Las Monday, the Israeli occupation authorities approved the construction of 5,623 new colonial settlement units in the occupied West Bank.
This move comes in the midst of a nearly week-long wave of Israeli colonial settler violence against Palestinians that has included burning Palestinian villages, beating children, burning Muslim holy books, invading mosques and uprooting Palestinian olive trees.
The wave of West Bank violence [including killings associated with Israeli military’s operation involving advanced military weaponry in the Jenin Refugee Camp] has been condemned by the international community, including representatives of the French and U.S. governments, who called on Israel to halt its settlement expansion — which is illegal under international law. [A U.N. call to end West Bank violence was backed by the U.S. and Russia, AP reports.]
Israel instead ignored the worldwide condemnation and moved to expand colonial settlements in different parts of the West Bank.
The West Bank and Gaza Strip are the small portions of historic Palestine that remain belonging to the indigenous Palestinian population. They have been under Israeli military occupation since 1967, which has meant Israeli control of all land, sea and sky, all marriages and divorces, all births, deaths and other records. Palestinians must go to Israeli military bases to seek permits for hospitalization, travel, work and school.
Since 1967, and particularly since the Oslo Accords in 1994, Israel has blatantly expanded its territory by forcibly expelling Palestinians from their land, and then building Jewish-only colonial settlements, moving Jewish Israelis onto the newly-seized lands and building electrified fences and walls to secure the newly-declared colonial settlement.
Monday’s approval covers 4,291 new settlement units which are already in an advanced stage of planning or construction. It also includes submitting 1,332 new building plans for approval.
According to the Israeli media, 1,000 new settlement units, beyond what the occupation government had approved last week, have also been approved. They will be built in the “Eli” settlement built on citizens’ lands south of Nablus.
These will be added to the plans, according to an agreement among the prime minister of the occupation, Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
The plan to expand the “Eli” settlement has been hotly contested by Palestinians, who held a non-violent protest on the hillside where the expansion is being planned for over a year, with many of the protesters brutalized, shot and teargassed by Israeli forces on a nearly daily basis. In Worst acts of Retaliatory Violence: Palestinian Killed, Dozens of Houses and Vehicles Burnt in Widescale Attacks by Israeli Occupation Forces and Settlers in Ramallah “According to initial information collected by PCHR’s fieldworker, at approximately 13:58 on Wednesday, dozens of armed and masked settlers, from “Shilo” settlement, which is established in eastern Ramallah, broke into Turmus ‘Ayya village. The settlers immediately carried out retaliatory violence, indiscriminately opened fire at Palestinians and their houses and set many vehicles parked on the village’s streets ablaze. Meanwhile, villagers gathered and tried to confront the settlers with stones, so the latter directly opened fire at them and burned several residential houses. Afterwards, violent clashes broke out on the village’s streets and heavy smoke spread after several vehicles and houses were burnt. More settlers then arrived in the village and raided most of the residential houses to the right side of the village’s main entrance, forcing the residents out, and setting the houses and their gardens ablaze. Later, large Israeli forces moved into the village amid heavy firing of bullets and teargas canisters at the protestors to protect the Israeli settlers while conducting their attacks. Head of Turmus ‘Ayya Village Council, Lafi Adeeb Shalabi, said to PCHR’s fieldworker that the initial results of settlers’ attacks indicated that about 30 houses were completely burnt in addition to 60 vehicles.”.
Moreover, Under a Settler Government, Violence Grows. It is a daily reality throughout the West Bank. How is what happened in Turmus Ayya different? HS: Settlers will often go to the nearest junction and throw stones at Palestinians’ cars. That does not require much planning. But in Turmus Ayya, settlers set fire to houses and cars, which means they went in armed with flammable material. So that indicates to me that the Turmus Ayya attack was more premeditated and thus more violent. Overall, settlers are growing less concerned about the possibility of being stopped by law enforcement, and are acting with the knowledge that Israeli society in general is more accepting of their actions. AK: The attack on Turmus Ayya is one of hundreds of incidents of settler violence that have taken place during the first year of this Netanyahu-led government. Just five months ago, Israeli settlers entered the village of Huwara where they torched cars and homes with Palestinians still inside. Why are these settler attacks escalating? HS: The attacks in Huwara and Turmus Ayya were made possible by Israel’s current government, which is a settler government. Sources in the defense establishment have told me that Ben-Gvir and Smotrich are supportive of the attacks. My colleague Yaniv Kubovich’s sources say it is government policy to deny Israel’s armed forces the reinforcements necessary to prevent attacks on Palestinians.”