Israel transforms “ nature reserves “ into a vital area for settlement activities

By: Madeeha Al-A’raj

The National Bureau for defending land and resisting settlements ( nbprs ) stated in its latest weekly report , that the so-called the ‘Civil Administration - CA’ affiliated to the Israeli occupation army has signed an order on Aril 12, 2022 declaring of about 22,000 donams in the area of Wadi-Mukalak i.e. Nabi Mousa, south of Jericho as a ‘nature reserve’. This reserve, with its vast area, is the largest one since 25 years, which was named by the occupation ‘Nahal Og Nature Reserve’ which was registered as State lands in 1989.
Worth mentioning that Wadi Muklak is the largest nature reserve in the West Bank located east of Jerusalem, and extends to the Dead Sea. A group of Bedouin families from Ara’rah and Sarai’h were displaced from there to be replaced by settlers. The intention of the occupation government is to establish the Greater Jerusalem Project in the Israeli concept through settlement expansion, and linking settlements built on the Palestinian lands.
Knowing that the CA has many times announced to expand the settlement area through the nature reserves, and in many occasion, it has robed Palestinian lands for the benefit of settlers and settlements. 2 years ago, Naftali Bennett, the current Israeli PM announced the establishment of 7 nature reserves in the West Bank, to seize Palestinian lands under an ‘environmental clams’. At the time, he told the press that he would strengthen the land of Israel, through the development of Jewish settlements in Area C in words and deeds.
Bennett s decisions at the time included Alkalak Valley, the Dead Sea, Wadi al-Malha in the Jordan Valley, the southern Jordan River, and Wadi-Fara a to the east of the city of Nablus and the western slopes of the Palestine Mountains in the Beit Surik area. As is well known, in the Palestinian territories occupied in the June 1967 aggression, there are 51 targeted natural reserves that constitute 9% of the area of the West Bank, most of which are located in areas C i.e. under Israeli control, distributed by 5 reserves in Hebron, 4 reserves in Tubas, 3 reserves in Nablus, and 13 reserves in Ramallah, 9 reserves in Jericho, 3 reserves in Bethlehem, 2 reserves in Jerusalem, and 1 in the Gaza Strip, from which Israel handed over 19 reserves to the Palestinians only on paper, no maps, no details, but their names in area B, and that are under Palestinian civil control, but under Israeli security control. The Israeli declaration on some lands in the West Bank as nature reserves doesn’t aim to preserve them, but to seize the Palestinian lands after turning them into one of the tools used by Israel to expropriate land from the Palestinians.
As for the continuation of settlement projects in occupied Jerusalem, head of the so-called occupied Jerusalem municipality announced the start of work on the cable car project “air train” leading to the Al-Buraq Wall the area. The Israeli High Court had rejected 4 petitions submitted against a construction plan planned on the cable car, which connects the Mount of Olives -Mount Al-Tur - to Al-Buraq Square, and aims to connect east and west Jerusalem. It is reported that the Israeli government approved the scheme in 2020, the occupation municipality in Jerusalem published a tender to choose a contractor for the project, but many petitions against the project were submitted to the Court, but rejected.
In this regard, a settler called ‘Roni’ revealed during investigation program Uvda that serious and sensitive details about the activities of the pay the price gangs and the hilltop youth that it carried out with the hilltop youth hundreds of attacks on the Palestinians during the past years. She decided to abandon them after coming up with ideas that she described as very dangerous. Regarding the plans of the most dangerous settler groups towards Al-Aqsa, these groups have extremist ideas towards Al-Aqsa, including armed groups storming the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque and taking control of the place by force of arms.

List of Israeli Assaults over the Last Week Documented by the National Bureau:
Jerusalem:
• Demolishing 2 houses in the Beit Safafa town under the pretext of building without a permit.
• Citizen Saleh Diab was stabbed during their gathering in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, and the young man, Muhammad Ashti, was wounded in the Sheikh after a settler shot him,
• Damagig a number of Palestinian vehicles’ tires at Jaba’ checkpoint, north of occupied Jerusalem, where the Israeli occupation soldiers placed nails in the street near the checkpoint.
• Allowing ‘flags march’" in Old Jerusalem to commemorate the completion of the occupation of Jerusalem.
Hebron:
• Delaying traffic north of Hebron, attacked Palestinian vehicles after cursing them, and chanted slogans calling for the deportation of Palestinians and revenge against them.
• Demolishing 2 agricultural rooms in the villages of Al-Tawana and Al-Jawaya in the town of Yatta, south of Hebron, and the installation of watchtowers at the entrances to Khirbet Qalqas, south of Hebron.
• Removing a residential tent in Khirbet al-Marada in the al-Jawaya gathering in Masafer Yatta, and stole its contents.
• Excavations works 100 meters away in the western outer courtyards of the Ibrahimi Mosque, to install the elevator.
Nablus:
• Bulldozing lands in the Qusra and Doma towns, south of Nablus, with the aim of expanding the Yesh Kodash settlement outpost.
• Attacking Palestinian civilians with bullets in the Hawara town, destroyed vehicles and shops in the town.
• Injuring more than 41 young men during the confrontations in the vicinity of Joseph s Tomb, east of Nablus, 4 of them were injured by rubber.
• Burning a vehicle near the Za tara checkpoint, while settlers attacked the town of Urif and smashed the windows of the Rabat Mosque.
Qalqilia:
• Demolishing the Al-Samoud Mosque in the Arab Al-Ramadin residential community in the Qalqilya region, located behind the apartheid wall under the pretext of not having a license

Tulkarm:
• Shooting at farmers in the Shufa village, southeast of Tulkarm, while working on their lands adjacent to the settlement built on the lands of the villages: Shufa, Kafa, and Kafr al-Labad. Military closed.

Jordan Valley:
• Seizing vegetables and fruits stands near the Bardala and Kardala villages.
• Dismantling a residential tent in Khirbet al-Mitah on the pretext of building without a permit. Plowing lands in Khirbet Al-Farisiya in preparation for the establishment of a religious school and facilities in the area.
• Demolishing 2 houses under construction in the village of Al-Dyouk Al-Tahta in the Jericho Governorate belonging to Jerusalemites, each with an area of about 140m2 under the pretext of not having a permit

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