring the international opposition the plans that calls for shedding light once again on the dangers facing East Jerusalem.
Regarding the plans, we point out here that heads of the EU’s Missions, Ambassadors and Consuls of European countries organized mid-Nov. 2020, a protest visit to the ‘GivatHamatos settlement’ rejecting the decision to expand it at the time by 1257 new settlement unit, asserted that the expansion of the aforementioned settlement and the construction of a new neighborhood in it would cut off the geographical contiguity between Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

In Jerusalem, the plans of the occupying power are based on expanding outposts inside the city and building settlement neighborhoods on its outskirts to isolate it from its surroundings, as was the case with the Sheikh Jarrah Neighborhood, the settlements in Wadi al-Joz, and in Ras al-Amud that were funded by the American Jewish billionaire ‘OrwenMoskowitz’ and the settlement in Silwan and in Jabal Al-Baker ‘a view of gold’ and other neighborhoods, besides the recent approval of the occupation municipality on the subway project and on the restoration and rehabilitation of bridges on the French Hill to link it to the settlements of ‘PisgatZe ev’ and ‘NabiYa akov’ on the lands of the villages of Shuafat and Isawiya to facilitate the movement of cars in a way that greatly reduces traffic jam at the intersections of the hill in conjunction with the metro project that is currently being implemented.

In Jerusalem Governorate, the occupying State keeps its plans to besiege the city with settlement belts that extend over large areas of the Palestinian lands in the north as well as in the east and south, in the north, it hasn’t developed its project for settlement construction in the area of Jerusalem International Airport. The plan is still there, but requires appropriate conditions, and the case is the same in the East. Netanyahu issued in Feb. 2020 orders to build 3,500 settlement housing units in the E1 area, east of occupied Jerusalem, as Israeli sources quoted him as saying that he had instructed that for immediate implementation.
The initiation of implementation was halted due to international pressure, but it was not removed from the State s agenda. Here, the occupying state seeks to control the eastern hills of the Jerusalem Governorate to separate the geographical contiguity between the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem on the one hand, and to divide the West Bank into two parts with a settlement belt extending from east Jerusalem to the Jordan Valley, including the so-called ‘E1’ project.
In the south, work is also underway to expand the settlements of Gilo, GivatHamatos, Jabal Abu Ghneim, and Deir Mar Elias as an extension of the settlement of Tel Piot, and as part of the master plan to create two settlement blocs in the north and south that prevent East Jerusalem from being linked to the West Bank as the capital of the Palestine.

At the same time, the Occupation Authorities and municipality in Jerusalem announced last Sunday the opening of the suspended Air_bridge in the Wadi Al-Rababa Neighborhood in the Silwan town sponsored by the ‘AteretCohanim’ Association and the Israeli Antiquities Authority. It is one of the largest settlement projects, south of Al-Aqsa Mosque, to facilitate movement of settlers and changing the features of the occupied city, the bridge extends more than 200m long, 35m high, and 4.5m wide.
Thus, the Occupation Authorities seek to impose a judaizing reality that penetrates the space of Silwan, Jerusalem, starting with the Al-Thawri Neighborhood, passing through the Wadi Al-Rababa, and ending with the NabiDawood area, in addition to other works in the lands of the neighborhood to -convert- them into ‘biblical paths and gardens,’ and building fake graves in other parts of the neighborhood. The Occupation Government has allocated about NIS 20 million to implement the project with the participation of the occupation municipality in Jerusalem, the Ministry of Jerusalem and Jewish Heritage, the ‘Moriacompany’, and the ‘Elad Settlement Association’.
They continue the policy of tightening control over the Sheikh JarrahNeighborhood in the city. The occupation authorities have begun to -convert- the so called ‘memorial’ in the heart of this neighborhood into a new settlement project jointly by the Jerusalem Municipality and the Paratroopers and Veterans Association, funded by the Jewish National Fund under the term developing the. Palestinian neighborhoods north of the Old City, ‘northern road’
The northern road includes various sites from Bab-Amoud in the north to the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, and passes through many historical and religious sites, as the occupation municipality plans to seize the remaining 15 dunums of land. The site is located on a small hill in the middle of the western neighborhood and Karm Al-Jaouni, in which scores of Palestinian families face the threat of eviction from their homes in favor of Israeli settlers.
It should also be noted that the Jerusalem Municipality has recently announced its intention to carry out development work around the tomb ofSiddiq Shimon, also located in Sheikh Jarrah. It is a place of Jewish prayer that attracts many extremist Jews. Whenmajor religious events are held in the tomb, the neighborhood is invaded by crowds of religious Jews, while the Israeli police closes large parts of the area to traffic, which severely violates the rights of Palestinians and their freedom of movement and disrupts their businesses.

The Occupation Authorities don’t exclude from their destructive settlement plans the rest of the governorates and regions of the occupied West Bank in various forms, as the Council of Settlements ‘Yesha’, as an executive arm of the Civil Administration plays a pivotal role in looting Palestinian lands and turning them into a vital field for settlement plans and projects, which sometimes take the form of industrial zones, that serve the colonial investors.
Moreover, theytalk about building a new industrial zone prepared by the Northern Settlement Council, headed by Yossi Daan, an ally of Smotrich and Ben Gvir, on an area of 2,700 dunams in the northern West Bank. The new industrial zone is supposed to include polluting factories near residential areas, not only in West Bank, but also near the KafrQassemtown inside the Green Line. The plan is supported by the ‘Kana settlement council’ and the ‘Ornet settlement council’ in the QalqiliaGovernorate, would cause severe damage to the environment in a wide area on both sides of the Green Line.

It is worth mentioning here that the occupation authorities have established 3 main industrial zones, the first of which is ‘Atarot’ in eastern Jerusalem, which is the most polluting of the environment, the second is ‘Borkan’ on the lands of Salfeet Governorate, and the third is ‘MishorAdumim’ in the Jerusalem desert. In addition to that, the occupation authorities established about 25 settlement industrial zones in different parts of the West Bank, which includes more than 300 facilities, 29 of which are for the production of toxic chemicals, the most dangerous of which are the ‘Jeshuri factories’ that spread their toxins on citizens and their crops in the Tulkarm and its surroundings.
In FrushBeitDajan, Nablus, the gateway to the Central Jordan Valley, the Occupation Authorities handed over many demolition notices in the village, which is exposed to a severe campaign since the formation of the Netanyahu-Smotrich-Ben Gvir’s government, it has been subjected to a frenzied campaign that includes preventing construction´-or-planning to establish projects, including infrastructure projects, where agricultural tractors and drilling equipment ‘baggers’ are confiscated, and water tanks for agricultural use are destroyed, which provides the population with drinking water and domestic uses.
Last week, the residents of the village were surprised by the size of this frenzied campaign, as the occupation began a series of demolition that included 13 homes and establishments, although some of the targeted homes and establishments have been existed for years and have not undergone any changes, but some of them existed before the occupation, and there are houses owners, who hold building permits.
Such measures come in light of a settlement attack that included the establishment of a number of settlement outposts, which the Civil Administration plans to connect with central Israel, starting with the outposts in the area, passing through the existing outposts on the lands of BeitDajan and BeitFurik, and in the Itamar settlement, all the way to the Avitaroutpost, the Za’taraJunction, and Samaria Highway, where the bulldozers of the occupation work day and night to complete the bypass road.
The occupation authorities have completed the necessary infrastructure to isolate the village and the region and empty it of its inhabitants within the framework of the policy of ethnic cleansing practiced by them in the Palestinian Jordan Valley.

On the other hand, the Israeli Supreme Courtcovers up the occupation authorities’ violations of International Law and resolutions of International Legitimacy.This is obvious from its rejection last week of a petition calling for the evacuation of an institute for teaching the Torah in the ‘Homeshoutpost in the northern West Bank, in a decision consistent with the position of the Israeli government following the transfer of the religious institute in that outpost to a new location close to the first site in violation even to the occupation law. In its decision, the court relied on allegations made by the government that it would work to legitimize and settle the legal status of that institute in ‘Homesh’ following its transfer without permission from private Palestinian land to what the occupation authorities claim is ‘State land’ belonging to the so-called ‘Shomron Settlement Council’.
Returning again to the policy of thirsting the Palestinians, the occupation authorities continue water war against the Palestinian people to deprive them of their most basic rights to water sources after reducing 2 weeks ago the quantities of water for the governorates of Hebron and Bethlehem by about 6,000 cups per day, the Civil Administration last week closed 3 concrete water wells in Hebron near Al-FawarRefugee Camp in a racist measure that amounts to a crime.
In these 3 wells, groundwater is gathered in the outskirts of the desert, south of Hebron Hills. TheCivil Administration claims these wells are forbidden, illegal, and poses a threat to water security. As for the goal of that work, it is to deprive farmers in the region of benefiting from the water of those wells to irrigate their crops and to restrict them and force them to bear the costs of bringing water in tanks from far away, if their conditions help them to do so,´-or-to leave their fields to their fate in drought, while it floods water on settlers in the areas of southern Hebron and its pastoral farms without account.
The settlers complete the role played by the Civil Administration with heinous crimes by throwing dead animal into water wells to turn it into polluted water that farmers cannot use either as drinking water´-or-as water to irrigate crops.
This leads us to point out the environmental damage caused by the wastewater that generally flows from the settlements through the valleys, as the occupation settlements dispose of the sewage water without subjecting it to any kind of treatment in most cases. According to data, there are at least 50 settlements that empty approximately 35 million cubic meters of sewage, equivalent to 14,000 lympic Pools, with all the consequent catastrophic health effects on the local population as well as crops and agricultural lands.
List of Israeli Assaults over the Last Week Documented by the National Bureau:
Jerusalem:
• Revealing steps to establish the alleged ‘Third Temple’ in the place of the Dome of the Rock in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, where the -dir-ector General of the Israeli Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs supervised the bringing in of 4 ‘red’ calves weeks ago from the United States in preparation for its burning on the Mount of Olives opposite Al-Aqsa Mosque, marking the start of the rituals of establishing it by breaking the barrier that prevents thousands of Jews from storming Al-Aqsa Mosque, and it was revealed that the occupation government was involved in financing the project to import and raise calves, and allocated a budget in the millions to achieve this goal, while settlers in the ‘Shilo settlement’ north of Ramallah held a recent festival simulating the construction of the alleged ‘Temple’ on the ruins of the Dome of the Rock Mosque.
• Attacking Palestinian vehicles near the Ma aleAdumim settlement, and they chanted racist slogans, including ‘Death to the Arabs ..let your homes and villages be burned’.
Hebron:
• Demolishing Ahmed Muhammad Abu Qubeita’s house in the Wadi al-Amayer area, adjacent to the ‘Susiya’" settlement’ in MasaferYatta, south of Hebron.
• Halting construction works on a house under construction in the Khashm al-Daraj area in the MasaferYatta, and forced the workers, mixers and cement pump to leave the place. Knowing that the house is located within the structural plan of the village.
• Leveling two dunums in the ‘Khilat Abu Sakour’ area near the occupation camp established on the lands of the town of Tarqumiya, uprooted 40 olive and grapevine trees and agricultural lands, and demolished stone chains in Khirbet Soba, west of Hebron, an area approximately 3 dunums, at a time when settlers set up tents on the citizens’ lands, under the protection of the occupation forces, in the “Khirbet-Qat” area, adjacent to the ‘KarmiTzur’ settlement established on the lands of the town of Halhul, after they attacked the landowners.
Nablus:
• Settlers started razing between the towns of Aqraba and MajdalBaniFadel, south of Nablus, in the Al-Zawiya area, and planted trees on these lands in an attempt to seize them.
• Setting fire to lands in the village of Burin, which led to the burning of dozens of trees!
• Handing over 13 demolition notices to the citizens of FurushBeitDajan, of which 8 inhabited houses, one of which was established before 1967, and 2 agricultural ponds, most of which are located in the Madaris St. in the village.
• Halting work to construct an agricultural road about 3.5 km long near the western entrance to the town of Aqraba, in addition to halting work at car wash facilities in the area.
• Attacking a house south of Burin with stones, damaging its windows and a vehicle parked in front of it. They destroyed a piece of land in the vicinity of the house, and stole a fence surrounding it.
Salfeet:
• Handing over 5 notices to stop work and construction of rooms and agricultural roads, and to vacate tens of dunams of citizens’ lands northwest of the DeirBallouttown in the ‘DahrRijal’ area under the pretext that it is area C, knowing that most of it is planted with olive trees, almonds, and figs.
• Torching tents on the citizens lands in the village of Yasuf in the ‘Wa’rat al-Ghoul’ area, located to the northeast of the town, and other tents among olive trees.
• Demolishing a 200im2 commercial establishment in the town of DeirBallut, noting that it is licensed since 1977. The establishment they demolished was added under the pretext that it was not licensed and built in an area C. They also destroyed the water and electricity lines and leveled the land it.
Jordan Valley:
• Attacking the Arab al-Malihat area, west of Jericho.,tried to steal a number of the citizens livestock, forced them to graze their livestock around their homes only, knowing that the area is more than 20,000dunums, and citizens are prohibited from grazing their sheep there.
• Establishing a new settlement outpost near Al-TaybehCrossroad, northwest of Jericho and the Jordan Valley, brought a caravan was to the Al-Ma’rajat Road, a mobile water tank, and equipment with the aim of seizing the lands of citizens in the area.
• Expanding the existing settlement outpost near EinShibli in the central Palestinian Jordan Valley, northeast of Nablus, placed more caravans. Fencing areas of pastoral lands between the settlements of ‘Maskiot’ and ‘Rotem’ near Ein Al-Hilweh in the northern Jordan Valley to seize more pastoral lands.

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