Israel seeks imposing a demographic change in the West Bank, isolating Palestinian cities and towns

The Israeli occupation has been trying to impose a demographic change in the West Bank and isolate the Palestinian cities and towns from each others in implementation of its colonialist annexation schemes, while the international community’s response is confined to condemnation words.

In its weekly report published on Saturday, the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s (PLO) National Bureau for Defending the Land and Resisting Settlements said that the occupation authorities seized more than 48,000 dunums of Kisan village’s land, east of Bethlehem, to expand settlements built on Palestinian lands in this area. This procedure will completely separate the village from occupied Al-Quds and from its Palestinian surrounding.

The report added that the Israeli settlers also established a settlement road starting from a settlement built on the land of the village of Kisan to Wad al-Jahar area, to the northwest of the village, with the aim of connecting this settlement to a bloc of settlement outposts established between the villages of Kisan and al-Manyeh in Bethlehem. Wide areas of Palestinian land on both sides of the road will be seized as a result, according to the report.

 In the same context, the report said that the occupation forces razed 30 dunums of Palestinian land in the towns of Qasra, Jourish and Aqraba in Nablus to establish a new settlement outpost. They also bulldozed swathes of land in the village of Kardaleh in the northern Jordan Valley and prevented the farmers from entering their agricultural fields.

The occupation closed the western gate of Ya’boud town in Jenin  as well as the sub-roads linking this town to other towns in Tulkarm, the report added, pointing out that these roads are important for the Palestinian farmers’ movement towards their fields and their closure will negatively affect the olive harvest season.

The report clarified that the occupation is trying to make a demographic change in the West Bank in order to displace more Palestinians from their towns and villages and replace them with Israeli settlers.

Recent statistics have revealed that the number of settlers in the West Bank reached 450,000, an increase estimated at 42% compared to the rate in 2010, the report said, clarifying that these statistics don’t include the number of settlers in occupied Al-Quds.

Moreover, the occupation forces intensified their military presence in the cities of Al-Khalil and occupied Al-Quds in order to provide protection to thousands of settlers who continuously storm Al-Aqsa and Al-Ibrahimi mosques, the report went on to say, pointing out that the settlers also continued to attack the Palestinians and their properties in Al-Quds and different parts of the West Bank.

Hamda Mustafa