13 feb 2020
Israeli forces Thursday started the groundwork for the construction of a road that would colonial settlements in Nablus district with those in the Jordan Valley.
Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settlement construction in the northern West Bank, told WAFA that Israeli forces started the construction of an 8-kilometer-long road that would connect the colonial settlement of Eli and Shilo in Nablus district with other colonial settlements in the Jordan Valley.
He noted that the road would be constructed on fertile agricultural lands belonging to the Palestinian villages of Duma, Talfit, Qaryout, and al-Mughayyir, all located south of Nablus, as well as to the villagers of Fasayel in the central Jordan Valley.
He slammed the road construction as one of the most serious projects aimed to seize more Palestinian land and restrict Palestinian movement.
In 2014, the Israeli government revealed a plan that aims to open dozens of settler-only by-pass roads that would extend for 300 kilometers.
Israel denies planning permits for Palestinians to build on their own land, extend existing houses to accommodate natural growth, and to build roads, particularly in Jerusalem and Area C, while it much more easily gives the estimated 550,000 Jewish Israeli settlers there building permits and provides them with roads, electricity, water and sewage systems that remain inaccessible to many neighboring Palestinians.
Israeli severely restricts Palestinians’ freedom of movement through a complex combination of approximately 100 fixed checkpoints, flying checkpoints, settler-only roads and various other physical obstructions.
Such Israeli measures, taken under the guise of security, are intended to entrench Israel’s 51-year-old military occupation of the West Bank and its settler colonial project which it enforces with routine and frequently deadly violence against Palestinians.
Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settlement construction in the northern West Bank, told WAFA that Israeli forces started the construction of an 8-kilometer-long road that would connect the colonial settlement of Eli and Shilo in Nablus district with other colonial settlements in the Jordan Valley.
He noted that the road would be constructed on fertile agricultural lands belonging to the Palestinian villages of Duma, Talfit, Qaryout, and al-Mughayyir, all located south of Nablus, as well as to the villagers of Fasayel in the central Jordan Valley.
He slammed the road construction as one of the most serious projects aimed to seize more Palestinian land and restrict Palestinian movement.
In 2014, the Israeli government revealed a plan that aims to open dozens of settler-only by-pass roads that would extend for 300 kilometers.
Israel denies planning permits for Palestinians to build on their own land, extend existing houses to accommodate natural growth, and to build roads, particularly in Jerusalem and Area C, while it much more easily gives the estimated 550,000 Jewish Israeli settlers there building permits and provides them with roads, electricity, water and sewage systems that remain inaccessible to many neighboring Palestinians.
Israeli severely restricts Palestinians’ freedom of movement through a complex combination of approximately 100 fixed checkpoints, flying checkpoints, settler-only roads and various other physical obstructions.
Such Israeli measures, taken under the guise of security, are intended to entrench Israel’s 51-year-old military occupation of the West Bank and its settler colonial project which it enforces with routine and frequently deadly violence against Palestinians.
12 feb 2020
Israeli bulldozers on Tuesday continued to level dozens of dunums of Palestinian land in Hares village, west of Salfit in the occupied West Bank, to prepare the area for the expansion of the illegal settlement of Ariel and the construction of new factories.
The bulldozed land, about 250 dunums, belongs to the Islamic Awqaf Authority and is located between Hares village and Burqin town.
Hares mayor Omar Samara said that the Israeli occupation authority bulldozed over 100 dunums of this land about one month ago and resumed its leveling activities again with no prior notice.
The same bulldozers also destroyed a cultivated plot of land belonging to a local farmer called Omar Fazaa in a nearby area.
The bulldozed land, about 250 dunums, belongs to the Islamic Awqaf Authority and is located between Hares village and Burqin town.
Hares mayor Omar Samara said that the Israeli occupation authority bulldozed over 100 dunums of this land about one month ago and resumed its leveling activities again with no prior notice.
The same bulldozers also destroyed a cultivated plot of land belonging to a local farmer called Omar Fazaa in a nearby area.
5 feb 2020
Israeli settlers from Karnei Shomron settlement on Wednesday razed tracts of Palestinian land in Jinsafut village in Qalqilya province to build new housing units.
Palestinian farmers in Jinsafut said that they have lost their most fertile lands to Israeli settlement expansion which is witnessing an unprecedented increase in the area.
Karnei Shomron settlement was established in 1978 on illegally seized Palestinian lands in Kafr Laqif, Jinsafut and Deir Istiya villages in the West Bank province of Qalqilya.
Palestinian farmers in Jinsafut said that they have lost their most fertile lands to Israeli settlement expansion which is witnessing an unprecedented increase in the area.
Karnei Shomron settlement was established in 1978 on illegally seized Palestinian lands in Kafr Laqif, Jinsafut and Deir Istiya villages in the West Bank province of Qalqilya.
3 feb 2020
By: Madeeha Araj for PNN
The National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements stated in its latest report, that over the last decade, Arabs and international community have done their utmost to reach a just and lasting peace agreement between the Palestinians and Israelis under UN resolutions, international law and bilateral agreements.
Moreover, they supported a two states solution, where a Palestinian and an Israeli state would live side by side in peace and security within recognized borders, and they rejected the recently announced Trump’s unjust “deal of the century.
At a joint press conference with PM Benjamin Netanyahu, last Tuesday, at the White House, upon which the far-right Israel parties have started to implement the plan, which undoubtedly was orchestrated by Jared Kushner, Jason Greenblatt and US Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman.
According to the Zio-American settlement plan, the only benefactor is Israel, in terms of security, settlement land and recognized borders as well as the Israeli enclaves inside the Palestinian territories that become part of the State of Israel, and the Jordan Valley will be under Israeli sovereignty, and about 97% settlers in the West Bank will become part of Israel.
Thus, the Deal of the Century calls for the establishment of a false Palestinian state without any geographical connection among the towns and cities except through bridges and tunnels, and it will not have any direct borders with neighboring countries, turning the Palestinian areas in the West Bank into “large prisons.”
According to Israeli “Yediot Aharonot”, the Israeli government will not use the term “annexation,” but “imposing Israeli law,” given that these lands are not affiliated to a country, such as the Golan Heights, which was annexed because it was affiliated to a state.
The statements issued by officials of the Trump administration, and the Israeli government, showed that a joint committee was formed to implement the plan by the Israeli government in the West Bank, and to match it with the maps presented in the “Deal of the Century.”
For his part, the American ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, assured American Jewish evangelical leaders that the Palestinians will not get a state soon even if they accept the “deal of the century”.
Moreover, Israeli Minister of Security, Naftali Bennett, announced the formation of a crew to work immediately on imposing the Israeli sovereignty over illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. In a speech before the National Security Research Center conference in Tel Aviv, Bennett said, “Our full support to Prime Minister Natenyahu.”
He also affirmed that Israel will not allow the establishment of a Palestinian state under any circumstances, and it will not give a single inch of land, and we will only accept the “deal of the century” if it includes annexing lands from the West Bank to the state of Israel.
For her part, Member of Israel’s Knesset, Ayelet Shaked, called to enact a law for annexing the lands of the West Bank lands and the Jordan Valley as well as the Area C lands without residents in order to prevent the establishment of any Palestinian entity anywhere.
On the other hand, the head of the “Israel Beiton,” Avigdor Lieberman, called for submitting a private draft law to the Knesset in the next few days to annex the Jordan Valley.
On the Other hand, settlement projects, demolitions and ethnic cleansing continued as well as construction work at St. 60 i.e. (Tunnels Road) is also taking place to link Jerusalem to the southern settlements at the expense of Palestinian citizens’ land in Beit Jala.
The National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements stated in its latest report, that over the last decade, Arabs and international community have done their utmost to reach a just and lasting peace agreement between the Palestinians and Israelis under UN resolutions, international law and bilateral agreements.
Moreover, they supported a two states solution, where a Palestinian and an Israeli state would live side by side in peace and security within recognized borders, and they rejected the recently announced Trump’s unjust “deal of the century.
At a joint press conference with PM Benjamin Netanyahu, last Tuesday, at the White House, upon which the far-right Israel parties have started to implement the plan, which undoubtedly was orchestrated by Jared Kushner, Jason Greenblatt and US Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman.
According to the Zio-American settlement plan, the only benefactor is Israel, in terms of security, settlement land and recognized borders as well as the Israeli enclaves inside the Palestinian territories that become part of the State of Israel, and the Jordan Valley will be under Israeli sovereignty, and about 97% settlers in the West Bank will become part of Israel.
Thus, the Deal of the Century calls for the establishment of a false Palestinian state without any geographical connection among the towns and cities except through bridges and tunnels, and it will not have any direct borders with neighboring countries, turning the Palestinian areas in the West Bank into “large prisons.”
According to Israeli “Yediot Aharonot”, the Israeli government will not use the term “annexation,” but “imposing Israeli law,” given that these lands are not affiliated to a country, such as the Golan Heights, which was annexed because it was affiliated to a state.
The statements issued by officials of the Trump administration, and the Israeli government, showed that a joint committee was formed to implement the plan by the Israeli government in the West Bank, and to match it with the maps presented in the “Deal of the Century.”
For his part, the American ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, assured American Jewish evangelical leaders that the Palestinians will not get a state soon even if they accept the “deal of the century”.
Moreover, Israeli Minister of Security, Naftali Bennett, announced the formation of a crew to work immediately on imposing the Israeli sovereignty over illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. In a speech before the National Security Research Center conference in Tel Aviv, Bennett said, “Our full support to Prime Minister Natenyahu.”
He also affirmed that Israel will not allow the establishment of a Palestinian state under any circumstances, and it will not give a single inch of land, and we will only accept the “deal of the century” if it includes annexing lands from the West Bank to the state of Israel.
For her part, Member of Israel’s Knesset, Ayelet Shaked, called to enact a law for annexing the lands of the West Bank lands and the Jordan Valley as well as the Area C lands without residents in order to prevent the establishment of any Palestinian entity anywhere.
On the other hand, the head of the “Israel Beiton,” Avigdor Lieberman, called for submitting a private draft law to the Knesset in the next few days to annex the Jordan Valley.
On the Other hand, settlement projects, demolitions and ethnic cleansing continued as well as construction work at St. 60 i.e. (Tunnels Road) is also taking place to link Jerusalem to the southern settlements at the expense of Palestinian citizens’ land in Beit Jala.
20 jan 2020
Madeeha Araj/PNN
The National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements stated, in its latest weekly report , that the far-right Israeli Defense Minister, Naftali Bennett announced, last week, the approval of seven nature reserves in the West Bank, with an area of 130,000-State dunams — 20,000 of which ones belong to Palestinian citizens.
Bennett’s announcement also included approval for expansion of 12 already existing and approved by the Civil Administration in 2008.
The announcement included Wadi Al-Malha Reserve, 14,236 dunams; Wadi Tireza Reserve, 200 dunams; and Wadi Ogh Reserve, 5,700 dunams — all private Palestinian lands.
Bennett claimed that his ministry continues to develop the Jewish settlement in Area C “with actions, but not with words,” adding that, in Judea and Samaria, there are picturesque natural sites to be expanded and new ones be established, soon.
In his announcement, Bennett also called on Civil Administration to transfer the new nature reserves’ responsibility to the Nature and Gardens’ Authority, so that it can be opened before the public. Bennett’s announcement mentioned a large number of sites, including the Surek Cave, also known as the High Halimat Cave or the Candles Cave, near Beit Sorek; Wadi al-Muqlaq, on the eastern slopes of the Mount of Olives, in Jerusalem; Wadi-Malha, to the southern Jordan River; and Wadi Al-Far’a, the gateway to the northern Jordan Valley.
Moreover, Bennett also announced the expansion of 12 existing natural reserves, namely the mountain peaks located west of the Dead Sea; Fsayil & Um Zoka, in the Jordan Valley; Ein al-Fashkhah, adjacent to the Dead Sea; Kharouba village, east of Ramla and inside the West Bank; Wadi Silvadora, north of the Dead Sea; Ghadir Mountain, east of Tubas; Eioun Kana, north of the Dead Sea; Wadi Al-Malha, in the middle of the Jordan Valley; and Qumran, in the Jericho area — which means placing a hand on large areas of Palestinian land classified as Area C.
According to B’Tselem’s data, Israel announced that about 20% of the Jordan Valley has become “natural reserves, and national parks.”
In general, there are 700 km2 in the West Bank that have been declared natural reserves, in addition to 78 km2 as forests, so that the percentage of those lands reaches 13.7% of the total area of the West Bank. This is to say 59 nature reserves, most of which are located in Area C, according to the Oslo Agreement, but under Israeli control, which is subject to use for the benefit of settlements in the northern Jordan Valley — areas that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is promoting for his plan to impose Israeli sovereignty, there, if he wins the elections — the nature reserves in Wadi Qana, Salfit, and others in the Bethlehem and Hebron governorates.
With this in mind, the matter is clearly not limited to nature reserves, but also includes military bases or state lands.
Within the context of settlement projects, Israeli occupation authorities issued military orders to seize 350 dunams of agricultural land from Al-Khader and Artas villages, to the south of Bethlehem and specifically in the Bakush, Dhahr Ein, Hammad, Al-Shagv, Zakandah, Ein Al-Qasis, Shushahla, and Rajm areas, with the aim of expanding the bypass settlement road n. 60.
This means razing and rubbering more land, as well as adding 150-meter recoil, preventing farmers from accessing their lands.
Israeli authorities seized 127 dunams of land in Burqin and Kafr al-Dik, to the west of Salfit, under the pretext of it being state property. Israeli forces began implementing the second stage of establishing a new water line on the lands of the Qalqila Governorate, which extends from the 1948 line to Nablus, for the purpose of watering settlements.
This seven-kilometer project was announced in 2018, and entails the destruction of more than 1,000 olive trees and the confiscation of one hundred dunams of lands.
In Nablus, groups of settlers gathered on a number of roads, especially the Hawara and Yitzhar roads, and in the Orif lands, disrupting study at Orif Secondary School. At the same time, settlers attacked residential houses with stones, in the Madama village, and tried to climb their roofs, but people from around the villages came to help.
In Salfit, occupation authorities announced, earlier, the expansion of the Bruakhin settlement by adding hundreds of new settlement units. This prompted the settlers, there, to bulldoze 127 dunams in the Thahr Subh area, on the northern side of Hajah town, classified as a state land located in Areas B & C, although its owners possess documents which prove their ownership.
The National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements stated, in its latest weekly report , that the far-right Israeli Defense Minister, Naftali Bennett announced, last week, the approval of seven nature reserves in the West Bank, with an area of 130,000-State dunams — 20,000 of which ones belong to Palestinian citizens.
Bennett’s announcement also included approval for expansion of 12 already existing and approved by the Civil Administration in 2008.
The announcement included Wadi Al-Malha Reserve, 14,236 dunams; Wadi Tireza Reserve, 200 dunams; and Wadi Ogh Reserve, 5,700 dunams — all private Palestinian lands.
Bennett claimed that his ministry continues to develop the Jewish settlement in Area C “with actions, but not with words,” adding that, in Judea and Samaria, there are picturesque natural sites to be expanded and new ones be established, soon.
In his announcement, Bennett also called on Civil Administration to transfer the new nature reserves’ responsibility to the Nature and Gardens’ Authority, so that it can be opened before the public. Bennett’s announcement mentioned a large number of sites, including the Surek Cave, also known as the High Halimat Cave or the Candles Cave, near Beit Sorek; Wadi al-Muqlaq, on the eastern slopes of the Mount of Olives, in Jerusalem; Wadi-Malha, to the southern Jordan River; and Wadi Al-Far’a, the gateway to the northern Jordan Valley.
Moreover, Bennett also announced the expansion of 12 existing natural reserves, namely the mountain peaks located west of the Dead Sea; Fsayil & Um Zoka, in the Jordan Valley; Ein al-Fashkhah, adjacent to the Dead Sea; Kharouba village, east of Ramla and inside the West Bank; Wadi Silvadora, north of the Dead Sea; Ghadir Mountain, east of Tubas; Eioun Kana, north of the Dead Sea; Wadi Al-Malha, in the middle of the Jordan Valley; and Qumran, in the Jericho area — which means placing a hand on large areas of Palestinian land classified as Area C.
According to B’Tselem’s data, Israel announced that about 20% of the Jordan Valley has become “natural reserves, and national parks.”
In general, there are 700 km2 in the West Bank that have been declared natural reserves, in addition to 78 km2 as forests, so that the percentage of those lands reaches 13.7% of the total area of the West Bank. This is to say 59 nature reserves, most of which are located in Area C, according to the Oslo Agreement, but under Israeli control, which is subject to use for the benefit of settlements in the northern Jordan Valley — areas that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is promoting for his plan to impose Israeli sovereignty, there, if he wins the elections — the nature reserves in Wadi Qana, Salfit, and others in the Bethlehem and Hebron governorates.
With this in mind, the matter is clearly not limited to nature reserves, but also includes military bases or state lands.
Within the context of settlement projects, Israeli occupation authorities issued military orders to seize 350 dunams of agricultural land from Al-Khader and Artas villages, to the south of Bethlehem and specifically in the Bakush, Dhahr Ein, Hammad, Al-Shagv, Zakandah, Ein Al-Qasis, Shushahla, and Rajm areas, with the aim of expanding the bypass settlement road n. 60.
This means razing and rubbering more land, as well as adding 150-meter recoil, preventing farmers from accessing their lands.
Israeli authorities seized 127 dunams of land in Burqin and Kafr al-Dik, to the west of Salfit, under the pretext of it being state property. Israeli forces began implementing the second stage of establishing a new water line on the lands of the Qalqila Governorate, which extends from the 1948 line to Nablus, for the purpose of watering settlements.
This seven-kilometer project was announced in 2018, and entails the destruction of more than 1,000 olive trees and the confiscation of one hundred dunams of lands.
In Nablus, groups of settlers gathered on a number of roads, especially the Hawara and Yitzhar roads, and in the Orif lands, disrupting study at Orif Secondary School. At the same time, settlers attacked residential houses with stones, in the Madama village, and tried to climb their roofs, but people from around the villages came to help.
In Salfit, occupation authorities announced, earlier, the expansion of the Bruakhin settlement by adding hundreds of new settlement units. This prompted the settlers, there, to bulldoze 127 dunams in the Thahr Subh area, on the northern side of Hajah town, classified as a state land located in Areas B & C, although its owners possess documents which prove their ownership.
