Washington and Tel Aviv are close to agreeing definitively on the map of the west bank areas to be annexed to Israel, amid the world´s concern for confronting the Corona epidemic, according to the weekly report of the Plo´s National Office for Land Defense and Settlement Resistance.
According to the report, the Israeli government is preparing through dialogue with the U.S. administration and the international community to annex and impose its "sovereignty" over the Jordan Valley and the Northern Dead Sea on July 10.
The report said that The Likud party led by Benjamin Netanyahu and the "Blue White" party led by Benny Gantz agreed to impose Israeli sovereignty over these territories next summer, which would remove obstacles to the formation of a new Israeli government.
He added: "The Israeli human rights association "Ayr Ameem" said that the Israeli government, with the support of U.S. President Donald Trump is taking advantage of the shadow of the Corona pandemic and is preparing for the annexation amid local and international indifference to this political issue because of the concern of the pandemic.
During a telephone conversation with The West Bank Settlements Council Chairman David al-Hayani, Netanyahu pledged to establish Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley in the West Bank and northern Dead Sea, and then annex the area within the next few months.
U.S.-U.S. Agreement Imminent
According to Israeli Prime Minister Ronin Peretz, Tel Aviv and Washington are to agree definitively on the map of the West Bank to be annexed to Israel, where the U.S.-Israeli team led by U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and Israeli Tourism Minister Yrev Levin continue to work these days to complete the agreement.
In an interview with the right-wing newspaper Mecour Rishon, Peretz explained that the two groups are currently discussing some of the observations and amendments that Israel believes should be included in the original map of the U.S. plan known as the "Deal of the Century,"which includes areas that Israel may annex.
Peretz noted that there are minor adjustments to the fate of some of the streets used by settlers inside the West Bank, noting that Israel insists on annexing the "bypass street" used by settlers living in settlements south of Nablus, known as the "Hawara", he said. He said that the Israeli team presents its observations on the U.S. map after consulting with the heads of Jewish settlement councils in the West Bank, stressing that Netanyahu´s cabinet works closely and permanently with the settlement councils even nowadays.
Israel continues to implement its plans in strategic areas
The report added that Israel continues to implement its plans to build in strategic areas within the West Bank, particularly the "E1" project, which links Jerusalem with the settlement of "Ma´ale Adumim", and its completion will separate the south of the West Bank from the north, while Israel has caused a major expansion of the settlement project in the West Bank over the past two and a half years, during which time the construction of 15,000 housing units has been initiated, in addition to the decision to build another 10,000 units, many of which have been legitimized.
The report added: The Israeli government plans to seize large areas of Palestinian land north of Jerusalem, and is working to expand existing Israeli settlements in the area and impose new facts that are difficult to change in the future, as it put forward at the beginning of March a future construction plan aimed at expanding the settlement of "Kochaf Yaacoub" north of Jerusalem and outside The municipality of the so-called "Greater Jerusalem" borders on large tracts of land and the construction of some 3,541 new settlement units on the land surrounding the settlement, which belongs to the towns and villages of Kafr Aqab, Cyrenaica and Makhmas, in a move that would undermine the geographical connectivity of these Palestinian communities.
According to the report, according to Israeli maps, the area allocated for the new settlement construction exceeds 1,591 dunums in the 3and 5 basins of Kafr Ath, west of the settlement, and Basin No. 10 in the village of Cyrenaica, north of the settlement, and basins 17 and 14 of the land of the village of Makhmas, east of the settlement, with the aim of developing the settlement to accommodate its expansionary urban plans until 2040. The plan includes the establishment of a road and transport system within the settlement.
Escalating violations and attacks
The report, which covered the period of 4/4/2020-10/4/2020, noted that several areas in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, witnessed frequent confrontations with israeli forces and settlers as citizens confronted attempts to confiscate their land to expand the settlement project, while the occupying forces continued to storm Palestinian cities and attack citizens amid complete disregard for the dangers of spreading the corona virus.
International, Palestinian and Israeli human rights organizations have warned of the escalation and escalation of attacks by settlers against Palestinians, their property and their land.
The Israeli human rights organization Bethelm documents the israeli occupation army´s attacks and settlers on Palestinian citizens and their property, and their frequency and seriousness in voice and image, through a platform launched earlier this year, and asserts that while the world is busy confronting the Corona epidemic, the Israeli army is finding time and resources to crack down on the population of the most needy Palestinian communities, which Israel has been seeking for decades to expel from its places of residence, in flagrant violation of the standards of humanitarian assistance.
The Israeli human rights organization Bethelm documents the israeli occupation army´s attacks and settlers on Palestinian citizens and their property, and their frequency and seriousness in voice and image, through a platform launched earlier this year, and asserts that while the world is busy confronting the Corona epidemic, the Israeli army is finding time and resources to crack down on the population of the most needy Palestinian communities, which Israel has been seeking for decades to expel from its places of residence, in flagrant violation of the standards of humanitarian assistance.
In a report entitled "Settler violence in the service of state interests", B´Tselem stated that shooting, physical attacks, throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at cars and houses, storming villages, burning buildings and fields, destroying crops and property from daily forms of settler violence against Palestinians, and that settler and sometimes non-Israeli violence against Palestinians has long been an integral part of the occupation routine in the West Bank.
In terms of settlement activities and violations on the ground by the occupying forces and settlers, the West Bank governorates have witnessed a series of such activities and violations. In Hebron governorate, the occupying forces bulldozed large tracts of land from the town of Al-Dhaheriya, south of Hebron, near the Settlement of Shamaa, and settlers drowned several dunums of 20 dunums planted with grapes in the Wadi Shakheit area with wastewater in the town of Beit Amr, north of Hebron, in order to destroy the annual crop and harm farmers to keep them away from their land.
The israeli occupation forces imposed a curfew on citizens in some Palestinian villages and communities in the Al-Mutafar area near 60 settlement street, and a group of masked settlers attacked a youth center against settlements, taking advantage of the commitment of the assembly activists to quarantine, and clashes broke out in the areas of "People of Figa", and "councils", between citizens and settlers" on the land of the towns of Sa´ir and Al-Shayeia, protecting the israeli soldiers who fired sound bombs and gas, injuring a number of citizens.
In Bethlehem governorate, since the end of March, the occupation authorities have begun erecting cranes and heavy machinery in the Area of Bir Aouna in preparation for the construction of the excavators, which will begin to build tunnels parallel to those built in the first half of the 1990s, to be part of the main artery road crossing the West Bank, known as the 235-km-long Bypass Street 60.
According to the data, there is a plan to build at least two tunnels to be parallel to that currently existing, one 270 meters long and the other 900 meters long, connected by a long high bridge in the Area of Biraouna.
In Jerusalem, The Israeli Planning Authorities put forward a plan to build an underground railway tunnel in the occupied city of Jerusalem that would reach the edge of the Haram al-Sharif, a plan that began to be prepared during the israeli government´s emergency period, and the decision of the Israeli Infrastructure Committee to prepare the plans Tatal 108 (a) and Tatal 108, both of which have a preferred status called the "Country Infrastructure Scheme", was announced.
The first project concerns the construction of an underground railway tunnel connecting West Jerusalem and the Bab al-Maghribi area to the borders of the Holy Al-Aqsa Mosque, with the second to build an above-ground railway in the various jerusalem neighbourhoods.
As evidenced by the deliberations of the District Committee for Regulation and Construction last week, the future line of the light train will enter the settlement of "Armon Huntsev" based on Mount Mukaber in East Jerusalem at the will of the settlers because of the great importance of choosing the train route in the policy of city development and increasing the proportion of construction around its route, in addition to the privileges and prosperity of the neighborhood and attracting young families to it.
Weekly violations
The weekly violations documented by the National Land Defence Office at the time of the report were as follows:
In Jerusalem, the occupation authorities continued their repressive practices of arresting and storming Jerusalem neighborhoods, despite measures to identify the movement and disrupt many commercial interests and educational institutions, to prevent the outbreak of the Coronavirus, where settlers stormed the land of citizens in the Wadi Al-Rubaa neighborhood of Silwan, and carried out provocative tours of the site.
In The City of Ramallah, armed settlers from the Settlement of Halmish, west of Ramallah, abducted two residents of The Town of Kober while working on agricultural land in the vicinity of the town, beating Samir Zebar and abducting his sons, Abdel Fattah and Mahmoud al-20, while they were ploughing their land.
In Bethlehem, Israeli occupying forces and settlers prevented farmers in the town of Taqwa, southeast of the city, from accessing their land, and the occupation forced activists of the Emergency Committee in the village of Al-Rashaida, east of Bethlehem, to remove a barrier set up to limit the movement of citizens, as part of a plan to deal with the "Corona" epidemic, on the grounds that it was located on a military road.
In the town of Salfit, israeli bulldozers closed five agricultural roads in the western and northern region of Derastia, west of the city, with dirt fences and concrete blocks, preventing farmers from accessing their land, while equipment belonging to the "Rafafa" settlement on the land of Derastia and Haris continued to bulldoze large areas of land belonging to the town of Deir Estia for several days.
In Nablus, the Israeli army and dozens of settlers from the "Yesh Kudesh" outpost attacked the homes of citizens in the southern area of Qasra, south of Nablus, and clashes broke out in the town following the intervention of the Occupying Army to protect the settlers, who fired live bullets and tear gas canisters, and settlers attacked the tombstones of citizens near the village of Cyrenaica north of Nablus.
In the Al-Ghawar area, the occupying forces handed Salem Abu al-Tayeb from Khirbet Yarza a notice to stop construction of agricultural and residential installations and tents, under the pretext of not authorizing them, and several citizens were notified to stop construction in agricultural and residential facilities, in addition to the notification of the uprooting of palm trees in the village of Al-Jaftlik.
