By: Madeeha Al-A’raj
The National Bureau for defending land and resisting settlements (nbprs) stated in its latest weekly report , that the Israeli occupation authorities have started imposing control on some areas in the West Bank, especially the Jordan Valley under the annexation plan that the Israeli Prime Minister intends to launch next July. Thus, he gave orders to start opening the so-called American road – which is the first step to start implementation of the American Administration’s plan – to connect the settlement blocs in the north of the city with those to its south. Knowing that the settlement road confiscates more Palestinian lands in the Toor, Jabal Al-Zaitoon, Ras Al-Amood, Jabal Al-Mukabir, Sur Baher and Um Toba in the occupied city of Jerusalem. Moreover, the occupation municipality in Jerusalem intends to pose tenders that cost US $ 187, 000,000 by the end of the year to open another road, the expected cost is more than a quarter of a billion dollars.
The construction comes at a time when the Israeli government is discussing the implementation of Netanyahu’s electoral promises and agreeing to form a government with Kahul Lavan, and to annex settlements in the West Bank as of July 1st, a move that rejected by international community. This road would connect the highway of the “Gush Etzion” settlement bloc in the south of the West Bank, with settlements, such as, Har Homa, south of Jerusalem, with the settlements in North and East Jerusalem, including Ma’aleh Adumim. Maps of the occupation municipality in Jerusalem show that the street will provide space with the existing streets to connect the Gush Etzion settlement located between Bethlehem and Hebron, and the “Mati Binyamin” block from Jerusalem to the “Ariel” settlement, with the settlements located in the vicinity of Jerusalem.
For its part, the Israeli Ministry of Housing declared that 110 dunums of the lands of the village of Nabi Samuel, northwest of occupied Jerusalem as an archaeological site. At the same time, the occupation authorities intend to build hundreds of settlement units on an area of 3500 dunums that were seized from the lands of the villages of Bedu, Beit Iksa, Nabi Samuel, which was confiscated in 1995.
In the Nablus Governorate, the Israeli occupation forces began opening a new settlement road near the village of Qasra, south of Nablus, with the aim of connecting two settlements. The road is about 6 km, furthermore, it seized 406 dunums to open a 7-km road in the Jordan Valley to connect settlements of Ariel and Shiloh.
Within the context of the Israeli occupation authorities’ insistence on moving forward with their plans to annex the West Bank, the Israeli occupation forces placed cement blocks on the entrances to the villages of Kafr Malik and Al-Mughair east of Ramallah, leading to the settlement street called “Alon Street” that separates the Palestinian Valley from the villages of Ramallah and Nablus, in preparation for erecting iron gates on them to close all entrances leading to the “Alon Street” settlement linking the Jordan Valley. The occupation authorities also placed blocks at the entrances of the villages of Douma, south of Nablus, and Ein Samia leading to Kafr Malik, east of Ramallah. In a dangerous precedent, the Israeli occupation authorities sent via post office orders to confiscate land to Palestinian citizens, for the benefit of settlers and settlements in the West Bank.
As for Amnesty International, it demanded that Israel be held accountable for its violations against the Palestinians, it denounced the annexation plan of large parts of the occupied West Bank. It added directing criticism without accountability on the ground will not end injustice, nor end Israel’s impunity. Human rights experts at the United Nations considered that the Israeli occupation’s plan to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank violates a fundamental principle of international law that prohibits the acquisition of others ’land by force.
