Yairs interim government steps up settlement construction to win upcoming elections

By: Madeeha Al-A’raj

The National Bureau for defending land and resisting settlements ( nbprs ) stated in its latest weekly report , that current Lapid s government is racing time in such way that attracts attention of all observers on approving new settlement plans after it guaranteed the US administration would use merely verbal opposition to Israel s settlement activities. Lapid’s government has added new plans to the settlement that we tackled in the previous weekly report in more than one governorate in the West Bank. The Israeli Planning and Building Committee approved a plan to build 1,400 new settlement units in occupied Jerusalem that had been postponed by Lapid s transitional government until after US President Joe Biden s visit to Israel and the region last month.

At the same time, the occupation authorities approved a new settlement plan in Jenin Governorate to establish a new settlement neighborhood for the “Tel Menashe” settlement on Palestinian lands that belong to Ya’bad and Anin towns in Jenin. The new settlement plan calls for the seizure of 87 dunums to build 107 new settlement units in the new neighborhood in Basin n. 2 of Ya bad lands and Basin n. 6 of the lands of Anin village in the area known as Khallet Salah.
The new settlement plan also stipulated changing the classification of the targeted Palestinian lands from an open public area and agricultural land to a first- and second-class residential area according to the Israeli classification, in addition to open areas and internal roads that connect them with the surrounding settlements in the area. The new settlement plan is geographically linked to a previous settlement plan that was approved by the Israeli occupation authorities in Feb. 2019 to build settlement units in the mentioned settlement -79 settlement units - on an area of 91 dunums of Palestinian land that belongs to Yabad town.

The claws of settlement also touched the Ramallah Governorate in an area targeted by the occupation authorities and the settlers flocks. The occupation authorities published an announcement on the second of this month, issued by the so-called “responsible for government property and absentee property in the West Bank,” Yossi Segal, granting the authority to plan lands belonging to the town of Kafr Malik, east of Ramallah. As for the area of lands targeted is 90 dunums, in Basin n. 27, plot n. 21, and Basin n. 21, plot n. 41, which the occupation authorities considered ‘government property.’ The lands targeted by the Israeli declaration are adjacent to an Israeli quarry in the area, which belongs to the settlement of “Kochav Hashahar” located to the south of it, which was approved in 1994 under the name “Kochav Hashahar Quarry, p./313 .

This quarry has been expanding in the neighboring Palestinian lands since It began to be implemented, as the occupation authorities seized in 2002 an additional 421 dunums of land on the southern side of the quarry through settlement plan n. 1/23/52, and later in 2012 issued another expansion plan bearing n. 2/23/52. It stipulates the appropriation and exploitation of an additional 532 dunums of the adjacent Palestinian lands from the northern side of the quarry to be part of it.It is noteworthy that the area that was approved to be within the quarry scheme is 2,186 dunums, which portends further seizure of Palestinian lands in the future.

In Jerusalem, the -union- of Temple Organizations is also leading a major campaign aimed at changing the status quo in the Al-Aqsa Mosque during the so-called “9 days of mourning,” which coincide with the anniversary of the “destruction of the Temple” corresponding to the 7th of August. The campaign comes under the title ‘Stop crying and start building), it aims to gather the largest possible number of extremist settlers to storm Al-Aqsa Mosque in memory of the “destruction of the temple” tomorrow, Sunday. The Rabbi Abraham Kook House organization, which is concerned with reviving the ‘legacy of the founder of religious Zionism’, and the ‘Heart of the City’ organization, which is concerned with developing the Jewish center west of occupied Jerusalem, are also preparing to hold a conference to discuss the "revival of the Third Temple" and its location, in cooperation with the Institute.
According to extremist organizations, the conference will be held under the auspices of the occupation municipality, in which the founder of the Temple Institute, Rabbi Israel Ariel, will speak about “The Temple in the Religious Legacy of Abraham Cook.” The head of the “Temple Mount” religious circle, Rabbi Elisha Wolfson, will give an introductory presentation to Al-Aqsa Mosque, attempting to locate the alleged vanished features of the Temple.
Within the context, 16 members of Knesset, at the initiative of MKs Simcha Rotman and Mai Golan, signed a request for an urgent discussion of the demands made by the “Temple Mount in Our Hands” organization to the occupation government regarding the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque on the anniversary of the “destruction of the Temple.”
Thousands of Jews will come since the morning at the entrance to the Moroccan Gate in preparation for the storming, demanding that all of them be able to storm so that each intrusive regiment is not less than 200 settlers.”

The front of opposition to the Israeli ethnic cleansing policy is expanding, including those practiced by the occupation authorities in areas south of Hebron, especically in Masafer Yatta. The United Nations reporters called on Israel to stop harassing aid workers and human rights defenders in an area of the occupied West Bank, where the Israeli army is conducting military exercises.
A statement issued by them states that the arrogance of the Israeli authorities knows no bounds. They harass human rights defenders and aid workers who seek to support and protect those facing massive human rights violations in Masafer Yatta. The tragic repercussions of this policy leave nearly 1,200 Palestinians of Masafer Yatta residents, whose fate is unprotected in the face of the threat of forced eviction and arbitrary displacement. Last May, the Supreme Court of Israel upheld the army’s position, stating that “the Masafer Yatta area, which includes 12 Palestinian villages at the southern edge of the West Bank, has been a training area since the year 1980, and this decision paves the way for the possible expulsion of its residents and the construction of new settlements."

List of Israeli Assaults over the Last Week Documented by the National Bureau:
Jerusalem:
• Demolishing a wooden roof and a house of the al-Kharouf family, located in the Wadi al-Joz neighborhood under the pretext of not having a license.
• Forcing a citizen to demolish his house in the Ain Al-Lawzeh neighborhood in the town of Silwan.
• Demolishing a 115-square-meter house in Silwan in the Abu Tayeh neighborhood under the same pretext.
• razing land and seizing water tanks, and a residential room and agricultural facilities, confiscating agricultural equipment in the town of Al-Za im, east of Jerusalem.
• Bulldozing lands in the Sur Baher town, southeast of occupied Jerusalem, in the Wadi al-Hummus area, to be used as a car park, and a fence surrounding it was also demolished.
Ramallah:
• Danger of demolishing a children s park in the village of Safa, southwest of Ramallah, under the pretext of building without a permit.
• Demolishing a tent in the village of Qalandia, northwest of occupied Jerusalem under the same pretext.
Hebron:
• Attacking civilians and damaged tires of their vehicles in the village of Al-Tawana, east of Yatta, south of Hebron.
• Dangers of demolishing a house in the village of Al-Tawana in Masafer Yatta, and removing the electricity network intended to supply the residents of several new neighborhoods in the village and another in the village of Shaab Al-Butm.
Bethlehem:
• Uprooting a number of olive trees, destroying a water well in the town of Tekoa, east of Bethlehem, and erecting tents in the same area in preparation for confiscating the land.
Nablus:
• Seizing a concrete pump and a truck from Deir Sharaf, west of Nablus, under the pretext that it was operating in Area C.
• Demolishing 2 commercial establishments in the village of Bazariya, north of Nablus, and an inhabited house in the town of Sebastia, in which 8 people live.
• Handing over seizure notices and suspension of work in the town of Qasra. The number of seizure notices reached about 170 dunums in the eastern region of the town.
Jordan Valley:
• Seizing a tractor, a trailer, and a forklift in the Al-Ras Al-Ahmar area, southeast of Tubas.
• Notificatios to stop work in an agricultural water pond in the northern Jordan Valley, with a capacity of 500 cups, in the lands of the Qa oon plain.
• Cutting down olive trees in the Al-Maarraj area, west of Jericho, and releasing their cows into the ground to destroy them.
• Building cements and iron structures near Ain al-Sakot and preventing citizens from entering it.

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