New Israeli settlement building plan to seize 1 million dunums of Palestinian land in the West Bank
The Israeli occupation has revealed that it will implement a new settlement building plan in a bid to continue carrying out its settlement expansion, judaization and annexation scheme.
The new plan is the biggest and most dangerous of all previous plans as it threatens with confiscating a million dunum of Palestinian land between occupied Al-Quds and the Dead Sea in the West Bank in an attempt to separate the south of the West Bank from its north and center, according to the weekly report of the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s (PLO) National Bureau for Defending the Land and Resisting Settlements.
The report, published on Saturday, said that the occupation seeks to implement this plan amid the complete silence of the international community and in violation of the UN resolutions which affirm the illegality of the occupation’s settlement building activities.
It pointed out that this plan is very dangerous from the strategic point of view as it completely eliminate every hope for establishing the Independent Palestinian States on the June 4th, 1967 line with Al-Quds as its capital.
In the details of the plan, the report said that the occupation authorities announced a plan to establish a settlement outpost on an area of 4.5 dunums in the northeastern corner of Al-Quds old city wall. They also started implementing the first phase of a new Judaization scheme with the aim of dividing East Al-Quds. The scheme extends from Al-Anbiya Street, located in the western part of Al-Quds and reaches Bab Al-Amoud area and then Salah Al-Din Al-Ayyubi Street with the aim of linking between the west and the east of Al-Quds.
Moreover, the report said, the occupation escalated settlement building operations in the entire West Bank. It announced a plan to build 100 settlement units over an area of 201 dunums of land in the towns of Za’mout and Deir Al-Hatab. It also seized 1480 dunums of land in the cities of Nablus and Ramallah to expand some settlements built there. The occupation also started setting up a settlement road that threatens with seizing thousands of dunums of the land in the city of Al-Bireh and Ein Yabroud village with the aim of forming a belt of settlement roads.
The report went on to say that the occupation forces demolished houses as well as trade and agricultural facilities in the cities of Al-Quds, Ariha, Salfit and Al-Khalil in the West Bank. They also razed agricultural lands planted with olives in Al-Kheder town in Bethlehem.
The Israeli settlers, the report added, continued with their attacks on the Palestinians in several West Bank areas. They stormed into several villages and towns, attacked the Palestinians and their properties and burnt swathes of land planted with olive and fruit trees.
Hamda Mustafa