Nablus – Ma’an – The National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements said in its periodic report today, Saturday, that settling the status of more settlement outposts in strategic locations to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The office said in its report, “In a dangerous development in its dimensions and meanings, the Israeli Political Security Council (the Cabinet) agreed at the end of last Hezbollah to settle the status of five settlement outposts from which the settlers had launched 35 attacks against the Palestinians during the year 2024. The five settlement outposts are (Givat Asaf, Avitar, Adoraim, Halitz, and Sde Ephraim). The goal is to transform them into settlements to prevent regional continuity in the West Bank for the Palestinians, according to maps that reflect the meanings on the ground. The Supreme Planning Council of the Israeli government also granted (occupation) legitimacy to three random settlement outposts (illegal according to the laws of the occupation),
namely: “Mahane Gadi, Givat Hanan, and Kedem Arava.”
“It is a settlement ‘coup’ as many Israeli media sources describe it, and it comes as an extension of the work of the 37th Israeli government since its formation at the end of 2022. The year 2023 is truly considered the year of the ‘settlement coup’, with accelerated practices implemented by the far-right government in the occupying state, with a policy that paves the way for achieving Smotrich’s vision to raise the number of settlers in the West Bank to one million settlers by 2030. The most prominent of these practices: regularizing the status of 9 settlement outposts and transforming them into independent settlements and actually starting to regularize the status of 63 other settlement outposts. This comes after transferring the powers to use “state lands” from the Civil Administration to ministries headed by settlers. The announcement of the confiscation of areas that are the largest since the signing of the Oslo Accords, and of new Israeli nature rese
rves in the West Bank, in addition to starting to register hundreds of biblical-heritage sites (falsely and slanderously) to protect them from the “Palestinian danger.”
‘Unlike the settlements approved last year, this time we are talking about settlements that aim to drive wedges into specific axes in areas classified as ‘B’ that would prevent Palestinian territorial contiguity across the West Bank. Sources in the occupation government say that this is just the ‘first swallow’. In at least two cases, in ‘Halitz’ and in ‘Sde Ephraim’, we are talking about establishing settlements from scratch. The new settlements, unlike many others in the West Bank, cannot, according to Israeli terminology, be whitewashed by defining them as a neighbourhood of an existing settlement, but rather are entirely new settlements,’ the report added.
“In the northern West Bank, the occupation authorities approved the legalization of the settlement outpost “Avitar”, on the lands of Jabal Sabih / Beita, which the settlers consider im
portant for settlement for a strategic reason. We are talking about a settlement located between two areas known as Area “B” and in an area distinguished by its strategic location, as it turns into a connecting area between the settlements of Salfit and the settlements of the Jordan Valley (Trans-Samaria) on the one hand and between the settlements of Nablus and the settlements of Ramallah (Road 60) on the other hand. And dozens of kilometers away from there, the occupation authorities also approved “Givat Asaf”. It is the oldest settlement outpost on the list, and its goal is to create a strategic connection between Road 60 and “Beit El”. The problem here in “Beit El” is that it is located deep in an area that is all private land.”
“To clarify, ‘Road 60′, which began operating in 1993, is one of the most important main settlement roads in the Palestinian territories and the longest, with a length of about 240 kilometers. It passes through the West Bank from north to south, starting in Jenin and ending in Be
ersheba. It is a transit and connecting road, transit because it crosses the West Bank from north to south and connecting because it is connected to many secondary and main roads, i.e. approximately 181 secondary and main roads that are connected to this road,” he continued.
“Sde Ephraim” is also an outpost (farm) and poses a major challenge. Smotrich’s men wanted to legalize the farm for some time, but the Americans opposed it and said, according to Israeli media, “Except for (Sde Ephraim).” Despite this, the government did not ask the Americans’ opinion and went ahead with legalizing the outpost. This is a piece of land that separates two blocks of “B” lands and leads to “Gush Talmonim” in the Ramallah district; the occupation government plans to turn it into a Haredi city of 50,000 people. If the plan is implemented, there will be intense regional continuity between “Modi’in Illit” and “Gush Talmonim.”
The outpost of “Halitz” (farm) also completes a significant settlement continuity in the Bethlehem dist
rict. It was not on any list of settlements for settlement, but the Settlement Administration understood that this was a critical need because it connects “Gush Etzion” to Jerusalem and creates a strangulation ring on the northern side of “Gush Etzion”. The “Halitz” farm completes the continuity with the “Neve Ori” farm to the tunnels road. The fifth settlement is “Adorayim” in the Hebron Hills, which is located on Route 60 between “Beit Hagai” and “Otniel”. This is a section of the road between large areas of land in Area B. Strengthening the settlement in the Hebron Hills is also at the top of the list of priorities of the occupation government, and the goal is the same: preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state.
In parallel with the legalization of more settlement outposts, the settlement expansion projects, Judaization projects, and falsification of history and heritage in the occupied city of Jerusalem do not stop. The city is targeted by Judaization and displacement plans, theft of more of it
s lands, and changing its features and map through the implementation of a series of malicious plans aimed at Judaizing its neighborhoods and surroundings and displacing its residents from it in the context of implementing the Greater Jerusalem project. These days, the Israeli occupation is working to implement a new Judaization plan in the city of Jerusalem, especially in the areas surrounding the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque. Under the title of “Reviving the Jewish Heritage”, the so-called Israeli “Ministry of Heritage”, in cooperation with several ministries and settlement associations, has begun implementing a new Judaization project in the city, with direct funding from the occupation’s Ministry of Finance. Work on the new project has begun intensively by making changes on the ground, by raising the flags of the occupation, changing the gates of the Old City, shrines, and ancient landmarks that indicate its Arab-Islamic identity, as well as tightening security measures in Jerusalem. According to Jerusalem acti
vists, the plan includes demolishing dozens of homes, reducing the number of Palestinians in the city, confiscating more Jerusalem lands and properties, and changing some Arab landmarks and placing Hebrew symbols on them. The extremist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich allocated a generous budget of 364 million shekels to the Ministry of ‘Heritage’ to implement the project. The occupation focuses its plan on the areas of the so-called historic Holy Basin, with an area of ??27,500 dunams, which start from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in the north, passing through the Old City, and reaching the town of Silwan, south of Al-Aqsa.
The most prominent landmarks targeted by the plan are the gates of the Old City, those surrounding Al-Aqsa Mosque, historical buildings dating back to the Greek, Ayyubid and Ottoman periods, in addition to three hospitals built during the Ottoman period, the Citadel Tower at Bab al-Khalil, some old Ottoman schools and historical Christian landmarks, the huge buildings opposite Bab al-
Khalil, as well as a number of streets in the areas of Bab al-Amud, Musrara and al-Maghariba, and other historical landmarks. The Ministry of Finance of the occupation transferred an additional sum of 3 million shekels to the implementation and demolition procedures department in the occupation municipality in Jerusalem, in order to carry out more demolitions in the city, as well as to pressure the people of Jerusalem and force them to “self-demolish.”
In Jerusalem, the local planning and construction committee of the occupation municipality, headed by Deputy Mayor Eliezer Rauchberger, approved a settlement project that was submitted last Wednesday, and is considered the largest in occupied Jerusalem, as it includes the construction of 7 towers with about 1,500 settlement units and thousands of square meters of commercial space on the Hebron-Bethlehem road, with an infrastructure to connect this new settlement bloc to the light rail line that connects Jerusalem with its western and eastern parts to the settl
ements.
According to the details of the project, which the occupation municipality website described as “tower madness,” the model of huge towers in Jerusalem continues, and this time the towers reach a height of 47 floors. The project includes the demolition of 8 old buildings, replacing them with seven towers containing about 1,500 settlement units on private Palestinian lands that were confiscated and are located in the area opposite the Gilo settlement, to be connected during the project period, estimated at three years, to the future blue line of the light rail that is expected to pass through the city of Hebron. This project will significantly increase the supply of settlement units in the area; from 348 settlement units that were planned in 2023 to 1,476 new settlement units.
The occupation municipality in Jerusalem has begun implementing its settlement plans for the years 2023-2027 and announced the completion of the light rail project, to connect the settlement of “Gilo” in the south, with the sett
lement of “Ramot” in the north during the current year. The light rail project, as is known, includes three tracks: the “Green Line” with a length of 20 km, the “Blue Line” with a length of 31 km, and the “Brown Line” with a length of 40 km, which has not yet begun operation, in addition to other secondary tracks. In recent years, the occupation municipality has intensified its infrastructure and settlement activities to separate the city of Jerusalem from the city of Bethlehem and the southern West Bank with walls and thousands of settlement units, including the construction of streets, tunnels and roads to connect the settlements located on the lands of occupied East Jerusalem to each other, as well as to connect them with the settlements surrounding the city and the highways leading to Tel Aviv via two parallel lines, ‘Begin Street’ to the west, and ‘American Street’ to the east, to isolate and marginalize the Palestinian villages and neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, expand the settlements and provide free
dom of movement and travel for settlers in what is called Greater Jerusalem.
The weekly violations documented by the National Office for the Defense of the Land were as follows during the reporting period:
Jerusalem: Not a day goes by for the people of Jerusalem without demolition or demolition notices. The occupation municipality in Jerusalem forced Aida Al-Qanbar in the town of Jabal Al-Mukaber to demolish her own house under the pretext of unlicensed construction, after threatening her with a fine of 80 thousand shekels if its bulldozers carried out the demolition. It also forced the citizen Bishara Al-Muhtaseb to demolish his own house in the same town to avoid paying heavy fines. It has imposed fines on him for seven years, exceeding 20 thousand shekels, and served a demolition notice on a five-story residential building in the Shuafat camp. Meanwhile, the occupation forces stormed the building of the citizen Khalil Abu Mayala and handed him a demolition notice on the building under the pretext of unli
censed construction. The building consists of five residential apartments. The occupation authorities also demolished a house under construction in the village of Umm Tuba and forced the citizen Walid Edkaidek to demolish his house in the Al-Marwah neighborhood in the town of Beit Hanina under the pretext of not having a permit.
Hebron: Armed settlers released their herds of cattle into the fields and surroundings of citizens’ homes in the “Fatah Sidra” area, and prevented them from leaving their homes and reaching their lands, especially in the nearby area. Settlers grazed their sheep on citizens’ lands in Masafer Yatta in Wadi al-Jawaya near the village of At-Tuwana, which caused damage to crops and the breaking of a number of fruit trees. In the village of Al-Saffir in Masafer, settlers attacked citizens and assaulted the elderly Mahmoud Abu Qubaita, causing him bruises and wounds. They also wreaked havoc on citizens’ property. Settlers also stormed archaeological sites in Tel Ma’in and Carmel, performed
Talmudic rituals and blew trumpets on mountaintops, while others from the newly established settlement outpost in the “Khalat Taha” area southwest of Hebron fired live bullets at citizens’ homes and attacked their tents in the town of Dura and the village of Birin. In the village of Birin to the east, armed settlers wearing Israeli occupation forces uniforms attacked citizens’ tents and assaulted the women and children inside. The occupation bulldozers also demolished a house in the Khirbet Qalqas area south of Hebron belonging to Sufyan Sidr and his brother Mustafa Sidr, which consisted of three floors, each floor 200 square meters in area, and housed more than 30 people, under the pretext of not having a license.
Bethlehem: Settlers began bulldozing lands adjacent to the “Sidi Boaz” settlement outpost, which was built on citizens’ lands in the Ein Qassis area, which is affiliated with the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, with the aim of expanding its borders and placing settlers in a mobile home on the lands o
f the “Dahr al-Ziah” area, west of al-Khader, in preparation for seizing it for the benefit of settlement. Meanwhile, others began paving a settlement road on lands belonging to citizens Mashhour Hamamra and Hamed Abdul Aziz Hamamra, in the “Church” area, with a length of 200 meters and a width of 20 meters in the lands of the village of Husan. Settlers also set up two mobile homes “caravans” on the lands of the village of Artas, south of Bethlehem, specifically “Deir Artas”, and raised the flags of the occupying state.
Ramallah: Settlers set fire to dozens of dunams planted with olive trees in Turmus Ayya plain, on the road between Turmus Ayya town and the neighboring village of Al-Mughayyir. Others attacked the village of Al-Mazra’a Al-Gharbiya northwest of Ramallah, specifically the “Al-Qibla” area. In the village of Kafr Ni’ma, settlers cut down trees in the “Jabal Al-Raysan” area, and others burned a vehicle belonging to citizen Nizam Ali after their attack on the village of Burqa east of Ramallah. Citi
zens confronted an attack carried out by dozens of settlers from the “Ateret” settlement built on citizens’ lands in the village of Umm Safa, and they vandalized water lines, before unarmed citizens confronted them and forced them to withdraw. In the village of Beitillu, settlers set up tents on “Mustafa Al-Ali” mountain and raised the flags of the occupying state above them, in preparation for establishing a settlement outpost in that area. A settler from the “Talmon” settlement, built on the lands of the village of Al-Janiya, west of Ramallah, also set fire to dozens of dunams planted with olive, fig and grape trees by throwing Molotov cocktails. Settlers also set fire to lands near citizens’ homes in the village of Burqa, east of Ramallah.
Nablus: Dozens of settlers stormed Joseph’s Tomb east of Nablus, under the protection of the Israeli occupation forces. They performed Talmudic rituals, while large forces of the occupation army stormed the eastern area of ??Nablus accompanied by a military bulldozer, a
nd began to bulldoze and destroy the streets surrounding the tomb. Settlers burned a bulldozer near the village of Bazariya, northwest of Nablus. They attacked citizens’ vehicles with stones, damaging a number of them, and closed the road between Jenin and Nablus.
Salfit: Settlers from the “Ariel” settlement, accompanied by a bulldozer, bulldozed and destroyed the northern entrance to the city of Salfit, vandalized the road’s infrastructure, and placed cement blocks, with the aim of obstructing the movement of citizens. The occupation forces also bulldozed large areas of land and uprooted approximately 150 grape and olive trees in the village of Haris in the “Khalat Hadida” area, estimated at 20 dunams, for the benefit of the “Netaim” and “Barkan Industrial” settlements. In the town of Deir Istiya, the occupation authorities decided to seize 1,700 meters of citizens’ land in order to build a water tank and transmission lines extending from the “Bab al-Dakhmash” area in Wadi Qana, west of the town, passing th
rough citizens’ lands to supply one of the occupation settlements in the area. The occupation forces also uprooted olive trees from citizens’ lands in the “Wadi al-Ma’aser” area in the town, with the aim of extending a water line and a sewage network for one of the settlements.
Jenin: Settlers attacked the eastern area of ??the village of Dhahr al-Abed and burned an agricultural room belonging to citizen Nidal Tawfiq Amarneh. The fire reached some olive trees in the area and the settlers threatened farmers with seizing hundreds of dunams in the eastern area of ??the village, where they placed marks on the lands in preparation for seizing them, noting that all the lands are owned by the villagers and they have a title deed for them. Settlers from the ‘Homesh’ settlement outpost, which the occupation authorities legalized last week, also burned large areas of land on the outskirts of the village of Al-Fandaqumiya, south of Jenin.
Jordan Valley: Settlers attacked the (Challenge 10) school in Khirbet Ibziq, nor
th of Tubas, where they stormed the school, vandalized the protective fence, and took down the Palestinian flag from the pole. The occupation forces also demolished a number of facilities east of the city of Jericho in the “airport” area under the pretext of lacking a license, including a horse stable and retaining walls in the same area, and filled in a water well in the village of Tayasir in the northern Jordan Valley, east of the city of Tubas.
Source: Maan News Agency
