New Israeli Laws Enhance Policy of Creeping In The OPT

The Israeli government continues actions to impose a defacto position in the occupied West Bank as part of its annexation policy, and attempts to apply Israeli law on the settlements. The so-called Central Command has recently ratified the enactment of two agricultural laws on settlements that were illegally built since 1967. Thus, Deputy Minister of Security, Eli Dahan said that the two laws deal with matters related to agriculture in the settlements.

The first is the Organic Production Regulation Law, which was first enacted in 2005, which regulates control over organic agriculture in Israel. The second was enacted in the Knesset a few months ago in order to enable poultry farmers to transfer the shares of eggs produced in settlements to the Israel. Besides, other laws those were approved by the Knesset and applied on the Green Line, such as the Israeli Higher Education Council Law on Higher Education Institutions in the Occupied Territories, which led to the establishment of the Faculty of Medicine at the Ariel University.

Head of the Jewish Community, Naftali, also confirmed his party’s commitment to the implementation of Israeli law in the settlements, while Minister of Agriculture, Uri Ariel said that we are working all the time in order to apply the regulations on agriculture in Israel. In turn, Ben Dahan said that I will continue to work to sign orders that benefit Israeli citizens in the Judea and Samaria.

At the same time, Israeli Justice Minister, Shaked stressed the political plan adopted by her party, “the Jewish Home,” to annex Area C, which is 60% of the West Bank, and finishes the two-state solution, adding Israel can absorb some 100,000 Palestinians living in area C. Israeli economy and industry, Eli Cohen said Settlement in the West Bank will not stop, and the current government is continuing to build more housing units in the West Bank. His words came during the inauguration of an industrial zone at the Qiryat Arba settlement in Hebron.

Moreover, the Israeli occupation government is trying to perpetuate the occupation and settlement, the latest is the Minister of Social Equality’, Gila Gamliel’s decision to allocate NIS 1.5 million from the budget of her ministry for a project of improving the image of settlement. The project includes video documentation of the founders of the settlement project and words for hundreds of settlers, who participated in this project, then presented it to the public, claiming that the project is a preliminary government documentation of the initial settlement project, describing it as “another step towards sovereignty.”

Gamliel claimed that the funding of the project is part of a broader projects to document the relationship of “different Jewish communities in the Judea and Samaria including immigrants from Arab countries, Iran, Ethiopia and India, and to honor the great contribution of the founders of Jewish settlement in Israel.

The ministry plans to convert the videos into documentaries that will be broadcast via a website and the cell phones. This will be accompanied by an academic staff that will review their supplementary information and produce films on “Heritage of Settlement”. The project is being carried out by the Council of Settlements and the Menachem Begin Heritage Center. The head of the Council of Settlements, Dorni said the project “will greatly contribute to the consolidation of settlements.”

Also settlement projects continued as Israeli War Minister, Lieberman said he would submit a plan to the cabinet in order to build 31 new settlement units in Hebron. He said in a Tweet, the plan includes what was recently approved by the planning institutions including the construction of new homes, kindergartens and public places. The Israeli occupation authorities also approved the addition of 8 new settlement units in the settlement of Majdal Oz near the Beit Fajar town, south of Bethlehem.

In the Salfit Governorate, the Israeli occupation authorities handed over the of Al-Zawia Municipality west of Salfit a military decision to seize more than 8 dunums of the village’s land in the area called “Sarsia-Majin Dan” for military purposes. It is noteworthy mentioning that about two months ago, the occupation authorities also announced the seizure of lands of the Al-Zawia in the basin number “4” in the “Wad Najafat” and “Khayal-Kisabra” and “Khallet Hamad,” areas between 140 – 177 dunums, for the establishment of a new cemetery for settlers.

In Jerusalem, the Israeli occupation municipality plans to build 10 parking towers near the Old City as building permits were issued last week for the Aden Company. It allows the construction of 6 towers near Damascus Gate and 4 near the Aqsa Mosque, with 15 to 17 meters high, and can accommodate 12 cars each.

Under the protection of the occupying forces to settlers, citizen woman, Aisha Moh’d Radhi, 45 from the Bidya town, west of Salfit, was killed by settlers near the Za’tara checkpoint, south of Nablus, and her husband was seriously injured in the head after settlers threw stones at their vehicle.

The Israeli government’s plan known as 2050 to connect occupied East Jerusalem and the settlements of the Ghor in Tel Aviv by a railway network and wide roads linking Jerusalem with airport that the occupation authorities intend to build in Al-Buqai’a and the Dead Sea area. The plan is one of the largest in Israel, where 12 million tourists and 35 million passengers expected to complete the project. The central objective of the plan is to expand the settlements established in this area and to swallow the Ghor area as a barrier to any normal Palestinian expansion.