The National Office for Land Defense and Settlement Resistance, affiliated with the PLO, warned that “the dangers looming in Area C due to settlement expansion constitute a threat to the Palestinian existence.”

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He explained in his weekly report that the increase in settler violence comes to tighten control over these areas, and falls within the framework of the process of settlement expansion on what remains of the Palestinians’ land besieged by settlements, settlement outposts, and so-called “pastoral farms,” which have become a tool of control by organizations. Terrorist settlers on the ground.

He pointed out that at the end of last week, the occupation authorities handed over eleven demolition notices to the Abu Al-Nawar community of residential and agricultural facilities, which is surrounded by settlements on its four sides: “Ma’ale Adumim” to the north, “Kedar 1” to the south, and “Kedar 2 to the east”, in addition to a military camp. To the occupation army, explaining that such notifications were repeated in Masafer Yatta, the northern Jordan Valley, and the passes of Jericho over the course of the past year at the hands of the Netanyahu-Smotrich-Ben Gvir government, and they very clearly indicate the dangers facing areas classified as “C” in the West Bank.

Vital space for settlements

More than half a million settlers live in this area, spread out in more than 175 settlements, more than 200 settlement outposts, and pastoral farms.

Settlements, according to structural building plans, occupy 4.5% of the area, while settlement outposts and so-called pastoral farms cover larger areas.

On the other hand, more than 350,000 Palestinians live in this area, in more than 530 villages covering a quarter of its area, and they are distributed as follows from this narrow area: 5% for construction and housing and about 35% for agriculture and grazing. What is called “state lands” and settlement lands is about 60% of the area.

The report explained that the Israeli governments consider Area C a vital space for Jewish settlement and security, and reserve it as a material in the management of negotiations, if they take place in the future, while the Palestinians consider Area C a vital space indispensable for the establishment of a contiguous and viable Palestinian state, which is part of It is fundamental and vital to the Palestinian state, as without it, the state’s geographical continuity would be lacking. Moreover, it includes agricultural areas, many natural resources, and lands for establishing infrastructure and expanding rural and urban construction.

The report continued: The 37th occupation government, which Netanyahu formed with his new extremist allies after the Knesset elections in November 2022, began implementing a fundamental coup, in everything related to the forms of control of the occupying state, not only over areas classified as (C), but also over the West Bank. , including Jerusalem.

The goal of this government is to establish absolute control over the region, prepare the conditions for its annexation to the occupying state, and thwart every possibility of a future agreement, based on the so-called two-state solution.

Another aspect of this coup is evident in the government’s extremist strategy to eliminate the national aspirations of the Palestinians, by turning these areas into “New Galilee“, without political rights for its residents.

He noted that the basic idea that the current occupation government is pushing, according to many reports and estimates, is to provide the necessary and appropriate conditions for creeping annexation, with a series of steps, which began by transferring the powers of the “Civil Administration” to the Minister in the Ministry of the Army, Bezalel Smotrich, and expanding the settlement project, by settling the so-called “Young settlement,” that is, legal recognition of illegal settlement outposts.

Dismantling power

This was evident in the discussions, the report notes, that took place in the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee in the Knesset before the aggression against our people on the seventh of last October, where Smotrich revealed, in agreement with the extremist Itamar Ben Gvir, and with the encouragement of Netanyahu, that the government is working to change… In the policy of establishing a specialized unit in the “Border Guard” to enforce the law, in what is called “Judea and Samaria.”

Smotrich even revealed the government’s intention to allocate hundreds of thousands of dunams for agriculture to the Jewish National Fund “Keren Kaymet,” and to legitimize 155 settlement outposts and all pastoral farms, which are run by terrorist organizations such as the “Price Pay” organization, in addition to Further weakening of the Palestinian Authority, and even its final dismantling, and assigning the task of managing population affairs to local authorities only.

In this context, it is possible to understand the policy and orientations of this right-wing and extremist government, and the accompanying doubling of the volume of construction bids in the settlements, the legitimization of many settlement outposts, and the unleashing of terrorist settler organizations in the settlement outposts, and the so-called “pastoral farms,” to advance forced displacement operations. For the Palestinian Bedouin and herding communities, with a focus on the South Hebron Hills and the Jordan Valley areas, especially the central and northern areas. It is possible to understand the expansion of the construction of bypass roads to connect the settlements, and between them and the Israeli cities in the interior.

With this policy, the Netanyahu-Smotrich-Ben Gvir government flees forward, and closes the doors to opportunities to stop the war, for considerations related to the political future. Not only to Netanyahu, but also to Smotrich and Ben Gvir, who are issuing empty threats to dissolve the government, if developments move towards stopping this brutal war, and they know that the future of their settlement project is fundamentally linked to the survival of this government.

In this context, the “Peace Now” movement said that the situation in the West Bank is witnessing, after three months of war on Gaza, an unprecedented boom in settlement activities, including the construction of settlement outposts, roads and fences, as at least 18 new roads were documented that were built from Before the settlers, in addition to a large number of settlement outposts, paving these roads allows the seizure of new, large-scale areas along the route of the road, which constitutes an area that the Palestinians cannot access due to the presence of the settlers and their ease of access to the area.

“Coalition of Settlement Organizations” Conference

Indeed, the establishment of settlement outposts and the paving of roads have contributed to the spread of the phenomenon of checkpoints, which force Palestinians to take rugged mountainous bypass roads in order to reach the main roads in the West Bank.

Settlers alone decide where to build roads and outposts, where the permissive military and political environment allows, almost unchecked.

What is new about “settlement hysteria” is that a coalition of settlement organizations will organize this week, tomorrow, Sunday, a conference in the occupied city of Jerusalem in which, according to its organizers’ sources, thousands of Israelis from the extreme religious and nationalist movement will participate, including ministers and members of the Israeli Knesset, where Israeli ministers and officials are active in the crowd. To the conference, and the invitation to participate in it, such as Tourism Minister Haim Katz – who is from the ruling Likud Party – who calls for the return of Israeli settlements in Gaza, and stresses that settlement is “the only way to bring security” to Israel, and claims that the folly of uprooting settlements from Gush Katif and northern Samaria (the West Bank Western) must be corrected, and that restoring Israel’s security “will be through a strong military strike and the resumption of settlement in the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria, in “a strong message to our enemies that we will never be broken.”

On the other hand, the campaigns of repression carried out by the occupation authorities in the West Bank have become a security dilemma, and the level of extremism in the West Bank is at its highest levels since the second intifada, which began in 2000, which called for the transfer of the (Dovdovan – Mustaza’ribin) unit. And the Kfir Brigade from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank again, in addition to research in Israeli military and security circles into the possibility of arming the “emergency teams”, which the extremist Ben Gvir established in the occupied West Bank settlements, with anti-armour missiles, to provide more protection for the settlers, in all ways. The resulting encouragement to commit more violations and crimes.

The following is a total of the weekly violations that were documented:

Jerusalem: The occupation municipality forced citizens Dirar Darwish and Samir Al-Halwani to self-demolish their homes, in the town of Al-Za’im and in the Ras Al-Amud neighborhood, to avoid paying exorbitant costs. The occupation forces also stormed land belonging to the Shweiki family in the Al-Thawri neighborhood in the town of Silwan, and attempted to carry out a demolition operation of a retaining wall inside the land, to build a street in the place, and they attacked the residents who responded to the demolition operation.

Hebron: Atzkhar Man settlers attacked sheep shepherds in Masafer Yatta and opened fire on them, while others stormed a Ghazi community and attacked citizens’ property and trees.

In the village of Susiya, settlers stormed citizens’ homes and threatened to kill them if they did not leave, while others continued to build a settlement road in the “Wadi Al-Malaki” and “Ain Al-Shunar” areas, more than 3 kilometers long, to connect the “Bnei Hefer” settlement to the new settlement outpost, which was established last year. On citizens’ lands in the village.

The occupation forces also demolished a house in the village of “Lasifir,” southeast of Yatta, inhabited by the citizen Mahmoud Khalil Abu Qubaita and his family, who possessed all the identification papers confirming his ownership of it, and another house in Khirbet Khallet Al-Farn in the village of Birin, east of Hebron, and another house with an area of ​​140 square meters belonging to It is owned by the citizen Bilal Nasr Hussein Ghaith, who lives in it with his family consisting of several individuals.

Note that the occupation’s attacks and practices in the village of Birin aim to displace the population and expand the “Bnei Hefer” settlement, despite the residents having identification papers for their properties.

Nablus: “Yitzhar” settlers attacked “Country Hawara” Park in the town, and assaulted a citizen, leaving him with injuries and bruises. He was subsequently transferred to Rafidia Governmental Hospital in Nablus to receive treatment.

Others stormed a water spring in the village of Qaryut from the western and southern sides of the village, and performed Talmudic rituals in the place, while “Ahya” settlers fired live bullets towards citizens’ homes in the village of Jalud, south of Nablus, in the Sheikh Bishr area, southeast of the village, while Red Cross crews were present, and penetrated Bullets hit the windows of the village mosque, while citizens were performing the noon prayer.

RamallahA group of settlers attacked shepherds in the “Jisr al-Khalla” area, located between the villages of Ramoun and Deir Dibwan, and severely beat them, resulting in three of them sustaining bruises and fractures. They were taken to the hospital, and they stole a number of sheep heads during the attack.

Bethlehem: The occupation forces bulldozed land in the “Khallet Al-Ain” area, southwest of the town of Al-Khader, with an area of ​​four dunams, and settlers built a new settlement road in the town of Battir, surrounding land in the “Taf Abdullah” and “Al-Qusayr” areas, with an area estimated at about 100 dunams, and whose owners own it. Ownership papers therein.

Tulkarm: Settlers attacked farmers while they were in the Ramin Plain on their land planted with olive trees, and forced them to leave. When they refused, they called others, who came to the place heavily armed. One of them threatened to shoot them, and they attacked a citizen with an iron piece on his back, shoulder, and hands. One of them was transferred to the Martyr Thabet Thabet Governmental Hospital in Tulkarm.

Embryo: The occupation forces closed Khirbet Al-Mukhal, near the town of Ya’bad, with dirt barriers, and threatened anyone who tried to leave it or approach these barriers. It is worth mentioning that Khirbet is surrounded by settlement outposts, and is subjected to repeated raids by the occupation forces, who raid citizens’ homes, abuse them, and prevent them from reaching… Their lands, to cultivate and care for them.

Salfit: The occupation forces prevented farmers from reclaiming their lands and beat citizens in Qarawat Bani Hassan, and a number of citizens suffered bruises and suffocation as a result in the Al-Ras area, which is threatened by colonization, west of the town.

The attacks range from shooting at citizens, destroying and burning their property, seizing agricultural equipment, and pursuing them with the aim of controlling the area.

The occupation forces stormed the town of Deir Ballut, expelled the workers working in a house under construction, owned by the citizen Bahaa Abdullah, and seized their private vehicle, in the Al-Sahel area, under the pretext that the areas are classified as “C”.

Qalqilya: The occupation forces filled in a water well in the town of Ras Attiya, owned by the Ras Attiya Agricultural Society, and serving several residential communities, namely “Ras Tira, Al-Dabaa, and Wadi Al-Rasha.” Note that the well benefits more than 400 farmers, covering approximately 1,500 agricultural dunams.

Jericho and the Jordan Valley: Settlers from the “Settlement Council” in the Jordan Valley forced a Palestinian family in the village of Al-Jiftlik to pay a fine amounting to 150,000 shekels, after collecting it from the people of the village, in exchange for the release of 800 heads of sheep, belonging to the Idais family in Al-Jiftlik.

The occupation authorities also renewed the decision to seize approximately 91 dunums of citizens’ lands in the Al-Baqi’a Plain in the northern Jordan Valley, and the lands covered by the decision are located within the basins of Khallet Al-Rikab, Ras Al-Darina, Ras Al-Madhabhar, and Jalama Makisma.

Settlers also carried out excavation and bulldozing work near the Al-Malihat Arab community on Al-Ma’rajat Road, northwest of Jericho, in preparation for seizing it.

These bulldozing works are intended to build homes and caravans for settlers on about 500 dunums in Al-Murajat.

Symbolic graves for children

In a “reprehensible situation,” the “Mefiot” settlers dug symbolic graves for children, threatening to kill the children near the “Arab Al-Kaabna Basic School” in Al-Ma’rajat, in a provocative move to create a state of fear and terror among them.