More Privileges for Remote Settlements to Boost Occupation and Settlement in the West Bank
More Privileges for Remote Settlements to Boost Occupation
and Settlement in the West Bank
By: Madeeha Araj,
In his latest report about Israeli settlements activities ,
the National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements stated , that the Netanyahu's Gov't is going ahead
with the Judaization of the Palestinian territories that can be felt through the
"national priorities project," and budgets allocated by the
occupation government to the settlement and settlers, the last of which was the
approval of a "national map of priorities" that were granted to the
settlements' leaders in the occupied West Bank to get loans from the
"State" to live in the settlements, and promote Israeli immigration,
so giving them larger budgets to enhance their Jewish character. The targeted
settlements are, Magron, Shvut-Rahal and Kerem-Re'em, usually called "isolated
settlements" because they are built outside of the major settlement blocs.
Within the context, the Israeli Ministry of Housing decided
to get the settlement of Ariel back to the map, after being removed from it in
the past. Last year, the Marker Paper revealed that 30% of the tax-free Israeli
towns having the status of "national priority" areas are settlements
in the occupied West Bank. The number of "national priorities" towns
is 407, including more than 130 settlements. The size of exemptions of taxes
was NIS 350,000,000.
On the other hand, a week passed to reject the so-called
Israeli Supreme Court appeal filed by the families of Sabbagh and Hammad in the
Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood against the Israeli Central Court's decision in
Jerusalem, which refused to consider ownership of the land
"Karam-Ja'ouni" due to outdate, and resorted to the law
"Absentee Property" which states that the property belonging to the
Palestinians before 1948 was taken away from them forever, until the Israeli
Supreme Court ruled that the Jewish National Fund, through its subsidiary
Himnuta, confiscated 522 dunums of Palestinian land in Gush Etzion settlement
south of Bethlehem, where the settlement "Rosh Tsoreim" and offices
of the settlement council of Gush Etzion settlement, and 100s of new housing
units in one of the most desirable areas in the so-called "Judea and
Samaria" were constructed. The
decision includes the seizure of more than 500 dunums in areas located in the
eastern villages of Sawahra and Abu-Deis. .
The so-called new
mayor of the Zionist occupation municipality in Jerusalem, "Moshe
Li'un," a close friend to Lieberman, has decided to cancel the project of
the establishing of 2 industrial zones for the Palestinians, one is adjacent to
the settlement of "Pisgat Zeev" on the lands of Hizma village, the
other at the entrance to Anata on the Shoafat and Anata lands. The industrial
zone on Hizma lands was approved in 1999 by the former mayor of Jerusalem,
Olmert, on an area of 54 dunums of them 200 dunums confiscated by the
occupation authorities from the lands of Hazma village, which includes
commercial and industrial zones. It appears from the directions of the
committee overseeing the project that there is a new plan being made to expand
the settlement of "Pisgat Zeev" to include 300 settlement units and
expand settlement on the lands of villages north-east of occupied Jerusalem.
In Jerusalem, the Israeli occupation authorities and the
municipality of Li'un sought to clamp down on the citizens, distributing
demolition notices in the town of Al-Isawiya in Jerusalem and put demolition
notices on the walls on houses under construction. It also handed over
demolition orders at the Jabal Mukabir East of occupied Jerusalem under the
pretext of building without a permit. The Israeli occupation forces also
surrounded a commercial office in the Shu'fat neighborhood, and completely
emptied their contents from computers and offices and then demolished it under
the pretext of building without a permit.
In addition, the Israeli occupation authorities continued to
excavate infrastructure to build a settlement in Wadi al-Rababah, in the town
of Silwan, south of Al-Aqsa Mosque, seized large areas of land in the area to
erect a settlement.
For its part, the EU, it condemned the demolition of
Palestinian homes in Jerusalem, including the Shu'fat Refugee Camp last week,
the EU's spokeswoman has said that the Israeli authorities demolished about 20
houses, she stressed that the EU strongly opposed the policy of illegal Israeli
settlement under the law And the measures taken in this context, such as forced
transfer, evictions and demolitions, because it undermines the possibility of a
viable two-state solution.
In the Tubas and the northern Jordan Valley Governorate, the
Israeli occupation forces seized 267 dunums of land from the villages of
Bardala and Tayasir being part of the Latin Church in occupied Jerusalem to
expand its settlement in violation of international laws. The occupation, has
recently worked to rebuild it and provide it with rooms and services inside and
around it. The decision constitutes a real threat to a number of Palestinian
families living in the area. Those families fear that this decision will be
as an introduction to deporting them
from their homes under security pretexts.
|
