A new report by the Regavim movement shows that in the 12 years since the announcement of the Fayyad plan for the establishment of a Palestinian state, the Authority has established one hundred new schools in Area C, much of which has been established with international community funding.
The analysis of the data shows, among other things, that about 30 schools were built on state land and survey land, seven were built inside fire areas used by the IDF for training, two in nature reserves, six on archeological sites and three on private land. 19 of the buildings were built in Area B. But were extended without a permit on adjacent land, in Area C.
In 2009, the then Palestinian Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, announced his plan for the de facto establishment of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.
The main goal of the plan was to blur the boundaries between Areas B, A and C and bring about the de facto annexation of Areas C, which constitute about 62 percent of Judea and Samaria and are under Israeli control - by creating a territorial continuum from Samaria to the southern Hebron Mountains.
Through the construction of tens of thousands of illegal structures, breakthroughs, land takeovers, land registration and more, the Palestinians have in fact established facts on the ground for more than a decade.
A school in the village of Kassen.
Near Ma'ale Amos in Gush Etzion, the Regavim movement
According to the report, new schools are set up in Area C every year, without an orderly planning procedure and without legal permits. While the authorities stand helpless in the face of the legal apparatus and the support of the international community.
Many examples are given in the report. For example, in the summer of 2017, a school was established on agricultural land in Area C, between Herodium and the town of Zaatara in Area B. Another example given in the report is the construction of a school in March 2018 in the heart of the Khirbet Zenuta archeological site south of Mt. Hebron, or the construction of a building used as a school within a national park north of Jerusalem.
Meir Deutsch, director general of the Regavim movement: "We have been warning for about a decade in the face of the organized Palestinian takeover of the open territories in Judea and Samaria.
"Our report proves that in the last decade, the PA has been making a school for the State of Israel, literally, and instead of stopping the trend, the state is giving it a hand and allowing the PA to act in the field as it sees fit."