The National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlement said, “Palestinian and international circles are concerned about the expansion of settlement and Judaization activities in light of the rise of Zionist fascism, which managed to impose its agenda on the leader of the Likud and the prime minister.” The next Israeli, Benjamin Netanyahu, especially after it became clear that the latter will greatly reduce his participation in the construction approvals in the settlements after this authority was transferred by virtue of the coalition agreements, and de facto to his partner in government, “Bezalel Smotrich".
In this context, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Winsland, said in a briefing to the UN Security Council, "The occupation authorities tripled the plans to build settlement units in East Jerusalem during the year 2022 compared to the previous year, as they paid The occupation authorities have plans to build 3,100 settlement units in occupied East Jerusalem in 2022, compared to 900 in 2021.
He pointed to the doubling of settlement bids in the city from 200 in 2021 to 400 in 2022. "Winsland" stated that the occupation authorities pushed plans to build 4,800 settlement units in the West Bank in 2022, compared to 5,400 in 2021, and confirmed that the Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, remains a source of deep concern, as the settlements flagrantly violate UN resolutions and international law and undermine the prospects for a two-state solution.
The National Bureau indicated that the government of (Netanyahu-Ben-Gvir-Smotrich) will not be less generous in approving large-scale settlement activities that go beyond those approved by the government (Lapid-Gantz), which continued in occupied Jerusalem settlement and Judaization activities of various kinds. There are many forms and indicators of this, including the agreement between "Netanyahu" and "Smotrits" to allocate 8 billion shekels to widen the settlers´ streets.
It is clear that Jerusalem will be the focus of these activities, which target Jerusalem and its surroundings with its settlement and Judaization activities.
In this context, the occupation municipality in the occupied city of Jerusalem recently raised the budget for Judaizing the city in the coming year 2023 by an additional billion shekels, as the financial committee of the municipality approved an increase in the "development budget" in the next year to reach 6 billion shekels, an increase that reached 20% compared to the current year, and the aforementioned budget is the highest ever for the municipal occupation in Jerusalem, and the amount will be used in several areas, including education, welfare, city ​​planning, and security needs.
The new budget includes strategic plans to enhance settlement construction in the city by granting incentives to investors and paving roads around and inside the city, as part of a comprehensive plan to strengthen the Jewish presence in the occupied city. The percentage of the increase in the item of security and emergency needs was 143% compared to last year. The budget also includes the development of infrastructure, in addition to strengthening the protection system by deploying more advanced surveillance cameras, especially in public places.
The occupation authorities also began building the Judaizing wooden bridge over Wadi Al-Rababa between Al-Thawri and Silwan, in occupied East Jerusalem, as part of the government´s plan to surround the Old City with settlements with Talmudic motives. The “Local and District Committee” in the occupied municipality had agreed in 2020 to start implementing the project. The Judaizer, after rejecting all the objections submitted by the land owners and the concerned institutions in Silwan to the occupation and municipal courts. The length of the bridge is about 200 meters, at a cost of 20 million shekels. It is expected to be completed in May of next year. According to the plan, its construction includes development work on both sides of the bridge, which will include walkways, fences, streets, shading systems, landscaping, irrigation, And lighting works on both sides of the bridge and on the other. its length.
At the same time, settlement associations, in cooperation with the occupation authorities and municipality, continue to raze lands belonging to the Islamic Endowments Department in the area completely adjacent to the southeastern wall of Al-Aqsa, and the Umayyad palaces area, which is not far from it 80 meters, as these settlement associations intend to establish "biblical gardens." And the implementation of other projects in the targeted area, as part of a project to surround the Old City and Al-Aqsa Mosque with a belt of "biblical gardens", and to completely Judaize the area, noting that the area that is being bulldozed amounts to approximately 50 dunums, out of the total area of ​​about 120 dunums, which is a Pure Islamic endowment.
In the context of the plan to besiege the Holy City with settlements and Judaize it, the Civil Administration, with the approval of its Minister of Defense, Benny Gantz, plans to present a plan before the Israeli Supreme Court aimed at relocating the residents of the Bedouin village of Al-Khan Al-Ahmar in occupied Jerusalem to a place close to its current location on an empty land, 300 meters from the current location. Where the Israeli "Supreme Council" is preparing to hold a session after a month and a half, in which it will hear the response of the state´s representative regarding the evacuation of Al-Khan Al-Ahmar.
The "Ir Amim" association, an Israeli left-wing association concerned with settlement affairs in occupied East Jerusalem, expected that the formation of the new Israeli government would lead to an increase in mass displacement in the city.
"Under the next government, with extremist politicians publicly expressing their support for advancing settlement policies, we can only expect a deterioration in the situation in Batn al-Hawa (Silwan) and other East Jerusalem communities facing mass displacement," she said in a tweet. .
She added, "State-supported settlers aim to seize Palestinian homes for Jewish settlement. She pointed out that eviction claims are based on discriminatory Israeli law, which allows Jews to seize property they claim they lost in 1948, and it is known that the occupation prevents Palestinians from Demanding the restoration of property they lost in Nakba in 1948.
Settlement activityIn a context related to the settlement activities of the occupying state, identical sources expect an escalation of settlement construction in the occupied West Bank after the Israeli right-wing parties won the Elections more than a month and a half ago, as extensive construction operations were monitored in the settlement outposts since the victory of the right-wing in early November, trying to impose new realities on earth.
Work is currently focused on outposts such as "Homesh", which the settler party leaders pledged to legalize in the first 100 days of the life of the next right-wing government, as extensive activity was observed within that outpost. Knesset members Yuli Edelstein of the Likud Party and Orit Struck of the Religious Zionist Party submitted a bill that was signed by 35 Knesset members from the upcoming coalition parties, including Netanyahu for this purpose.
The outgoing government headed by "Yair Lapid" had informed the Israeli Supreme Court last August that it did not intend to evacuate the "Homesh" settlement outpost, and refused to set a date for its evacuation. On the other hand, the occupation´s Civil Administration has intensified its follow-up on Palestinian construction in Area C of the West Bank, and building demolitions have doubled in those areas during the last two months. The settlers are racing against time seeking to impose facts on the ground and establish new outposts in preparation for their conversion to existing settlements. The coalition agreement between the Likud and the settler parties helps them to legalize the existing outposts during the first 100 days of the life of the next government.
In order to control the eastern slopes of the West Bank, the occupation authorities issued a military order to seize 3,492 dunums of land from the village of Aqraba in the Nablus governorate, located in Basin No. It is state land, and it prohibited the entry of Palestinian citizens who own land under the pretext that it is "state land", in a major scheme aimed at controlling the eastern slopes of the West Bank, specifically adjacent to the Jordan Valley, by controlling vast areas in this area, while settlers from the existing "Meddolim" settlement built On the lands of the town of Qusra, south of Nablus, a dirt road from the western side of the settlement along the plain of Kafr Atiyeh, in preparation for the seizure of more than 200 dunums of the lands of its citizens, while the settlers´
Dozens of settlers attacked citizens´ homes in the southern side of the village of Burin and the outskirts of Madama, smashing their windows and firing live bullets at the citizens who confronted them. Huwwara, south of Nablus, near Salman al-Farisi roundabout and the road connecting Huwwara and Qalqilya, which led to damage to a number of them. At the same time, a group of settlers burned a shop and a nursery in the village of Al-Sawiya, on the road between Nablus and Ramallah, amid attempts to detonate the place using a gas cylinder.
In the face of the escalation of the Palestinian resistance to occupation and settlement, the head of the Settlement Council in the northern West Bank, Yossi Dagan, called on the Israeli army to launch a military operation in Nablus, and demanded the necessity of closing The checkpoints around the city in order to prevent a new wave of acts of resistance.
The Israeli member of the Knesset for the Religious Zionist Party, Michel Waldiger, claimed that the annexation of the West Bank areas must be done in a timely manner and without recklessness, and after deep thought. Half a million settlers live in West Bank settlements. She emphasized that annexation is one of the goals of her party, which is led by Bezalel Smotrich, but she does not know exactly when it will happen.
The National Bureau: "Concern has risen about the expected expansion of settlement activities"
