in a race against time before the transfer of power in the United States of America to a democratic administration, the Ministry of Construction and Housing and the Land Authority in Israel published a tender to build 1257 settlement units in the settlement of "Givat Hamatos" on the lands of the town of Beit Safafa The establishment of which would isolate the city of Bethlehem from occupied East Jerusalem.
The publication of tenders to build a new Jewish neighborhood in "Givat Hamatos" is part of the policy of isolating and besieging Jerusalem in the context of Israeli Judaization projects.
According to the report of the National Office for Land Defense and Settlement Resistance, on Saturday, since June 1967, Israel has established a number of settlements in and around Jerusalem, such as Ramat Eshkol, Givat Hamivtar, Ramot Shlomo, French Hill, and Neve Yaqoub, Pisgat Ze´ev, East Talbot, Gilo, and Har Homa are inhabited by 250,000 Jews.
What is new in the recent tenders is the decision to build a completely new neighborhood in Jerusalem on the Green Line, which is taking place for the first time since 1997 with the construction of the settlement of "Har Homa".
It is clear that the Israeli decision to issue new tenders is not just a slap in the face to President-elect Joe Biden. During his tenure as Vice President Obama in 2010, the Israeli government announced during his visit to Israel that hundreds of new units would be built behind the Green Line in Jerusalem.
This new decision appears to have been taken to exploit Trump´s last days in office or to take action in anticipation of Biden placing restrictions before the Israeli government regarding settlement construction, according to the report.
With this policy, Israel wants to emphasize that it no longer distinguishes between Israeli and Palestinian Jerusalem, and this is the reality. What distinguishes between East and West Jerusalem is that one of them enjoys privileges, representation and powers, while the other is deprived of its rights and lives in poverty, and constantly faces the risk of demolishing its homes.
And "Givat Hamatos" completes the circle that suffocates any possibility for Palestinian East Jerusalem to expand or exist as a Palestinian capital.
It seems that the Israelis in general, and the Israelis in Jerusalem in particular, are ignoring the fact that there are approximately 350,000 Palestinian residents of the city, and are completely working to accept Jerusalem as an apartheid city.
Plans to build 13,000 settlement units in Jerusalem
Palestinians in Jerusalem fear that the occupation authorities will push for new plans to build more than 13,000 settlement units in East Jerusalem, before the administration of US President-elect Joe Biden takes over its duties on the twentieth of next January.
There is talk about a plan to build 9,000 settlement units on the lands of Qalandia airport, 1,530 settlement units in the settlement of Ramat Shlomo on the lands of Shuafat, and 570 units in the settlement of Har Homa on the lands of Jabal Abu Ghneim, in addition to the settlement units in the settlement of “Givat Hamtos” On the lands of Beit Safafa, in addition to thousands of other settlement units in the settlement of "Ma´ale Adumim" as part of the "E1" settlement plan.
The occupation municipality in Jerusalem intends to convert Salah El-Din Street into a pedestrian-only corridor, and crews from the municipality came to the aforementioned street about two weeks ago, and posted signs in it in Hebrew talking about a plan that will be implemented and gave merchants until the twenty-third of next December to object to The scheme that starts from Al-Misrara on Street No. 1 passing through the streets of Sultan Suleiman, Salah al-Din, Zahra, Al-Isfahani, Al-Rasheed and Othman bin Affan Street in Wadi Al-Joz, reaching the Sheikh Jarrah area and the (American Colony) Hotel and extending on Street No. 1 separating the eastern and western parts of the city.
The aforementioned plan would practically affect 300,000 Jerusalemites. The occupation municipality ignored contact with them and consulted with them and with residents and shopkeepers in the streets and neighborhoods covered by the plan.
At the same time, the Israeli government intends to launch a process to register lands and properties in East Jerusalem, while 5% of Jerusalem´s lands are registered in the Land Registry and launch a land planning and registration campaign to confirm that East Jerusalem is part of a united Jerusalem.
In the context of preparing the infrastructure for annexation plans, a plan was announced by the Ministry of Transport and Communications in the occupation government to pave more settlement streets in the occupied West Bank, and to modernize other streets to serve settlers with the aim of linking settlements with each other with the occupying power and improving mobility and safety, and the plan is being promoted now. The main transfer is in what the Civil Occupation Administration calls "Judea and Samaria", meaning the West Bank, at a cost of 2.3 billion shekels (676 million dollars) for a period of 5 years, and includes road construction and other development, and solutions to dangerous junctions.
The plan was revealed during a meeting held by Transportation Minister Miri Regev with settler leaders in the West Bank last week.
For his part, Chairman of the Yesha Settlement Council, David El Hayani, said: “If the plan had been implemented 10 years ago, one million Israelis would live in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) today.” He explained that the plan links the settlements to the rest of the country and makes Israeli sovereignty over them. Actual.
Trump Free Gifts
It does not seem that the Israeli occupation government alone is racing against time to impose additional facts on the Palestinian land by approving more annexation and expansion plans. The Trump administration is also playing this role by offering free gifts to the occupation government, as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced, in a step that did not Even the occupying power has formally applied to it, classifying its outgoing administration, Area C in the West Bank as being economically and administratively Israeli, while the Gaza Strip was considered a political entity separate from the West Bank, and the products of Israeli settlements in the West Bank were classified as Israeli.
Pompeo´s announcement came in a statement issued in conjunction with his visit to the "Psagot" settlement, established in the Jabal Al-Tawil area on the lands of the city of Al-Bireh on the eastern side, and owned by citizens of the city, in the first visit of a US Secretary of State to a settlement and in blatant defiance of the will and decisions of the international community, especially Security Council Resolution No. 2334, which considered settlement construction a violation of international law and an illegal act.
Pompeo also declared that the boycott of Israel movement was considered "anti-Semitic." Pompeo´s tour also included, in addition to the settlement of "Psagot" and the occupied Golan, the so-called "City of David" in occupied Jerusalem, "Qasr al-Yahud" near Jericho, and the settlement industrial zone, "the poet of Benjamin."
It seems that the US administration in this way gives the green light to the occupation state to annex Area C, which equals 60% of the West Bank, and to establish separation between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, considering that the Gaza Strip and the West Bank are separated politically and administratively, and they must be treated accordingly, contrary to the positions of previous US administrations, please In addition, Pompeo called for treating settlement products as products of Israeli origin. This declared position came under the heading "Marking the Country of Origin", but in detail it legalizes annexation, saying: "The producers in Area (C) work within the economic and administrative framework of Israel and their goods must be dealt with accordingly." .
According to the sources, Netanyahu tried, during closed talks with the American visitor, to obtain approval from US President Donald Trump´s administration to grant the green light to build thousands of settlement units in "Atarot" north of occupied Jerusalem.
It is noteworthy that the Ministry of Housing submitted last February to the Israeli Planning Committee a plan to build a new settlement in "Atarot" that includes 9,000 housing units adjacent to the Qalandia checkpoint in the heart of the Palestinian contact area between Ramallah - Kafr Aqab - Beit Hanina.
Donation campaign for settlement in Hebron
In the context of the systematic Judaization of the city of Hebron, the Subcommittee on Objections in the Civil Administration rejected petitions submitted by an Israeli left-wing organization and the Palestinian Municipality of Hebron against issuing a building permit for a settlement project aimed at controlling the Ibrahimi Mosque by confiscating some areas in it for the benefit of settlers in order to facilitate their access to it. The discussion here is about building an elevator and a corridor for settlers along the Haram. To facilitate the storming of the mosque, two million shekels have been allocated so far to finance the gifting project.
In the same context, the settlers were able to collect more than 3 million shekels with the aim of increasing the number of settlers in Hebron to double, and the fundraising campaign called for by the settlers continued for a period of 100 hours, as the settlers announce their intention to start building new settlement compounds in the Mahata area. The old buses and the closed vegetable market in the middle of Al-Shuhada Street and the increase in their number from 800 settlers to 1600 settlers, a step that has not happened since the beginning of the settlement presence in Hebron more than 40 years ago.
The donation campaign was attended by legal persons in the occupation state, headed by the leader of the Blue and White Bani Gantz party.
