Report: Thousand Illegal Settlements to Build in Palestinian Villages East of Jerusalem

Ramallah, MINA – A Palestinian report on Saturday warned of an Israeli settlement plan to build a thousand settlement units on the lands of the villages of Al-Tur, Anata, Al-Eizariya, and Abu Dis, in the area named East 1 (E1) , as part of the Greater Jerusalem settlement project .

The report issued by the National Bureau for Land Defense and Resistance to Settlement of the Liberation Organization stated that, if implemented, the project would completely close the eastern region of Jerusalem and encircle the areas (Anata, Al-Tur, Hizma), so that it would be deprived of any possibility of future expansion towards the east.

The report pointed out that the implementation of this settlement project would lead to linking all settlements located in the eastern region and outside the borders of the occupation municipality in occupied Jerusalem, with the settlements within the municipal boundaries of “Moshe Leun”, and turning the Palestinian villages in this area into besieged ghettos. Thus quoted from Quds press.

The report warned against annexing large areas of land in the West Bank to the boundaries of the Greater Jerusalem municipality to implement the project.

The report indicated that a discussion took place in back channels within the Israeli government coalition and with the White House to begin construction in the aforementioned area in the context of planning to annex settlement blocs in the vicinity of Jerusalem to the city to expand its borders, leading to what the occupation authorities call “Greater Jerusalem.”

The report believed that the project may be the starting point in the annexation process and the implementation of the US President Donald Trump’s vision.

According to the report, the project will include, according to the deliberations that were taking place between the two sides, the three settlement blocs: “Ma’aleh Adumim,” “Gush Etzion,” and “Givat Ze’ev,” and perhaps an additional fourth block, the settlements of “Adam – Kochav Ya`qub,” which would lead It alone can tear the West Bank apart, isolate the north and central West Bank from its south, and “prevent the establishment of a viable and contiguous Palestinian state . ”

The East 1 settlement project would lead to the destruction of Bedouin communities living in the eastern region from Jerusalem to the outskirts of the valley, as a large number of Palestinian communities in these areas are subject to continuous Israeli efforts to displace them and deprive them of their lands and homes.

The occupation municipality announced the launch of a new Judaization plan in the east of the city, which includes a huge project to establish Silicon Valley or “Silicon Valley”, which is a plan under which the areas of the financial and business sector, commercial stores and hotel rooms will be expanded to a large size in East Jerusalem at the expense of the industrial zone.

The report confirmed that during the first half of this year, the occupation authorities carried out 74 demolition operations in the neighborhoods of Jerusalem, 30 of which were self-demolishing. Al-Tor, while 53 notices of demolition and construction cessation were distributed.

The settlement plan aims to link Jerusalem with a number of Israeli settlements to the east of it in the West Bank, by confiscating Palestinian lands in the area and establishing new settlements.

The plan prevents any possible Palestinian expansion in the villages located in this region by encircling them with settlements and creating a demographic change within the policy of Judaizing Jerusalem in what the occupation government calls “Greater Jerusalem”, whose area constitutes 10% of the West Bank.

The plan violates the provisions of international law that prohibit the transfer of the inhabitants of the occupied country to the occupied area, as well as prohibit the making of permanent changes within the occupied area. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)