The National Office for Land Defense and Settlement Resistance confirmed that the Israeli government has begun implementing its settlement and construction project in the area named (E1) in occupied Jerusalem, with American cover.
The National Office said in its weekly report that the Israeli occupation government approved building a thousand settlement units on the lands of the villages of Al-Tur, Anata, Al-Eizariya and Abu Dis in the area named (E1), as part of the Greater Jerusalem settlement project, which would completely close the eastern region of Jerusalem and encircle areas Anata, al-Tur and Hazmah, as it is deprived of any possibility of future expansion towards the east.
The implementation of this settlement project would lead to linking all settlements located in the eastern region and outside the borders of the municipality of occupation in Jerusalem with the settlements within the municipal boundaries of Moshe Leun, thus turning Arab villages into besieged ghettos, as well as annexing large areas of land in the West Bank. To the municipal boundaries of what is called "Greater Jerusalem", according to the plans of the occupation.
Sources of the National Land Defense Office report that a discussion took place in back channels of communication within the Israeli government coalition and with the White House to start construction in the aforementioned area in the context of planning to annex settlement blocs in the vicinity of Jerusalem to the city to expand its borders, leading to what Israel calls "Greater Jerusalem" as a step that could It is acceptable and serves as the starting point in the annexation process and the implementation of the vision of US President Donald Trump and that "Greater Jerusalem" will include, according to the deliberations that were taking place between the two sides, the three settlement blocs: "Ma´ale Adumim," "Gush Etzion," and "Givat Ze´ev," and perhaps a fourth block. Additional is "Adam - Kochav Yaqoub", which alone would tear apart the West Bank, isolate the northern and central West Bank from its south, and prevent the establishment of a viable and connected Palestinian state.
In turn, the Israeli human rights organization Ir Amim, which specializes in Jerusalem issues, which launched a campaign against the dangerous settlement project, revealed that settlement construction in the E1 project would lead to the destruction of Bedouin communities living in the eastern region of Jerusalem, and along the extended area until On the outskirts of the valley, where a large number of Palestinian communities in these areas are subject to continuous Israeli efforts to displace them and deprive them of their lands and homes.
Concerning the start of the annexation process and the imposition of Israeli laws in the areas that Israel plans to annex to its sovereignty, the American and Israeli sides are throwing the ball, and in this context, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a closed Likud party meeting that the plan to annex lands in the West Bank has not been dropped, and that "The issue is in Washington," and that the White House´s support is necessary to implement the annexation, and he will continue to move forward with this step and discuss it with senior members of the Donald Trump administration.
Senior Israeli officials estimated that Netanyahu and Trump would refrain from making controversial steps in the existing circumstances, but they did not rule out the possibility of announcing a partial annexation in the coming months, depending on the political status of the two leaders.
Settlement operating complex
On the other hand, the occupation municipality in Jerusalem approved a plan to establish an additional settlement operation complex on the eastern side of the Al-Issawiya neighborhood, located on ninety dunams.
And the mayor of the occupation, Moshe Lyon, pledged to continue projects of judaizing the city to create job opportunities for settlers.
The municipality of the occupation had announced the launch of a new Judaization plan in the east of the city, which includes a huge project to establish Silicon Valley or (Silicon Valley), which is a plan under which the areas of the financial and business sector, commercial stores and hotel rooms will be expanded to a large size east of Jerusalem at the expense of the industrial zone .
Within the framework of this settlement project, 200 thousand square meters will be built for commercial interests and operating centers in the high-end technical industries of Hitech, in addition to 50 thousand square meters for shops and 50 thousand square meters for hotels, on the Palestinian land. Job opportunity for settlers.
Wholesale demolitions
While the settlement expansion operations in Jerusalem and its environs do not stop, the demolition of Palestinian homes in various areas of the West Bank, especially in the Hebron governorate, does not stop as well, and thus the occupation authorities have carried out during the first half of this year inside the neighborhoods of the city. Jerusalem 74 demolitions, including 30 self-demolitions, concentrated in the neighborhoods of Silwan, Issawiya, Jabal Al-Mukaber, Beit Hanina, Tire Bahir, Shuafat, Wadi Al-Joz, Ras Al-Amoud and Al-Tur, while 53 notices of demolition and construction cessation were distributed.
Sabotage and narrowing
In the context of its settlement policy and imposing more facts on the ground, the occupation authorities continue to restrict Palestinian citizens to the benefit of settlement projects.
In the areas of Shafa Al-Ghor in the Ramallah and Al-Bireh governorate, the Israeli occupation forces caused the burning of areas of the lands of the citizens in the village of Mughayer, east of the governorate, due to the sound and tear gas bombs that the occupation army threw towards the lands in the eastern region of the village, while the occupation soldiers and settler groups deliberately Targeting the Jibit area to the east of Al Mughayer village, which covers an area of ​​20 thousand dunums of arable land, through setting fires, bullets, arrests, confiscating agricultural equipment, destroying homes and solar lighting units, storming the Bedouin tents in the area and terrorizing them in order to deport them from the area, where the occupation soldiers fired on Solar lighting units in the village and the region and their destruction.
In the northern Palestinian valleys, the occupation forces obstructed the extension of a drinking water pipeline near Atouf, southeast of Tubas, and detained a bulldozer that was working to extend the 1,800-meter water line, while settlers put a water tank and began planting trees in Khirbet Ihmer, in the Al-Farisiyah area, a few distance away Meters from the citizens´ tents.
Settlers also stole equipment and tools belonging to a number of citizens in the northern Jordan Valley after they stormed Khirbet Samra and stole barracks, tents, water tanks, and kitchen tools for all families in the area. The robbery included 5 tons of wheat and barley, in addition to four tents and three water tanks. Each tank 1.5 cups, and all kitchen contents.
In the Hebron governorate, the occupation mechanisms swept large areas of land adjacent to the "Njahout" settlement, which is perched on citizens´ lands in Dura, and paved new roads in the area for settlement purposes.
In a step not devoid of the meanings of annexation and the imposition of Israeli laws, the occupation courts rejected a petition filed by the Hebron municipality with the aim of preventing settlers from establishing an electric elevator in the Tomb of the Patriarchs. An exclusive right of the municipality.
Land confiscation
The occupation authorities also seized hundreds of dunams of lands of Keysan village, east of Bethlehem, after they stormed the Tina area, south of the village, and informed the citizens there that they were prevented from entering the area, and that it was seized for military purposes.
The decision to seize 327 dunums of the village’s lands came to establish 224 settlement units to expand the “Ibi Hanahil” settlement, which is built on Palestinian lands in the east of the village.
It is noteworthy that the occupation authorities recently seized 700 dunums in the vicinity of the village of Al-Fardis in the governorate, and installed mobile homes in the lands they swept away in the village near that settlement.
Demolition notices for an entire village
In a new crime to be added to the record of the occupation´s crimes, which aims to displace Palestinians and uproot them from their lands, the occupation authorities delivered notices to demolish the village of Farasin, which has about 200 inhabitants, and is located between the towns of Ya´bad in the Jenin governorate and Qafin in the Tulkarm governorate. The village and its homes and wells within days.
