Disclosure of a huge plan to expand settlements south of Jerusalem

Disclosure of a huge plan to expand settlements south of Jerusalem

• 2022-03-09 01:01:36
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The occupation municipality and the Ministry of Infrastructure revealed a huge plan to expand settlements south of occupied Jerusalem and link them to the settlement bloc “Kfar Etzion” in the south of the West Bank, and to fill it with the water, sewage, network of roads and tunnels that have been built for more than two years.

According to the plan, which was approved in the first reading, and settlement neighborhoods were added to it, it includes about 4,639 settlement units during the next five years, and they are concentrated in the southern axis adjacent to the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem.

She stressed that there is progress in the process of preparing the infrastructure for this major expansion, which aims to close and strengthen the entrance to the city of Jerusalem from the east and south.

The occupation municipality said: “Mining and excavation works are currently being completed, at the same time the bridge is being closed and the old tunnel is being restored south of Jerusalem, in order to accommodate the strong movement of settlers’ passage. This road has national importance as an eastern entrance to Jerusalem.”

She added: The work of expanding all the tunnels south of Jerusalem began in March 2020, and includes doubling the tunnel road, and paving another tunnel, which will allow safer traffic and allow settlers to enter and exit their settlements towards Jerusalem quickly and more safely and without passing through Palestinian communities.

She revealed that this system of roads and tunnels will confiscate about 15,000 dunums of land from Beit Ummar, Al-Aroub and Halhul, and will turn the towns and villages on its sides into ghettos and will prevent their urban expansion, and will prevent Palestinians from using tens of thousands of dunams on both sides of these bypass streets and tunnels under the pretext of the security need for that. .

It is noteworthy that the settlement road No. 60, known as the tunnels road, links occupied East Jerusalem with the settlement bloc “Gush Etzion,” which is the main axis that exits from East Jerusalem and enters it from to the south of the West Bank, allowing access to Beit Jala and the surrounding villages.

The development and renewal of the road is a complex project that is divided into two different parts, a northern section that extends from Rosemary Junction in Jerusalem to the southern end of the Gilo settlement bridge, and a southern section that begins at the Gilo settlement bridge and ends at the Husan village junction, devouring large areas of Palestinian land. Fertile and agricultural.

The executing company pointed out that the project is doubling - the tunnel road so that it becomes two lines in each direction, a highway, and the expansion of the tunnel and road network to suit the mountainous nature east and west, as well as rearranging the Husan junction - a large intersection with a traffic light - and the junction known as “Crossing to Al-Khader” after widening the road above it.

It is noteworthy that this expansion will swallow large areas of Palestinian agricultural land in favor of these huge roads, which in their entirety serve the settlement project aimed at eliminating the Green Line that separates what was occupied by “Israel” during the Nakba in 1948, and after the setback in 1967.

The Israeli Oron Group, which implements the third tunnel project, said that an important step has been taken recently in the project with the breaking of the new tunnel and the completion of mining and excavation works. The length of the new tunnel, which is only 3.4 meters from the current and active tunnel, is about 900 meters, as it represents This is the first challenge of its kind in Israel, and perhaps one of the few in the world, and in order to meet the challenge, the group decided to merge the Spanish company OSSA, which has experience in implementing this challenge with these projects, as a subcontractor, and after 400 days of work In the armament/mining I have reached the final stages, which include the final casting of the tunnel, using a unique steel mould, made especially for the project in Italy, brought in and weighing 160 tons.

The Israeli Ministry of Infrastructure said that it hopes that the next expansion will be southeast of Jerusalem, and that these settlement projects will turn into places of attraction for Israelis from within, with the prices of cheap settlement units and large government gifts.

It is noteworthy that these tunnels, roads and huge settlement projects, which have been announced extensively since the beginning of this year 2022, are the basis for the undeclared Israeli annexation plan through which “Israel” wants to annex about 30% of the West Bank lands despite all the statements about freezing it, as part of a strategic vision. Tel Aviv seeks to erase the Green Line.

And the tunnel project manager, Oron Group, explained in his review yesterday, “The tunnel excavation was carried out in predetermined stages, and in accordance with the planned pace of progress... Now that the two sides of the tunnel that were excavated at the same time have been connected and the rock breaks have been breached, we are preparing Already for the next stages – the completion of the deepening, mining and extraction of connected tunnels, additional outlets, rooms required for management and permanent supervision of the tunnel.”

It was estimated that the traffic to and from the new tunnel will be opened in about a year, after which the teams working in the field will be able to enter the current tunnel and rehabilitate it. After all the work in the current tunnel is completed, it will be possible to open the two tunnels for traffic.