Occupied Jerusalem - SANA
Taking advantage of the last days of the current US administration headed by Donald Trump, which absolutely supports the plans of the Israeli Judaizing occupation, the occupation intensified settlement operations, as yesterday announced a plan to establish 800 new units in occupied Jerusalem, Ramallah, Qalqilya, Nablus, Jenin and Bethlehem, to be added to the thousands of units that it established during Trump's presidency to separate The Palestinian cities and towns are separated from each other in implementation of the so-called "deal of the century" aimed at liquidating the Palestinian cause and undermining any opportunity to establish an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
The international community’s rejection of the “deal of the century” has not been translated into practical steps to stop the occupation’s crimes and violations of international legitimacy resolutions, foremost of which is Resolution 2334 of 2016, which affirms the illegality of settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and demands that it be stopped. In which the United States continues to support and protect the occupation in the Council to continue implementing its colonial plans.
Spokesman for the Palestinian Presidency, Nabil Abu Rudeina, confirmed that the occupation authorities' announcement of this scheme is an attempt to compete with time before the departure of the Trump administration, which blindly supports the occupation’s seizure of more Palestinian lands, stressing that this will not grant any legitimacy to the settlement, which is a flagrant violation of international law and Security Council resolutions. He stressed that the Palestinian people will continue their struggle in defense of their land until all plots and plans aimed at liquidating their cause are dropped.
The head of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, Walid Assaf, explained in a statement to the SANA reporter that the “800” new units come within the framework of the occupation’s plans to isolate Palestinian cities and towns from each other, as they will be set up on mountain tops and in strategic areas with the aim of dividing the Palestinian lands into small groups that are not geographically connected and preventing communication Between them and the destruction of the Palestinian economy, indicating that 500 units of them will be built on the lands of six villages east of Nablus, which threatens to isolate the city from the Jordan Valley and divide its countryside into more than one part, leading to its complete isolation from the rest of the occupied West Bank.
Assaf indicated that the occupation established 20 new settlement outposts in the West Bank, uprooted 12,000 trees and demolished 879 Palestinian facilities last year, and plans to displace Palestinians from 154 villages and towns in the Jordan Valley, which constitute a third of the West Bank, with the aim of expanding settlement operations, which means a new Palestinian catastrophe.
For his part, the official in the settlement resistance file in the northern West Bank, Ghassan Douglas, pointed out that during Trump's term, the occupation has established more than 40,000 settlement units in the West Bank and paved roads to link settlements and form settlement belts that narrow the noose on the Palestinians. Also, attacks by settlers who block roads linking Palestinian villages and cities have increased and attack On homes and vehicles, and uprooting and burning trees.
Douglas explained that the city of Nablus is under a fierce settlement attack, as the occupation is expanding 47 settlements built on its lands and seizing large areas of them, and that most of the new 800 settlement units will be established east of the city.
Director of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Authority in Bethlehem, Hassan Brijieh said .. that part of the new settlement units will be established south of the city of Bethlehem, which is besieged by settlements from all sides, where the occupation has established 27 settlements on their lands, which deprived thousands of Palestinians from accessing their lands, and the city became isolated from the rest Bank.
He pointed out that the occupation recently seized areas of Palestinian lands in the village of Walaja, north of Bethlehem, to establish a new settlement outpost, and also seized areas of Nahalin, Battir and Al-Khader lands to expand settlement operations, and built tunnels east and west of the city, and built settlement roads in its villages and towns.
For his part, the coordinator of the Popular Committee Against the Apartheid Wall and Settlement, Salah Al-Khawaja, confirmed that the 800 settlement unit plan aims to separate Nablus from the Jordan Valley, separate Bethlehem from the southern West Bank, and thus separate Palestinian cities and towns in the northern, central and southern West Bank from each other.
For his part, expert in the field of settlement, Murad Istiwi, stated that the occupation’s announcement of establishing new settlement units on West Bank lands and uprooting thousands of trees from them comes within the framework of implementing his plans to seize the land and displace Palestinians from it, indicating that the Palestinians launched campaigns to replant trees uprooted by the occupation and its settlers in a village. Deir Ballut, west of Salfit, in Nablus, and in 17 sites in the occupied West Bank. They also launched campaigns to rebuild homes and installations demolished by the occupation in the Jordan Valley, Bethlehem and Nablus.
In turn, the expert on settlement affairs, Aref Daraghmeh, said that the new settlement plan will lead to the completion of the siege of the Jordan Valley and its separation from the northern West Bank, in implementation of the ill-fated "Deal of the Century", indicating that the occupation daily seizes large areas of Palestinian lands in the valleys on which it has established six settlement outposts and demolished Entire villages and their people deserted, who continue to confront the displacement and uprooting operations by rebuilding their homes and planting trees that are bulldozed by the occupation forces and settlers.
Member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization Wasel Abu Youssef affirmed that the Palestinian people will drop the occupation plans by their steadfastness on their land and their resistance to the colonial annexation scheme that is racing against time to apply it on the ground before the end of Trump's term, calling on the international community to break its silence, which represents a green light for the occupation to continue the war of Judaization and settlement And ethnic cleansing that amounts to war crimes.
Muhammad Abu Shabab