Israeli occupation intensifies demolition of Palestinian homes to perpetuate its settlement ambitions

The Israeli occupation has  intensified the demolitions of Palestinian homes and properties in the occupied cities of Jerusalem and Hebron in the West Bank to forcibly displace Palestinians and expand settlement operations. While the international community asserts that the demolitions amount to war crimes,  it is satisfied with the occupation’s call to stop them and fails to take practical measures.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry stresses that the escalation of the occupation’s demolitions and seizure of Palestinian lands in the West Bank is nothing but an ethnic cleansing process and an attempt to abolish the Palestinian presence. It stressed that the silence of the international community encourages the occupation to persist in carrying out colonial annexation schemes and undermining any opportunity to establish an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.

In a statement to SANA reporter, the spokesman for the people of Silwan town in occupied Jerusalem, Fakhri Abu Diab, noted that the cities of Jerusalem and Hebron are being subjected to a fierce settlement attack, as part of the occupation’s plans to Judaize them. Since the beginning of this year, the occupation, has established 21,618 new settlement units on Palestinian lands in Jerusalem, while 137 homes and facilities have been demolished. The occupation also gave  notice of demolishing 22,700 homes in separate areas of the city in an attempt to impose a new fait accompli that prevents Palestinians from urban expansion and cuts the geographical connection between them and the city’s neighborhoods and the rest of the West Bank cities and towns.

Abu Diab pointed out that the occupation is escalating demolitions in the Old City of Jerusalem to establish a settlement cordon extending from Batn al-Hawa to Al-Bustan neighborhood through Wadi Hilweh then to Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood to besiege Al-Aqsa and the Old City from the southern side with settlements. He stressed that the Palestinians will continue their steadfastness to thwart the occupation’s judization plans.

Jawad Siam, director of Wadi Hilweh Information Center, indicated that the occupation began implementing a dangerous settlement plan at the entrance to the Wadi Hilweh neighborhood in Silwan, 20 meters from Al-Aqsa Mosque from the southern side, with the aim of linking the network of tunnels below and in the vicinity of Al-Aqsa with each other to complete the siege of the mosque.

The Director-General of the Department of Maps and Surveys in the Orient House in occupied Jerusalem, Khalil Al-Tafkaji, confirmed that the occupation is implementing a systematic settlement scheme in occupied Jerusalem and is trying to change the demographic situation in it through demolishing Palestinian homes and  forcibly displacing and replacing them with settlers. He called on the international community to implement the resolutions of international legitimacy, foremost of which is UN Resolution 2334. of 2016, which confirms the illegality of settlements and calls for its cessation.

The situation in the occupied city of Jerusalem is not different from that in Hebron, where the Palestinians suffer from demolitions and settlements and the occupation’s attempts to Judaize the Ibrahimi Mosque.

The coordinator of the popular and national committees in the south of the West Bank, Ratib Al-Jabour, confirmed that the occupation demolished during the current year dozens of houses in Hebron and its villages, pointing out that the occupation has recently begun to establish a settlement outpost in the old city center of Hebron, with the aim of disintegrating and Judaizing the city. It also seized large areas of land south of the city to expand settlements.

The coordinator of the People’s Committee to Resist the Wall and Settlements Salah Al-Khawaja indicated that the occupation has carried out the largest demolition and displacement operation in the West Bank since the beginning of the year. He asserted that what is happening is a new catastrophe for the Palestinian people, as more than 720 homes have been demolished throughout the West Bank and hundreds of Palestinian families have been displaced in a massive ethnic cleansing process amid the international community silence without moving to stop the occupation bulldozers that demolish Palestinian homes on the heads of their owners and displace them in the open.

Al-Khawaja stressed that the Palestinian people are facing forced displacement and settlement operations with steadfastness and resistance to occupation. The Palestinians  will continue to defend their existence until the restoration of all their legitimate national rights, foremost of which is the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, and the return of refugees to their homes.

Inas Abdulkaeem