The National Office for Land Defense and Settlement Resistance estimated that the year 2020 was the most difficult for the Palestinians in light of the escalation of settlement activity and settler terror.
The office of the PLO stated in its weekly report, which monitors all the Israeli violations, that the occupation has escalated its settlement measures in the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem, during the term of the outgoing US President Donald Trump, as it was ratified during the first three years of his presidency. On the basis of building an average of 7,000 housing units annually, which is nearly twice the average of settlement units in the three preceding years under President Barack Obama’s administration, which exceeded 3,600 housing units, with the aim of undermining the possibility of reaching a political agreement with the Palestinians by encouraging more From construction in settlements.
The highest levels of settlement in 20 years
The National Office added that the year 2020 was not the worst for the Palestinians politically only after a number of Arab countries scrambled towards free normalization with the occupation state, but also demographically. The occupation authorities are planning to raise the number of settlers in the West Bank to about (one million), and have raised the pace of settlement in the West Bank over the past year to reach its highest levels twenty years ago, and began enacting laws with preliminary readings in the Knesset to legalize dozens of settlement outposts, and they approved through The Civil Administration’s Planning and Building Council built about 6,500 settlement units, at a time when the occupation municipality in Jerusalem submitted a comprehensive plan to the Local Planning and Building Committee to build 8,600 housing units and modernize the industrial zone "Talpiot"
Judaization projects do not stop
In spite of the political crisis that afflicts the occupying state by dissolving the Knesset and heading to fourth elections within one year, the projects of Judaization and settlement expansion do not stop. It has been announced that the Supreme Council for Planning and Building will meet within the next two weeks to approve settlement expansion in the West Bank, and this is the first time that an attempt has been made to pass plans for expansion and settlement construction in the West Bank, since Biden was elected President of the United States, where he finds the leader of (Likud) The same in the election battle in a race against time to pass settlement plans with the complicity of the Israeli Supreme Court, which rejected a petition by Palestinians at the beginning of last December against declaring 224 dunums "state lands," which were seized by settlers from the "Kochav Yaqoub" settlement, located in the area of ​​the town of Kafr after. And a few days earlier, the Israel Lands Administration published
Install the facts on the ground
The National Office indicated that the last week of the year 2020 was no better than the rest of the previous weeks and months in terms of settlement expansion, continued Judaization, and the increasing attacks of settler flocks, as the occupation government insists on exploiting all possible opportunities available from the time remaining for the Trump administration to move forward with its settlement plans. And confirming facts on the ground before January 20, 2021. David Friedman, the American ambassador to Israel, called for strengthening construction in the settlements in the West Bank in response to the killing of an Israeli settlement near Jenin more than a week ago. The American ambassador visited the settlement family, Esther Horgan, "Tal Menashe" settlement, built on Palestinian lands west of Jenin, accompanied by the head of the West Bank Settlements Council, "Yossi Dagan," and Friedman considered that the correct and only response is to stay here and expand construction.
Targeting areas (C)
At the same time, the Israeli Minister of Settlement, Tzachi Hanegbi, announced the formation of a specialized team to monitor and follow up the Palestinian construction operations in the areas classified (C) of the occupied West Bank. For this purpose, the Ministry intends to establish departments to inspect Palestinian construction in Area (C) in the West Bank, including donating drones to settlers. The Israeli Ministry published the criteria for transferring funds to settlement councils to establish these sections, so that these councils would be able to request the ministry to finance salaries for field inspection trips, buy cars, drones, electronic guard means, and aerial photography, in addition to building walls. The ministry had allocated 20 million shekels to investigate Palestinian construction in Area C.
Settlement plans in Jerusalem
In Jerusalem, the Local Committee for Planning and Building in the municipality of "Moshe Leon" approved the plan for the "Nahal Zimri natural" settlement park on the lands of Beit Hanina and Hazmah and parts of the lands of Jaba, north of Jerusalem, near the settlements of "Pisgat Zeev" and "Neve Yaqoub". The Department of Urban Planning in the municipality had prepared a policy document for the green organizational structure for the northern settlements of the city. According to the plan, large areas of confiscated Palestinian land will be allocated for this project - open spaces and communication between them through walking and cyclists such as urban ghost gardens. The occupation municipality said that a "asbestos garden" will be built in the Kidron River basin in the east of the city, so that the area will extend in the next phase to the Ghor and Ain Al-Fawar area. The occupation municipality claimed that until two years ago, the "Nahal Al-Zimri" area was
In Jerusalem as well, the local committee for planning and building in the municipality of the occupation began work on the implementation of a project linking the settlements of southern Jerusalem with their north via the "Green Line" light rail route and imposing a de-facto situation by the occupation force, which aims to Judaize Jerusalem in its entirety. The occupation municipality has published details of the project on its official website and at The billboard, and considered this project one of the most important projects that connect the transportation network for Jerusalem with all parts of Israel through the light and large trains, as Jerusalem will be linked to Tel Aviv, Jaffa and Haifa in the north, and at the same time, the settlements in Jerusalem will be linked to each other. It is expected that by the year 2023 all settlers in "Gilo" will be eligible to use the light rail. The project passes through three phases, the first starting from the Shuafat area to the western part of Jerusalem near “Ein Karem” and was completed ten years ago, and the second starting from the town of Issawiya and the French Hill settlement. Near the Hebrew University, reaching the western part of Jerusalem, through the "Talpiot" industrial zone, to Beit Safafa, and up to the "Gilo" settlement, southwest of the city. The length of the light train in its second phase extends over a distance of 22 kilometers. 47 stations will be established along the so-called "green line", which will meet with the regular train to transport settlers from Jerusalem to the Palestinian coast. The implementation of the second phase of the project leads to the division of Arab Jerusalem neighborhoods, changing the face of the city, and confiscating thousands of dunams of citizens´ lands and homes, especially in Issawiya, Beit Safafa and many neighborhoods, as well as penetrating this line to the main streets in the city. As for the third phase of the project, which is called the "brown line", it starts from Sur Bahir and Jabal Al Mukaber in the south, passing through the town of Silwan, Ras Al Amoud, and Sheikh Jarrah to Beit Hanina and "Atarout" in the north.
Orgy and settler attacks escalated
On the other hand, settlers´ attacks on the Palestinians and their properties continued in all the West Bank governorates, which increased in frequency and escalation to the extent that the Israeli security services did not rule out terrorist operations "capable of shaking the area" according to the expression of the Israeli sources, amid warning circles in the occupation army, which provides protection to organizations Jewish terrorism in the settlements is a possible operation of the terrorist "youth of the hills" and other terrorist organizations operating in the West Bank, outweighed by their horror and brutality, the 2015 massacre of the Dawabsha family in the village of Douma.
