In an attempt to tighten control of the occupied city of Jerusalem and its separation from its Palestinian surroundings, the Israeli Ministry of Housing is working on re-planning the establishment of a new settlement neighborhood on the lands of the abandoned Qalandia airport to expand the settlement of Atarot north of Jerusalem. A thousand housing units stretching about 600 dunams from the airport and the air-conditioning factory to the Qalandiya checkpoint. The land was confiscated in the early 1970s by the then Labor government. The plan includes digging a tunnel under Kafr Aqab to connect the new neighborhood to the eastern settlement bloc. The settlement plan includes land at the airport "Atarot" (Qalandia), which was closed by the occupation authorities with the outbreak of the second intifada in 2000. Former housing minister Yoav Galant issued orders to resume work on the settlement project, following the election of US President Donald Trump´s administration.
In recent weeks, the Israeli government has begun building 176 settlement units in the Nof Zion settlement on the slopes of Jabal Mukaber, south of occupied Jerusalem, which it ratified in October 2017 in a field translation of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo´s declaration on settlements. . With the completion of the 96-unit settlement, Nof Zion will become the largest outpost in the Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem. With the completion of the planned phases of construction in Nof Tzion This settlement was set up as a private neighborhood by Jewish investors in the heart of Jabal Mukaber in occupied Jerusalem. The project was approved in 1993 and construction was postponed until 2002, while it was inhabited by settlers about eight years ago. The land allocated for the settlement expansion has long been a legal dispute and was later taken over by Israeli businessman Rami Levy and the Australian Jewish businessman and one of the founders of Skype, Kevin Bremster. The current construction is only the first phase of the project, and the second phase includes two plans to build 350 housing units, a hotel, and an air train. In the final phase of the project, 550 housing units, a 150-room hotel and public services buildings will be built.
In Jerusalem, human rights activist Raed Bashir in a Jerusalem legal office defending traders in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Al-Masarra revealed the existence of three organizational projects and restructuring plans that would change if implemented the Arab character of Jerusalem. In the context of these projects, the neighborhood will witness a fundamental change in its commercial character through the transformation of the grand square opposite the shops to a public park and the extension of the adjacent tunnel to the door of Hebron, where the municipality submitted a project with the number (77679-04-101) called the completion of the tunnel. 44 dunums of land, including the opening of an underground tunnel from Hebron to Masarra to transform the open area into a transportation network. The legal office revealed that the municipality is currently preparing a structural plan under the number (0465229 -101) starting with Sultan Suleiman Street, and up to the neighborhood of Al-Masarra, which includes the neighborhoods and areas of Salah al-Din and Zahra Street, Nablus and St. George and all commercial neighborhoods of the city. The project covers an area of ​​700 dunums and has received preliminary approvals from the competent authorities. This targeting is linked to the American Commercial Street Project in South Jerusalem in the Jabal Mukaber area, which includes large commercial centers, numbered 0379594-101, and plans to be the alternative in the coming decades to the traditional traditional commercial centers in Arab Jerusalem.
On the other hand, the cancellation of the Jerusalem District Court´s decision to approve the sale of Orthodox Waqf properties in the Old City of Occupied East Jerusalem to the Ateret Cohanim Settlement Association highlighted the illegal means used by Jewish settlement associations to control fraud and fraud on Palestinian property. According to the decision, the court accepted the request of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate to reconsider and reinstate a previous court ruling, because the phantom companies from whom settlers claim to buy property did not appear in court and did not present a defense list before the court regarding the Petra and Imperial Hotel at the Gate of Hebron and another building in Hebron. The Christians in the Old City and other shops in Bab al-Khalil in Jerusalem were sold for deception to Israeli settlement companies years ago.
Meanwhile, settlement activity in the West Bank continues, especially in the strategic areas in the heart of the West Bank, where the Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din submitted two objections to two settlement plans that seek to expand the construction of Shilo settlement in the West Bank on the lands of Turmus´ya, Jalud and Qaryut villages The first objection concerns the plan (205/22), which applies at the northern Shilo outpost in the lands of Jalud and Qaryut, and seeks to legalize and legalize illegal settlement construction with the aim of annexing it to the settlement of Shilo from an administrative and organizational perspective within the so-called border adjustment and expansion of the Shil border. And build more than 175 housing units in addition to the construction of a tourist city as they call an antique Shilo ancient ruins on the desolate Cylon Palestinian building, theaters and hotels business centers in that region.
According to data published by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, a total of 19,634 housing units have been built in the last decade, nearly half of them in isolated settlements. 60% of the buildings were built in small and isolated settlements with a population of no more than 10,000 settlers, where 11,628 units were constructed. northern Jerusalem, 1,283, and Modi´in Illit settlement, west of Ramallah, built 2,310 settlement units.
In the context of continued support for settlers, Netanyahu has pledged to transfer NIS 40 million to settlements, in what appears to be a "gift" for settler leaders to declare their support for him. During his meeting with the heads of the West Bank settlement councils, the Israeli prime minister announced the allocation of financial aid to support the security and emergency budget in the West Bank settlements and the Jordan Valley. He pointed out that following previous decisions, a one-time security grant of NIS 34.5 million will be transferred as an additional special budget, and a special budget will be transferred to support the immediate ambulance stations in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley as much as NIS 5.5 million. The Israeli government will approve another decision that will include the transfer of NIS 3.6 million. For settlement support centers. Naftali Bennett, the new Israeli army minister, appointed Moshe Frecht of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc.
On the other hand, the Israeli occupation authorities imposed new restrictions on the entry of Palestinians to their agricultural lands in the so-called seam areas located between the Apartheid Wall and the “Green Line”. continuously. The Israeli Civil Administration issued permits to allow Palestinians to enter the lands they own in this area, but the Civil Administration recently published instructions to reduce this. The new permits limit the number of times Palestinians enter their lands. The Israeli authorities rejected 72% of Palestinian requests to enter their land in the `` seam zone ´´ in 2018, while this percentage was 24% in 2014, according to data provided by the Civil Administration of the Israeli Human Rights Association, the Center for the Defense of the Individual. There are 84 gates in the apartheid wall leading to the “seam zone,” including nine open gates per day, ten gates open once a week and 65 gates open seasonally. More than 9% of the West Bank is spoken here. The occupying authorities in these areas, in the name of security, carry out an effective looting of land
The Israeli government is concerned that the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michel Bachelet, will publish the "black list" of Israeli companies operating in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and not wait until the formation of the next Israeli government, where Israeli estimates indicate that after the publication of the decision of the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, Under which all EU countries must mark settlement products - Commissioner Bachelet is pushing for a blacklist before the end of the year. At a time when the US Congress is considering steps against the publication of the list, where Democratic and Republican lawmakers wrote to Bachelet and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres confirming that the United States will take harsh steps against the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights if it publishes the blacklist, and certainly That it has harmed US companies.
On the occasion of the United Nations annual observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, which falls on 29 November each year, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stressed that the establishment of settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity and constitutes In flagrant violation of international law, as stated in UN Security Council Resolution 2334 and called for a halt to the construction of illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, an end to the demolition of Palestinian homes, and an end to the widespread suffering in Gaza. " EU foreign and political affairs, Federica Mogherini, said that a return to negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis is still possible, warning that Israeli settlements threaten the two-state solution.``We stressed that the settlements are illegal under international law and they threaten the two-state solution, ´´ Mogherini said.
The weekly violations documented by the National Land Defense Office were as follows in the reporting period:
JERUSALEM: Israeli bulldozers demolished a house in the industrial zone near the town of Qalandiya, north of occupied Jerusalem, belonging to the al-Bazian family on the grounds that it was not licensed. The Israeli occupation forces prevented workers in the Bedouin Mount Pope near the town of Eizariya southeast of occupied Jerusalem from the restoration of the entrance to the earth which was swept away a week ago and caused the destruction of the main water line connecting the community.
Hebron: Settler attacks on unarmed Palestinian citizens escalated in Wadi Al-Husayn, Al-Ras, Tel Rumeida, Al-Shuhadaa Street and all parts of the Old City. Citizens, including a child, were killed by settlers in Tel Rumeida neighborhood. The settlers also attacked citizens and crews of the Red Crescent in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood of the Old City, where a one-and-a-half-year-old child was hit with a stone in the head. The settlers also attacked houses belonging to the Abu Shamsiya family. Khalil city . Mohammed Nassar Al-Nawajaa, from Yatta city in Hebron, was killed and his son Thaer was injured after their vehicle was hit by an Israeli military bulldozer in Farsh Al-Hawa area. Israeli forces demolished four houses in Beit Kahel village, northwest of Hebron. Israeli occupying forces, accompanied by the so-called Organization and Civil Administration, raided the ´Atous´ area adjacent to the Apartheid Wall and stopped the construction of agricultural roads within the project of reclamation of lands adjacent to the Apartheid Wall, in cooperation between Beit Ula Municipality and the Land Research Center. And they chased the mechanisms operating in place.
Bethlehem: Israeli forces demolished a cafe in Battir, west of Bethlehem, belonging to Wissam Aweina, claiming that it is an archaeological area and classified as Area C. Dozens of dunums west of Husan village in Al-Salam area. The lands of Al-Salam area are private property, a large part of which is planted. Crouched on citizens´ lands
Ramallah: Settlers from Neria settlement on Deir Ammar and Al-Taybeh villages burned a vehicle in Al-Taybeh village, damaged tires for five vehicles in Deir Ammar, and racist slogans in Al-Taybeh and Deir Ammar villages on the walls of houses, including “Death to the Arabs”. Israeli forces raided Umm al-Sharayet neighborhood in al-Bireh city and al-Am´ari refugee camp and confiscated a vehicle and transported it via a truck. ".
Nablus: Settlers set fire to olive trees in the archaeological area of ​​Sebastia, northwest of Nablus, and fled to the settlement of Homesh, north of Nablus, after the Israeli army intervened to protect them. Israeli forces demolished a house in the village of Asira al-Shamalia, northwest of Nablus, despite obtaining the necessary permits from the Palestinian Authority. The house is owned by Mu´ammar Hamadneh from the village. Settlers from the settlement of Rahhalim cut down 30 olive trees in Al-Wadi area in the village of Sawiya south of Nablus.
Salfit: Israeli forces uprooted 30 olive trees and demolished more than 150 retaining walls in a land owned by Abdel-Rahim Yassin.
The Jordan Valley: The Israeli Occupation Authorities have been informed of the demolition of a water tank in the Tubas plain that feeds approximately 800 dunums of irrigated land in the area.
