Governmental Projects to Beautify Settlements

The Israel’s right-wing government, led by the Likud Party, is trying to improve the image of the settlement to the Israeli public and world public opinion aiming to encourage and settle Jewish communities including immigrants from Arab countries, Iran, Ethiopia and India in Israel through broadcasting video clips via internet and mobile phones, accompanied by the production of films about the “heritage of settlement” and shared by the Council of Settlements and the Menachem Begin Heritage Center.

Head of the Council of Settlements, Hananel Dorni, said that the settlement project “will contribute greatly to the consolidation of settlements and improve its image. The official television channel abandons the broadcast of the Israeli national team’s matches in the Euro and World Cup champions in response to the request by the European Football Association not to broadcast matches in the settlements under the contract signed with it that stated broadcasting rights shall be in Israel and do not the Palestinian territories, i.e. the West Bank and Gaza Strip, according to “Yedioth”, the Union did not clarify whether the broadcast applies to occupied Jerusalem or not.

This development is a blow to Israeli policy in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, it prompted he Minister of Culture and Sports, Miri Regev, to express anger and frustration to declare that “sports organizations won’t draw the borders of the state,” saying that “it is time to understand that Judea and Samaria is an inseparable part of the State of Israel, and the broadcast must include hundreds of thousands of our citizens living in Judea and Samaria. Recently, a number of settlement associations have been identified as seeking to lay their hands on Palestinian homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood with the aim of Judaizing them completely. Those organizations are suing the Supreme Court of Israel, which will hold a hearing on the evacuation of the 29 neighborhood inhabited by 100 Palestinian families.

In Jerusalem, the municipality of occupation also announced the establishment of a new plan for building a hotel on land in the area of Jabal Mukaber southeast of Jerusalem, within a series of hotels to be built in that area overlooking the Old City, the project includes the establishment 20,000 settlement units at the expense of the lands of the Sawahra and Soor Baher. The so-called “Local Committee for Organization and Building” in Jerusalem discussed the plan for the establishment of hotels and settlement units in the area of Jabal Mukaber on the eastern side of the High Commissioner’s Club, with an area of 48 thousand sq2 and public buildings, including kindergartens and a synagogue, 40 dunums to expand the colony of Kana on the lands of the village of Mesha and there is a plan to build 80 new settlement units in the colony, which was established in 1977 by more than three thousand settlers.

Within the context of the restrictions imposed by Israel on the Palestinians in the Jenin Governorate, the Israeli occupation forces onfiscated 29 donums of agricultural land in the village of Jalameh, east of Jenin, adjacent to the Jalameh camp under the pretext of “security reasons.” Moreover, they handed over confiscation orders to residents of the Abu Farha family in the town for security reasons. The land belonged to six members of the Abu Farha family: Othman Abdel Hadi, Fawzi Sadiq, Abdel Rahim Moh’d Mar’i, Reza Hassan, Mah’d Qassem Abdullah Sa’id and Sadik Hassan, all of whom were informed by the occupation that their land was confiscated for security reasons., the land located on the borders of 48 lands.

In the Bethlehem Governorate, the Israeli Supreme Court issued a decision not to commit itself to preventing the demolition of Tahdi 5 school in the Jab al-Zab area in the Beit Ta’mir village. The decision gives green light to the settlers and the occupation forces to demolish the school, which has been subjected to many demolition attempts in the past.

Last week, 15 Knesset members went to the Israeli PM Netanyahu to call for an end to the activity of the international force in Hebron. This trend took place after the “Sarah’s Life” ceremony in the Jewish Quarter of Hebron last weekend, attended by 40,000 persons. Members of the Knesset from the Land of Israel lobby claim that since the deployment of the international force in Hebron, “about 22 years have passed, during which it has been shown that the force of the observers is a one-sided force, and causes damage to the Israeli army, the Jewish population and the “state” of Israel. Adding that the observers “regularly hgaras Jews living in the city and their children, and contrary to the mandate given to it. It organizes media tours hostile to Israel’s diplomatic representatives and the joint activities with BDS organizations and activists.

The National Bureau called on the UNESCO to hold its responsibilities and fulfill its obligations to protect Jerusalem, its religious and cultural identity, and to hold the occupying state accountable for its grave violations of international law and other relevant international laws. It was disclosed that a new tunnel with three sub-tunnels extending from the Ein Silwan area to the south of Al-Aqsa Mosque and towards Al-Buraq Square are being bulldozed and ramified, details are not disclosed accurately, but preliminary data indicate that the tunnel length is 600 meters and deep beyond the three layers