Israeli occupation intensifies settlement building activities in occupied Al-Quds
The Israeli occupation’s new plan to build 930 settlement units on Palestinian lands in the towns of Beit Hanania, Hezma and Anata in the northeast of the occupied city of Al-Quds comes within the framework of the occupation’s settlement and Judaization schemes that target the Palestinian existence in Al-Quds.
The plan completely disregards international resolutions, particularly Resolution No. 2334 for 2016 which confirms the illegality of settlement building operations in the occupied Palestinian territories and calls for stopping them.
The new plan is part of dozens of settlement plans that aim at Judaizing Al-Quds and its vicinity through intensifying settlement building activities, linking settlements with each other after constructing settler roads deep into Palestinian towns and villages in the north and south of Al-Quds.
In a statement to SANA correspondent, Khalil Al-Tufakji, Director General of the Maps and Survey Department at the Orient House in occupied Al-Quds, said that through its plan to build 930 settlement units, the occupation aims at besieging the towns of Beit Hanania, Hezma and Anata by settlements, Apartheid Wall and bypass roads, in order to displace the Palestinians from these areas. He added that the plan is part of the scheme that the occupation began to implement in 1985 with the aim of establishing 27 thousand settlement units in these areas, seizing all the lands of Beit Hanania, Hezma and Anata and completing settlements building operations around Al-Quds.
Al-Tufakji pointed out that the escalation of the settlement building operations coincides with intensified demolition activities by the occupation against the Palestinian houses and facilities in Al-Quds to put pressure on the locals amid complete silence by the international community.
On his part, Head of Al-Quds International Center Hassan Khater said that the Israeli settlement building plan aims at expanding the settlements that have already been established on the lands of Beit Hanina from the west and Hezma from the east in order to isolate these towns from each other and from Al-Quds and to tighten the settlement siege around the holy city.
He pointed out that establishing hundreds of new settlement units is part of a systematic plan by the occupation to displace the Palestinians and isolate Al-Quds, but the steadfastness of the Palestinian people will foil all the occupation’s evil plans.
It is to be noted that the Palestinian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly condemned the Israeli settlement activities in Al-Quds and urged the international community to act immediately against these Israeli violations.
The ministry has also called on the international community to assume its political, legal and moral responsibilities and stop the crimes of the Israeli occupation and settlers against Islamic and Christian sanctities in Palestine and to hold the occupation accountable.
On Tuesday, the Israeli settlers attacked the Romanian Church monastery in occupied Al-Quds. The attack is the fourth of its kind on the monastery in less than a month, according to WAFA news agency.
Hamda Mustafa