Bethlehem – Ma’an Special – Since the beginning of the war, the occupation authorities have continued to strengthen settlements in the Bethlehem Governorate at the expense of citizens’ lands and homes. The occupation forces have confiscated hundreds of dunams of land under flimsy pretexts to implement their settlement plans, in addition to demolishing citizens’ homes.

Since the beginning of the war, the occupation authorities have decided to build new settlements and hundreds of settlement units in more than one settlement, in addition to confiscating lands to pave new settlement roads, besieging citizens’ lands and preventing access to them, assaulting citizens, burning their agricultural lands and grazing their crops, and other assaults and violations.

Through its settlement plans, the occupation seeks to besiege the Bethlehem Governorate with settlements, which would separate the towns of the governorate as part of a plan to isolate these towns according to the “cantons” system. It also seeks to create g
eographical continuity between the existing settlements in the Bethlehem and Jerusalem governorates, as happened in the occupation forces’ decision to build a new settlement west of Bethlehem, which is expected to confiscate more than 600 dunums in order to build the settlement.

Smotrich has strengthened his settlement project in the governorate, and today, Sunday, he was present in the eastern region of the Bethlehem governorate, which are clearly targeted areas during the recent period, extending from the Jerusalem desert, Al-Ubaidiya, Al-Ta’amra and Al-Rashadah to the south and east of the Hebron governorate, reaching the outskirts of the Dead Sea, an area estimated at hundreds of thousands of dunams, which means stopping Smotrich’s plans to deport thousands of citizens and displace them from their properties and lands and demolish them.

Suhail Khalili, director of the Settlement Monitoring Unit at the Applied Research Institute for Jerusalem (ARIJ) in Jerusalem, told Ma’an that the decision of the extre
mist Israeli minister Smotrich to expand the settlement east of Bethlehem will lead to the demolition of about 3,000 homes and various facilities that have been placed on the map as part of the targeting. He added that expanding the settlement in the eastern area of ??Bethlehem means a clear sign of annexation and seizure of areas in the eastern West Bank, reaching the Jordan Valley, which are areas that are candidates for evacuation and settlement presence.

He continued: The Israeli government has made a decision to strengthen settlement, and its features have begun to take shape by confiscating large areas in the eastern region of the Jordan Valley and Nabi Musa as natural reserves, which is a prelude to extending the settlement hand over them.

For his part, Murad Jadal, head of the village council of Al-Mahala, east of Bethlehem, told Ma’an that Smotrich was present today in the eastern region of the Bethlehem governorate, and that he aims to remove dozens of buildings and homes in the area under the pre
text that this area is a nature reserve and construction and expansion are prohibited in it. A military decision was issued in this regard last July, and it falls within the areas classified as “B.”

Experts say that the occupation government’s policy is summed up in intensifying the targeting of homes and facilities in Bethlehem, which puts thousands of homes at risk of demolition and targeting the entire Palestinian presence in the targeted areas, and threatening and “burying” the idea of ??the two-state solution, in a real and explicit violation of what the international community has agreed upon.

Jadal added that incitement in the recent period against the eastern region of the governorate has been clearly escalating, which threatens more than 3,000 citizens in the targeted area, who may become homeless if the occupation’s plans are implemented.

Source: Maan News Agency