In Jerusalem and settlement policy and 278 Nakba

The latest Israeli statistics on the "population" of the city of Jerusalem show that the Jews make up 61%, while the Palestinians make up 39%, and that the increase rate among the Palestinians exceeds 3%, while the increase rate among the "religious" Jews exceeds 4%. The Israeli entity gives demographic superiority a top priority, which is reflected in its policies aimed at ensuring its control over the Palestinian land.

After the "setback" of 1967, Yigal Allon presented his proposal (the Allon Plan) for Israeli control over more than two-thirds of the West Bank lands through the establishment of "settlements" and "military installations" in specific areas in the West Bank and around Jerusalem and along the Green Line that included Jewish demographic facts. There was no political settlement with Jordan. Although the Israeli government opposed the plan at the time, what emerged later was its adoption of a settlement policy that expanded and took on security, political and ideological dimensions.

In the period 1967-1977, the Israeli Labor Party governments established 32 settlements in the Jordan Valley and around the city of Jerusalem, until the number of settlers reached four thousand. During the rule of the Likud Party (1977-1984), he immediately adopted Ariel Sharon's plan aimed at expanding settlements in all open areas in the West Bank to encircle Palestinian communities and separate them from the "triangle" area. During the same period, the pace of settlement accelerated after the World Zionist Organization and the Israeli government adopted in 1979 the Drobles plan to strengthen settlement throughout the West Bank and Jerusalem and establish its infrastructure in a way that prevents the establishment of communication and integration between Palestinian communities that could establish a future interdependent political entity. With the end of the Likud rule in 1984, the number of settlers increased ten times compared to their numbers in 1977. Even later, in the period 1984-1992, with the formation of a consensus government between the Labor and Likud parties, the pace of settlement accelerated and their numbers increased by about 65%, as they continued to increase during the period of Yitzhak Rabin's government. (1992-1995) at an annual rate of 8%, although this same period witnessed the signing of the Oslo Accords between the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Israeli government, and with it the establishment of the Palestinian National Authority and its institutions.

Many studies on the development of the Israeli settlement policy to this day suggest that what established the foundations for strengthening Israeli settlement after 1993 is what the Oslo agreement produced in terms of dividing the lands of the West Bank into three regions. The Palestinian National Authority was granted limited powers in two regions, while the third region remained outside the control of And the powers of the Palestinian Authority, even though it constitutes more than 60% of the area of the West Bank. Today, after 30 years of witnessing the signing of the agreement, it is clear that Israel unjustly unleashed its settlement policy to end any hopes of establishing a Palestinian state.

Statistics show that with the beginning of the year 2022, the number of settlements established in the West Bank reached 278, between “settlement” and “outpost” inhabited by 465,400 settlers, three times the number in 1993. The same statistics show that settlers in the West Bank constitute 14% of the total. The total "population", bearing in mind that the current Israeli Minister of Finance presented the current government's plan to support the settlement policy with an amount of 175 billion shekels to expand settlements and increase the number of settlers.

This month, as we commemorate the "Nakba" of 1948, more than 278 "Nakba" forcibly displaced our people appear before the eyes of the international community and its legitimacy, which daily proves its hypocrisy and inability to deal with the long-standing tragedy of a people. In the absence of national and Arab strategies, the steadfastness and sacrifices of the Palestinian people remain what reinforces hope for the end of distress.