Nablus - "Jerusalem" dot com Imad Saadeh - The National Office for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements of the Palestine Liberation Organization confirmed that the failure to include the settlement file on the agenda of US President Joe Biden in his recent talks and meetings with Israeli leaders is a negative indication of the administration's position. The US is out of this file and out of the two-state solution, which the US president pretends to support.

In its weekly report on the settlements, the National Bureau expressed its conviction that the current US administration is following in the footsteps of the previous administration, but with soft means, an administration that distanced itself from describing the settlements as illegal or contrary to international law.

He added that in connection with Biden's visit to the region, the policy of the occupation government was overshadowed by misleading maneuvers, which are an extension of the Israeli misleading maneuvers that do not stop whenever it comes to settlement activity, which it is carrying out in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and this is what we have been witnessing in political stations. different, especially when it comes to the relations of the occupying power with the United States of America.

The report recalled what happened in 2010 and 2016 when Joe Biden paid visits to Israel while holding the position of Vice President of the United States at the time, when the government of Benjamin Netanyahu slapped the US administration by announcing bids to build thousands of settlement units in the West Bank, with a focus on building in the city. Jerusalem. Thus, in all his visits to Israel as Vice President, the Israeli governments used to receive Joe Biden by promoting new settlement tender decisions.

Israel bids farewell to Biden with new settlement projects

The report concluded that the scene in 2022 has not changed in substance. In previous years, Israeli governments headed by Benjamin Netanyahu used to receive the vice president with settlement decisions that bore quite a bit of direct insult to the American administration.

This time, in 2022, the transitional Israeli government headed by Yair Lapid decides to bid farewell to the president by promoting new settlement bids for planners in East Jerusalem. On the day Joe Biden was landing his plane at Ben Gurion Airport, it was scheduled to discuss promoting two new settlements in East Jerusalem, however, the head of the Israeli transitional government, Yair Lapid, reversed the trend and canceled the planned discussion of the Jerusalem District Planning Committee that was supposed to be held on July 18, in order to avoid embarrassment during Biden’s visit to the region, so that the discussion would be decided after a week, i.e. in July 25th.

The Israeli Planning Committee was discussing depositing two plans for the construction of 2,000 units, which deals a severe blow to the development of East Jerusalem as a Palestinian capital, as it closes the plans related to “Givat Hashakid” near Beit Safafa and the scheme for the lower canal between “Har Homa” and “Givat Hamatos”, the last remaining corridor. It connects Beit Safafa, Sharafat, and the rest of the Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.

Continue to change the reality in Jerusalem

At the same time, the Minister of Jerusalem Affairs, Construction and Settlements in the occupation government, Ze'ev Elkin, announced that Israel will continue to change the reality in East Jerusalem and consolidate its annexation according to the government's plan for the year 2018 and close what he called the gaps and differences between it and West Jerusalem. His ministry, in partnership with the occupation municipality, announced the establishment of Two centers at a total cost of 50 million shekels in Issawiya and Beit Hanina, and completing the penetration of the first tunnel under the settlement of the French Hill to link the settlements of the Jordan Valley and "Ma'ale Adumim" with occupied Jerusalem, and from there to the city of "Tel Aviv" via the bypass road (443), which ends with work Mid year 2024.

It confirmed that the tunnel is one of four tunnels under the French Hill settlement built on the lands of Jabal al-Masharif in occupied Jerusalem, with a total length of about (4.4 km) and a depth of about (40 meters). There are two lanes in each direction, and two tunnels towards the "Pisgat Ze'ev" settlement, and in the direction of the reflector.

The establishment of these tunnels comes as part of a plan to change the traffic and transportation system in the city of East Jerusalem, facilitate the entry and exit of settlers as soon as possible, bring more settlers and build more settlements within the "Greater Jerusalem" plan, which among its provisions includes the annexation of East Jerusalem's flank or (Eastern Gate), which is 67 1,000 dunums extending from the Kedar settlement, southeast of Abu Dis, to the village of Mikhmas, northeast of Jerusalem.

A network of tunnels and bridges

The occupation is working to establish this network of roads, tunnels, and bridges within a settlement belt that wraps around East Jerusalem, swallowing its lands and besieging it in favor of the settlement project, establishing welfare and social care buildings in the neighborhoods in the east of the city, and helping the residents to obtain better service, according to repeated allegations, and easing congestion in public institutions in the city. west of town.

The occupation municipality also claims that an important achievement has been recorded in the level separation project at the French Hill junction, as the first underground tunnel was penetrated at the French Hill junction towards Ma'ale Adumim and another tunnel towards "Pisgat Zelev", as part of the future transportation system in Jerusalem, which also includes Expanding the number of entrances to the city, at a cost of about 1.2 billion shekels, to reduce congestion and the flow of settlers to and from East Jerusalem towards Highway 443 Tel Aviv-Jerusalem, and facilitate access to light rail services at Al-Hatta below the settlement of French Hill in one of the most central and busiest intersections in Jerusalem.

outposts

In a related context, the occupation authorities continue to settle the situation of settlement outposts, which have turned into safe havens for Jewish terrorist organizations, and whitewash them in accordance with the so-called "settlement law", where the Israeli Ministry of Interior recognized about 29 outposts, in different areas of the West Bank, within a year of The far-right minister, Ayelet Shaked, assumes her position as Minister of the Interior, as part of her attempts to court the settlers, as the ministry transfers annually 3.3 billion shekels ($970 million) as a grant to about 200 settlements.

Shaked claims that the Interior Ministry's recognition of these outposts and the transfer of a budget for them will open the way for them to receive budgets from other ministries.

The Israeli government had allocated an amount of 29.5 million shekels in order to connect random settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank to the electricity network and to prepare structural maps for them in preparation for their legalization. This amount was allocated through the Settlement Department of the Zionist Organization, which constitutes an executive arm of the government. Yamina party, according to the coalition agreement. It was endorsed by the former prime minister and former Yamina president, Naftali Bennett, who currently holds the settlement portfolio.

Funding random outposts is an important item in the Settlement Department's action plan for the current year. Connecting the settlement outposts to electricity is conditional on the approval of the political level, with the aim of legalizing these outposts, and after the approval of the Minister of Defense, Benny Gantz.

In recent weeks, the Settlement Department has mapped dozens of random outposts, with the aim of implementing what it calls "security improvements", such as installing cameras or fire suppression vehicles. The "Civil Administration" is working to approve any settlement outpost connected to electricity and in which "security improvements" will be implemented.

In recent years, the so-called "Youth Settlement Forum" has been active in order to legitimize random settlement outposts and connect them to the electricity grid. Israeli governments have called these outposts "youth settlement".

Settler violence escalates

In this context, settler violence against Palestinian citizens and their property is increasing under the full cover of the army, the occupation authorities, and its civil administration. This was confirmed by the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem, which considered settler violence part of a governmental policy for official forces, not only allowing it, but allowing its implementation and participation in it, as part of the Israeli apartheid regime's strategy to expand and complete the process of seizing Palestinian lands. The violence of the occupation, whether formal or informal, is “an integral part of the Israeli apartheid regime that aspires to Judaize the place, i.e. the entire area between the river and the sea, and this regime considers the land a resource that was found mainly to serve the Jewish public only. This consideration is the semi-privileged land Exclusively for the needs of the existing Jewish settlements in terms of developing, expanding and establishing new Jewish towns.

Expansion of settlement activities

In terms of expanding settlement activities, the occupation authorities have approved a set of settlement plans to expand construction in a number of settlements established in the occupied West Bank. The settlement projects target settlements in the governorates of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron, Ramallah, Al-Bireh, Jenin and Salfit, and that seven settlements out of nine Those targeted by these plans are located in the area known as the "Western Segregation Zone".

The most prominent of these plans is the plan in the "Beitar Illit" settlement, which targeted 303 dunums of the lands of the towns of Nahalin and Husan in Bethlehem to build 1061 new settlement units, as well as the settlement plan that targets the "Mevo Horon" settlement in Ramallah, with 258 dunums of the neighboring Palestinian lands. Which belong to the villages of Beit Nuba and Beit Liqia, to build 210 additional settlement units in the settlement in the northeastern side of it. Two plans were approved that targeted the settlement of "Efrat", specifically the two settlement outposts to the north of it, namely "Givat Hadagan" and "Givat Hatmar", where the two outposts were supported by further expansion with 223 settlement units at the expense of the neighboring Palestinian lands that belong to each of the towns of Al-Khader and Artas. As well as a plan to establish a “services development” center in the area between the “Shaked” settlement, the “Hananit” and “Tal Menashe” settlements, and a plan in the “Kiryat Arba” settlement in the heart of Hebron to establish 30 settlement units on an area of 9 dunums of land. The Palestinian family of both Khallet Al-Dabaa and Khallet Al-Sincil.