Nablus – Together – The National Office for Land Defense and Settlement Resistance said in its periodic report that the expansion of settlements as a response to the recognition of the State of Palestine reflects the impasse in the policy of the occupying state.
The office added in a statement today, Saturday, ‘Three European countries, Spain, Norway, and Ireland, announced their decision last week to recognize the State of Palestine. This recognition will enter into force on the twenty-eighth of this month. Thus, the number of countries that recognize the State of Palestine becomes 142 countries.’ The origin of 193 member states of the United Nations.
She indicated that the three countries confirmed that their recognition contributes to enhancing the chances of reaching a political settlement for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on the basis of the two-state solution, international law and relevant international legitimacy resolutions. The decision of these three member states of the European Union was met
with welcoming reactions from most of the countries and powers of the world, with the exception of countries known for their friendship with the Israeli occupation state, such as the United States of America, Germany, the United Kingdom, and France. France claims that it is not against such a step, but it sees the wrong time to take it. As for the United States of America, it always has justification for its biased behavior towards the occupying state. It is in favor of the two-state solution, but it believes that recognition in this particular circumstance weighs on the chances of achieving an agreement to liberate what it calls ‘kidnapped persons.’
The report continued, “The reactions of the occupying state to the decision of these countries were expected, as more than one official in the occupation government had previously called for it, and in any case they were preceded by the Israeli Knesset, which on the twenty-second of last February adopted the ratification of the decision of Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin.” ‘Netanyahu opposes any possible international recognition of a Palestinian state, thus reflecting a state of consensus between Jews and the various factions and camps in the Israeli political scene, which refuse to reach a political settlement with the Palestinian people.’
He added, “The Knesset adopted the Israeli government’s decision against recognition of an independent Palestinian state, by a majority of 99 out of 120 members of the Knesset, and the voting results showed the trend of the various Israeli political parties and movements towards the extreme right-wing ideology, and the efforts of the political and partisan spectrum from the various camps to ignore the Palestinian issue and the rights of the people.” ‘The Palestinian movement is excluded from the parties’ agenda and programmes, either out of a firm political position or for fear of losing the public’s votes if early parliamentary elections are held.’
He said, “These reactions reflect the impasse in this country’s policy and were
not limited, of course, to the political position on this important step. Rather, they went beyond what is expected of a state whose relationship with the Palestinian side is governed by the laws of the jungle. Here specifically, Israel is not behaving like a state of law as much as it is behaving like a state governed by laws.” Al-Ghab. More than one official in Israel has previously announced that this country will establish a new settlement in exchange for each country’s recognition of the State of Palestine. Hence the reaction to the recognition of the State of Palestine by Norway, Ireland, and Spain, announced by the Minister of the Occupation Army, Yoav Galant, in a joint statement with the President. The Settlements Council in the northern West Bank, the right-wing extremist Likud, Yossi Dagan, began implementing what was stipulated in the ‘cancellation of disengagement’ law from the northern West Bank, which was issued by the Israeli Knesset on March 21, 2023, and was what was called ‘disengagement fr
om the Palestinians.’ In the Gaza Strip, this was taken by former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2005, when the occupying state dismantled its settlements in the Gaza Strip and four settlements in the Jenin Governorate in the northern West Bank, namely Ganim, Kadim, Sanur, and Homesh, and at the same time withdrew its forces from inside the Strip to surround it from the outside. . The cancellation of the disengagement from the Knesset had one meaning and one goal, which was to allow the return of settlers to these settlements that had been dismantled, by canceling the criminal punishment that was imposed under the ‘disengagement’ law on anyone who enters or resides in those settlements, which were built on private Palestinian land. Since then, Homesh has turned into something like a settlement outpost through which settlers practice orgies and terrorist acts, burning homes and destroying vehicles under full protection from the occupation army.’
According to the statement issued by Galant, the decisio
n was taken after continuous consultations between him, the head of the settlement council, and officials in the Israeli army. Galant added: ‘After the disengagement cancellation law was approved in the Knesset and the work was completed, we were able to complete the historic step. Jewish control over Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) guarantees security, and implementing the disengagement cancellation law will lead to the development of settlement and provide security for the residents of the region.’ . ‘I will continue to develop the settlements in Judea and Samaria, to strengthen the security elements and the security of citizens, in the roads and settlements.’ In the same context, an order was signed for a ‘closed military zone’ in the northern West Bank, to protect against hasty steps by settlers to reach the area and settle there, before the completion of the security measures of the occupation army to secure the settlement and the settlers. A security source told Israeli Army Radio, explaining, ‘This r
equires completely different security preparations in this area, to build a settlement around Jenin. This area is filled with ‘terrorism’ more than any other area in the West Bank, so this cannot be done from today until tomorrow. Now we begin to work on Examining all the security factors and conditions for settlement in this area, including building other military points and sites to protect it, and it is estimated by the security services that it will take at least months until the security preparations required to establish settlements again in the area are completed.
As for the Minister of Finance and Minister of Settlement in the Ministry of the Army, Bezalel Smotrich, the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, called for immediate punitive measures against the Palestinian Authority in response to the decisions of Norway, Spain, and Ireland to recognize the State of Palestine. Smotrich’s requests were as follows: Holding an immediate meeting of the Settlement Planning Council in Judea and Samaria (West Ban
k) to approve ten thousand housing units (settlement) in the settlements to be ready for professional development, including Area E1. And demanding the ratification of a decision in the cabinet session to establish a settlement in exchange for every country that recognizes the Palestinian state. Smotrich confirmed in a letter addressed to Netanyahu that he had directed the Settlement Directorate in the Civil Administration to prepare a strategic plan for planning three settlements and that he would present to the cabinet another decision aimed at canceling the ‘Norwegian path’ that the cabinet had approved a few months ago regarding clearing money. Norway, after its recognition of the Palestinian state, cannot Be a partner in anything related to ‘Judea and Samaria’ (West Bank), and that he intends to stop transferring funds to it and demand the return of all transferred funds.
At the same time, the Knesset General Assembly approved, in preliminary reading, last week a draft law calling for the annexation of
lands in the occupied West Bank to Israel. The draft law stipulates that the southern Hebron region is considered part of the Negev. The draft law, of course, did not constitute Palestinian villages and towns in the region under the title of annexation, but rather 15 settlements in the region, including ‘Kiryat Arba’ and a large number of random settlement outposts. The bill was supported by 52 Knesset members, some of whom were from the Yisrael Beytenu party, led by Avigdo Lieberman, and 37 Knesset members opposed it. The text of the law, presented by Knesset member Limor Son Har Melech from the ‘Otzma Yehudit’ party headed by Itamar Ben Gvir, stated that it proposes to include all Israelis (i.e. settlements and random settlement outposts) south of Line 115 within the definition of the Negev, and that the Negev region be included. From the south of Line 115 to the area to which the Negev Development Authority Law of 1991 applies.’ Har Melech considered that this is an important law and will stop the years-lo
ng discrimination and injustice against settlers in South Mount Hebron and Kiryat Arba. As for the Minister of the Negev, Galilee and National Immunity, Yitzhak Wasserlauf He is also from the fascist Otzma Yehudit party. He commented on the law on behalf of the government, saying: This law is a correction of an injustice and that the south of Mount Hebron is included among the threatened towns in mixed cities (i.e. the historic Palestinian cities – Jaffa, Haifa, Acre, Lod, and Ramla). In the country, the opposition leader, Yair Lapid, mocked the draft law and said, ‘Kiryat Arba is not the Negev. You have been stealing the peripheral areas for years, and today you have turned that into law. Negev is the Negev, Judea and Samaria (i.e. the occupied West Bank) is Judea and Samaria, and Galilee is Galilee. Do not invent a geography that does not exist. And you steal money from (the towns of the Negev) Netivot and Ofakim and from Kiryat Shmona. 50 years, the settlements have been stealing the money of towns outside
central Israel, and the Likud Party is silent.’
On another level, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, ‘B’Tselem,’ revealed a plan by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which aims to displace Palestinian shepherds from their lands in the occupied West Bank, in cooperation with groups of settlers, considering this part of the ‘Israeli apartheid system.’ A statement issued by the center stated that it documented, during the past months of February and March, about 20 incidents during which settlers and soldiers from the occupation army, through various means, expelled Palestinian shepherds from grazing areas in the hills located south of Hebron Governorate, and that the process of expelling Palestinian shepherds is ‘part of An intentional pattern of action adopted by settlers to serve Israeli policy. The Center pointed out that the Palestinian shepherds’ communities in the West Bank are being displaced through a combination of authoritarian methods and practices implemente
d by official bodies such as the Civil Administration and the Army, and through an informal channel through acts of organized violence and harassment carried out by the Center During the last decade, dozens of settlement farms were established, with support from the state but without its official permission, prepared to seize pasture lands in Palestinian rural areas. It was revealed that ‘since October 7, 2023, a very large number of settlers participating in the campaign have been recruited.’ Acts of violence against Palestinians in the ranks of the army’s general defense or in the ‘preparedness or emergency teams’ and who were armed with military weapons, and as a result of this it is no longer possible today to distinguish between the actions carried out by these settlers under official orders and directives from the military leadership, and the actions they carry out. Spontaneous settlers in military uniform.’
In this context, settlers established a new settlement outpost near the Al-Auja Spring, north o
f Jericho, where they brought housing equipment and established the new outpost 300 meters from the Al-Auja water canal, knowing that they had established another settlement outpost two weeks before that. This settlement outpost was established to besiege the Bedouin population in the area and deprive them of natural water sources, in an attempt to forcibly displace them, while the settlers again attacked the ‘Arab Al-Malihat’ community northwest of the city of Jericho, grazed their sheep in agricultural crops, and attacked citizens in continuous pressure operations in order to displace them from the area.
The weekly violations documented by the National Office for Land Defense were as follows during the reporting period:
Jerusalem: The occupation authorities bulldozed a plot of land of 4 dunams in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in the center of the occupied city of Jerusalem, in preparation for a celebration for the settlers of the so-called ‘Feast of the Torch’ at the beginning of the week. Large platform
s were also erected and sound and lighting devices were placed on the targeted land in order to hold the celebration, while severely restricting the people of the neighborhood and obstructing their movement. The so-called commander of the home front in the occupying state had signed a decision to move the celebration to the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood after it had been taking place in “Mount Meron” near the occupied Golan. According to the decision, the neighborhood will be completely closed starting this evening/Saturday and for a period of 48 hours until before noon on Monday, as the city of Jerusalem, especially the Sheikh Jarrah and Wadi al-Joz neighborhoods, will witness strict occupation military measures. As for the extremist Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, he stormed the courtyards of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, under the protection of the occupation police, for the first time since the Israeli aggression on Gaza on the seventh of last October. Ben Gvir said in a statement during the st
orming: ‘We must control this most important place of all.’ “..
Hebron: Settlers began expanding the “Otnael” settlement and placed eight mobile homes outside the settlement fence established on citizens’ lands in the village of Karma and the town of Yatta, south of Hebron, threatening to seize more lands in the area. In the ‘Haribat al-Nabi’ area in Masafer Yatta, a group of armed settlers attacked shepherds, causing the citizen Suleiman Youssef Abu Subha to suffer bruises, in addition to breaking his mobile phone. They also stole two heads of sheep, while settlers from the ‘Susiyeh’ settlement attacked a number of farmers. From the Shatat family, they tried to prevent them from harvesting their agricultural crops of wheat and barley in the ‘Aghziwa’ area in Masafer Yatta. Also in the Al-Ain Al-Bayda area in Al-Musafer, settlers severely beat sheep shepherds, which led to Mahmoud Hassan Daoud sustaining bruises and wounds. He was transferred to Yatta Governmental Hospital, while the occupation forces storme
d the town of Sa’ir, north of Hebron, and carried out raids and searches. The occupation forces fired gas bombs. And the sound during the storming operation, which led to fires igniting agricultural lands in the town.
Bethlehem: Dozens of settlers surrounded the home of citizen Nadi Abu Suway in the ‘Wadi Shekhit’ area, one of the Beit Askaria communities, located near the ‘Alon Shvut’ settlement, one of the settlements in the ‘Gush Etzion’ settlement bloc, south of Bethlehem, and they tried to expel him from the house, before they They are confronted and forced to withdraw from the place. Others, under the protection of the occupation forces, attacked the western area of ??the village of Kisan, east of Bethlehem, and closed the main street. They chanted racist slogans, including ‘Death to Arabs and Palestinians.’ They raised the flags of the occupying state on the wall surrounding the headquarters of the village council and prevented the movement of vehicles on the main street leading to the village. In the
village of Artas, the occupation forces demolished a four-story building located in the ‘Atan’ area, owned by the citizen Youssef Al-Atrash from the village of Al-Walaja, under the pretext of building without a license. In the town of Al-Khader, settlers detained Yassin Daadou’s family and his sons, and prevented them from continuing to cultivate their land, before forcing them to leave it and never return to it again. The occupation forces also seized about 6 dunams of land from the villages of Nahalin and Al-Jabaa under the name of a seizure order for military and security purposes, which bore the number T/24/27. It is a measure that targets the lands surrounding the ‘Giv’ot’ settlement established on the lands of the village of Nahalin.
Ramallah: The occupation authorities in the town of Ni’lin, west of Ramallah, were notified of the demolition and cessation of work and construction in 12 houses. Three of the houses threatened with demolition have been inhabited for more than seven years, and some of thos
e houses are under construction. They belong to the citizens Hamad Musa and Mishal Musleh Musa. , Hassan Youssef Musa, Hamza Muhammad Musa, Atta Mustafa Musa, Moawad Youssef Musa, Bassam Sobhi Nafi, Malik Hatem Al-Khawaja, Mukhlis Jamal Shahwan, Ahmed Sobhi Amira, and Atta Salim, under the pretext of building without a permit. In the lands of the town of Deir Dibwan, a group of armed settlers, in possession of 200 heads of sheep, set up two tents on the lands of the town. Also, more than 30 settlers, protected by the occupation forces, set up a number of tents in the ‘Ras al-Jabal’ area, which belong to the people of Umm Safa, Deir al-Sudan, and Ajul, in preparation for the takeover. Over the weekend, settlers also stormed the village of Jaljaliya, northwest of the city of Ramallah, and stationed themselves at the ‘Salaa’ water spring.
Nablus: A young man (21 years old) was injured by settlers’ bullets in the village of Azmut, east of Nablus, after they fired live bullets at citizens while they were trying t
o extinguish fires that burned on their lands near the ‘Alon Moreh’ settlement built on village lands. He was transferred to the hospital. In the town of Aqraba, south of Nablus, the occupation forces demolished a car wash near the western entrance to the town, owned by the citizen Jaber Bani Fadl. The occupation forces also seized a truck from the village of Duma, south of Nablus, used to transport wood. The head of the Yatma Village Council, south of Nablus, Ahmed Sanobar, said that hundreds of settlers attacked the village under the protection of the occupation forces and burned the ‘mashrut’ of vehicles and large areas of agricultural land. They also attacked with stones a house located on the outskirts of the village. In the village of Beit Dajan, settlers burned agricultural fields in the eastern area of ??the village. Others also burned 15 dunums of wheat crop in the plain of the town of Sebastia, in addition to dozens of dunums, rooms, and agricultural kiosks along the road extending from the town to
the Bazaria Junction, northwest of Nablus. Once again, Yitzhar settlers attacked the village of Asira al-Qibliya, shooting live bullets at citizens’ homes, trying to burn one of the homes there, and setting fire to areas of its land. Settlers attacked a truck loaded with flour, near Jabal Subeih, which belongs to the Beita lands, south of Nablus, and destroyed part of its cargo, while the occupation forces delivered notices to stop construction and demolition in the village of Duma, south of Nablus. The head of the village council in Duma, Suleiman Dawabsha, reported that the occupation forces stormed the village and handed A number of citizens received notices to stop building homes and agricultural rooms, and to remove streets, infrastructure, and electricity and telephone poles. He added that the occupation soldiers photographed some of the homes that had previously been handed demolition notices. In the village of Jalud, settlers bulldozed areas of village land in preparation for seizure. And the bulldozi
ng is only a few meters away from citizens’ homes.
Salfit: The occupation forces seized a concrete pump in the town of Qarawat Bani Hassan, west of Salfit, while it was working in a house under construction in the ‘Al-Makhlata’ area, north of the town, owned by the citizen Izz al-Din Mar’i. Dozens of settlers gathered near the town of Deir Istiya, northwest of Salfit. Specifically in the areas of “Al-Duhur”, “Al-Aqra'”, and “Wadi Al-Shami”, and on the main road leading to Wadi Qana and near the town of Kafl Haris, they attempted to attack citizens’ vehicles. Settlers also seized a feed truck in Wadi Qana owned by the citizen Salloum Muhammad Ramadan. In the Al-Mayadeen area
Jenin: The occupation forces seized a house in the village of Jalboun, northeast of Jenin, belonging to the citizen Youssef Taher Abu Al-Rub and turned it into a military point. They also prevented the citizen Ahmed Hassan Abu Al-Rub from continuing to build his house while it was under construction, and prevented the farmer Tawfiq Mahmo
ud Abu Al-Rub from building an agricultural greenhouse. This comes as the occupation forces continue to seize a laundry and a house belonging to the citizen Rafi’ Rafiq Abu Al-Rub, for the 27th day in a row.
The Jordan Valley: Settlers attacked citizens’ vehicles with stones on the Al-Ma’rajat Road between the Ramallah and Jericho governorates and caused material damage to them. The attack resulted in the injury of a 58-year-old citizen with bruises as a result of settlers’ assault on him, who severely beat him and sprayed him with pepper gas while he was traveling on the Al-Ma’rajat Road. Military training by the occupation army caused The fire broke out in approximately two hundred dunums of agricultural land, and more than 1,600 dunums of pastoral land in the areas of: Samra, Humsa, Makhul, and Al-Maksar, in the northern Jordan Valley. Settlers seized dozens of sheep, in the ‘Arab Al-Malihat’ Bedouin community, northwest of Jericho, owned by the citizen. Abdul Latif Atallah Suleiman.
Source: Maan News A
gency