Israeli occupation presses ahead with its juadization and expansionist schemes in occupied Palestinian territories

OCCUPIED AL-QUDS, (ST)- The PLO National Bureau for Defending the land and Resisting Settlements has stressed that the Israeli occupation authorities continue  their policy of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians in the occupied city of al-Quds in order to implement their judaization and settlement building schemes.

Maan News Agency quoted the Bureau’s weekly report as saying that the occupation authorities continue to implement their expansionist schemes based on forcible Judaization of al-Quds through demolishing the houses of locals, practicing oppression against them, continuously attacking al-Aqsa Mosque and carrying out digging activities and setting a network of tunnels under the mosque and the city’s neighborhoods. The aim is to change the features of al-Quds city and to distort its heritage, civilization and history.

 According to the report, the occupation authorities announced 31 settlement building plans to expand 26 settlements established on Palestinian lands during the first quarter of this year, indicating that among these plans were ones aiming to establish 4078 new settlement units on an area of 2294 dunums of occupied al-Quds land.

Last week, the occupation authorities notified about the demolition of 56 houses and installations in occupied al-Quds, while Israeli settlers launched an electronic campaign on social media calling for the demolition of the historic walls of al-Quds,  the report said.

It added that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserted that the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigations into war crimes in Palestine, including those related to settlement building, pose “a threat to Israel”, reiterating that among the top priorities of Netanyahu’s government will be hindering the conduction of these investigations.

The report noted the US rejection of any move by the ICC against Israel.

 It pointed out that the international reactions rejecting the US-backed Israeli annexation plans are continuing, noting a joint statement by envoys of the five states “France, Belgium, Germany, Estonia and Poland” in which they stressed that the international law is the corner stone of the international order and that their countries won’t recognize any change to the borders of 1967.

The report made it clear that the occupation forces are escalating their attacks on the cities and towns of the West Bank and other Palestinian areas by demolishing the locals’ houses, burning their agricultural lands cutting fruit bearing trees and destroying dunums of lands planted with olive trees.

Hamda Mustafa