By: Madeeha Al-A’raj
The National Bureau for Defending the Land and Resisting Settlements stated in its latest weekly report that within forty-seven years since the Land Day, the Palestinian land is still groaning under the weight of the occupation policies, turning the Palestinian cities and villages in the West Bank into isolated islands and ghettos after settlement intensified and the number of settlers increased and doubled. their violations and crimes. Settlement schemes continue in the West Bank. We are witnessing seasons of continuous ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem, the Palestinian Jordan Valley, southern Hebron, and other areas in the West Bank through the policy of land confiscation.
The construction of Settlement and bypass roads in the lands of the Palestinians, as well as the continuous demolition of homes in occupied Jerusalem and in areas C, where the occupation practices systematic displacement through allowing settlers to build unauthorized settlement and outposts, and enacting racist laws in the Knesset, in order to deepen the occupation and expand the area of settlement, the latest of which was the disengagement law, which allowed settlers to return to 4 evacuated settlements in the northern West Bank.
On the Land Day this year, as every year, the Palestinians affirm their adherence to their land and their high quest to defend it, and commemorate this immortal day amid a harsh siege of their cities and villages. Many Palestinian towns and villages in various parts of the West Bank have carried out activities to commemorate this immortal day, in which the Palestinians express their adherence to their land and their resistance to the settlement project.
Scores of citizens were injured as a result of the Israeli occupation forces’ suppression of these activities in the West Bank as a result of live and rubber bullets and gas bombs, which were heavily fired at the citizens participating in these activities, which condemn settlement and the continuous Judaization of their land. Confrontation erupted in the town of Bita, south of Nablus, and Beit Dajan, to the east Al-Zawiya area in Hebron, Kafr Qaddum in Qalqilya, and Qaryut in Nablus, where a number of citizens suffocated as a result of the Israeli occupation forces’ suppression of the weekly anti-settlement march in Beit Dajan, east of Nablus.
The occupation forces fired rubber-coated metal bullets, stun grenades, and gas. The tear gas was fired at the participants in the march, causing 10 civilians to suffocate. They were treated in the field. The occupation forces attacked a march in the town of Hawara, south of Nablus. Oreover, dozens were injured in the town of Qaryut, after the occupation forces and settlers targeted the citizens’ homes, and the attacked that were evacuated.
On the occasion of the forty-seventh anniversary of the Land Day, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics issued a report in which it said that the year 2022 witnessed a significant increase in the pace of building and expanding Israeli settlements, as the occupation authorities approved about 83 settlement plans to build more than 22,000 settlement units in the West Bank, including Jerusalem.
The report pointed out that the number of Israeli settlement sites and military bases reached 483 sites by the end of the year 2021 in the West Bank, distributed by 151 settlements, 25 inhabited outposts considered as neighborhoods of existing settlements, 163 outposts outside the boundaries of settlements, and 144 outposts, industrial, tourist and service areas and camps for the occupation army.
This is at a time when the occupation authorities and settlers, under the protection of the occupation army, carried out 8,724 attacks against Palestinians and their property during the year 2022, and a total of 378 demolitions, affecting 953 facilities in the West Bank, including the city of Jerusalem. Most of the demolitions were concentrated in the Jerusalem governorate, with 118 demolitions by 31%.
According to a statement issued by the Office of the European Union Representative in Palestine said that the Israeli authorities demolished 953 Palestinian homes in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, during 2022, the highest number since 2016. The Union indicated that 953 buildings were demolished or seized in the West Bank, including the city of East Jerusalem, which is the highest number recorded since 2016, and that more than 80% of the demolished buildings are located in area C, and 28,446 people were displaced and affected as a result of the demolitions, and that 101 of the demolished buildings were funded by the Federation, and the number of buildings that were demolished by their owners in the city of East Jerusalem by an Israeli decision jumped from 34% in 2021 to 51% in the 2022.
List of Israeli Assaults over the Last Week Documented by the National Bureau:
Jerusalem:
- Raiding the As-Sawahrah area, demolished 3 agricultural rooms, seizing 4 water tanks, destroying a fence, solar energy lights, and sabotaging water lines.
- Calling to bring offerings i.e. qurban, and gather at the gates of Al-Aqsa Mosque on the eve of what is called the Hebrew “Passover” on the evening of Wednesday, corresponding to the 5th of next April, at 10:30 at night, and sums of money were allocated as rewards for settlers who attempt to slaughter a “qurban” in Al-Aqsa Mosque
Hebron:
- Storming the Old City of Hebron in a provocative march, roamed its streets, and chanted racist slogans.
- Handing a notice to demolish the Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque, an area of 150m2 in Masafer Yatta.
Ramallah:
- Tourching a house in the town of Sinjil, northeast of Ramallah, where the fire devoured large parts of the house after it was thrown with Molotov cocktails, and its residents were inside. Citizens were able to save members of the family.
- Attacking a family while they were sleeping in their house consisting of near the village of Al-Taybeh, east of Ramallah, which resulted in the child Bashar Nayef suffocated.
Qalqilia:
- Seizing lands in the villages of Jinsafut, Al-Fanduq, and Hajjah, east of Qalqilya Governorate, with an area of 218 dunums, for ‘military purposes’
Saleet:
- Demolishing a 350m2 facility, divided into two parts: a carpentry shop, and a “shed” for livestock breeding, in Deir Ballout.
Jordan Valley:
- Attacking citizen with stones in the head in the Humsa al-Fawqa area in the northern Jordan Valley.
- Closing Al-Maleh Junction, and damaged citizens’ vehicles, and assaulted the young Amjad Ka’abneh while he was driving his agricultural tractor, and threw stones at him, which led to the smashing of the windows of his tractor, and he sustained minor injuries in the Al-Ma’rajat area, north of Jericho.
- Demolishing a house in the village of Al-Nuwaima, north of Jericho under the pretext of not having a permit.
