Settlers Race to Grab Hilltops All Over West Bank
May 27, 1999 - 0:0
ATHENS -- Zionist settlers, heeding a direct call by Zionist Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon to grab as many hilltops as possible lest they fall into Palestinian hands, have been on the move in much of the West Bank, seizing more Palestinian land and creating "facts" on the ground, said a report from al-Qods. According to Palestinian and Israeli sources alike, the settlers, who are supported and protected by the regular Israeli army, have been executing ''daily missions'' to seize ''as much territory as possible,'' before any prospective ''territorial settlement'' is reached in the context of the Oslo process, particularly in light of Ehud Barak becoming Israel's new prime minister.
The land-grab blitz was particularly stepped up following the signing of the hapless Wye River memorandum, when Sharon made his infamous call about seizing the hilltops. Since then the settlers, often at gun point, grabbed thousands of hectares in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank districts of Hebron, Bethlehem, Ramalla and Nablus. According to data provided by the Israeli ''Peace Now Movement,'' over 23 hilltop settlements were erected in the period from 23 October 1998 to 10 April. The vast bulk of the new settlements and outposts are 1-5 kilometers from existing settlements.
In Gaza, Jewish settlers seized over 80 hectares of privately-owned Palestinian land at the Gush Katiff settlements between 25 March and 25 April. Sixty more hectares near the town of Rafah were declared slated for confiscation, apparently for the expansion of the settlement of Moraj. All in all, over 35% of the entire area of the Gaza Strip has now become undersettlers control.
Needless to say, the confiscated area include the best farm land in the Gaza Strip, and contains most of the increasingly scarce water sources in the strip. In the Hebron area, efforts by the settlers to seize ''as much land as possible'' have been intensive and widespread. The national and Islamic committee against land grab reported in early May that over five hundred hectares of land were seized in the Hebron district since the signing of the Wye Agreement. A considerable land grab has been taking place around the town of Yatta, 15 miles south west of Hebron, where over 25 hectares were confiscated in the month of April alone.
Twenty additional hectares were seized a few miles south west of the nearby town of Sammu, where a new settlement is being built. In addition, hundreds of hectares of farm land belonging to Palestinian farmers along the ''front line areas'' were confiscated. This land is located mainly is adjacent to the former armistice line between the West Bank and pre-1967 Palestine, which suggests that Israelis are seeking to push the borders eastward by a few kilometers.
In the town of Hebron itself, over a hundred hectares of privately-owned land belonging to villagers from Shuyokh (10 miles northeast of Hebron) and Sair (14 miles northwest of Hebron) were seized. The land grab around Kiryat Arba'a is aimed at expanding the settlement and creating an industrial zone there. It is also aimed at creating a ''Jewish metropolitan center'' linking Kirayt Arba'a and other Jewish settlements around Hebron. Normally, the settlers employ sinister means to arrogate the land, such as spraying lethal pesticides to prevent Palestinian livestock from grazing.
Moreover, they usually root out grown olive trees, ostensibly to obliterate any signs reminding the beholder that the land were belonging to Palestinian farmers and were actually stolen from them by force. In the Bethlehem area, over 220 hectares were declared slated for confiscation for the opening of a new bypass road circumventing Arab villages in the area. That road, which the Israelis claimed was agreed upon in the Wye Agreement, will link the settlement of Efrat with the planned settlement of Har Homa at Jabal abu Ghneim. The settlement of Efrat itself has been steadily ''creeping'' at the expense of the neighboring Palestinian village of Artas (pop. 10,000), just like the rest of settlements, known as the Gush Etzion, extending between the northern outskirts of Hebron and Bethlehem. These settlements have expanded by fifty percent since the signing of the Oslo Accords five years ago, and continue to expand at a fast pace, with new bocks of flats and red-tiled apartments being built almost round the clock.
In Ramalla, an exceptionally aggressive campaign of land grab has been going on for the last few weeks, particularly since March, when the outgoing Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu decided to go for early elections. At least, 200 hectares of Palestinians' land were seized at the two villages of Deir Qeddis and Shabin, 20 miles west of Ramalla, along the armistice line.
Again, as in the Hebron area, the goal of the Zionists seems to push the borders eastward as much as possible. In Nablus, prefabricated houses and mobile homes were erected on land belonging to the villages of ''Yitma'' and ''al Sawiya,'' apparently for the purpose of expanding the settlement of Rahalim. Moreover, another settlement ''Brakha'' was being expanded at the expense of the adjacent Palestinian village of Deir al Hatab. A few miles away, Israeli bulldozers last month pulverized tens of hectares of farm land and rooted out thousands of olive trees, belonging to villagers from ''Asala'' and ''Nabi Elyas.'' The frenzied onslaught of settlement expansion, particularly in the West Bank, is aimed at increasing the settler population from 160,000 to a potential 200,000, which would create a ''solid and irreversible faith accompli'' in the area.
Moreover, a key goal of the current spate of land grab is to enclose Palestinian autonomous areas to prevent their expansion beyond the 10 per cent of extra territory granted them in the second phase of redeployment stipulated in the Wye Agreement. The settler onslaught is in total harmony with Jewish settlement ambitions in the West Bank, mainly ''repopulating Judea and Samaria with Jews,'' as one of the settlers' leaders put it.
According to peace now, around 1680 new settlement units were built in 1996, 1900 in 1997 and 3900 in 1998. The figure for this year is expected to top 5,000. Needless to say, these ''facts on the ground'' are likely to make any prospective ''final status settlement'' between Israel and the Palestinians fragile and volatile,'' if not impossible all together. (IRNA)
The land-grab blitz was particularly stepped up following the signing of the hapless Wye River memorandum, when Sharon made his infamous call about seizing the hilltops. Since then the settlers, often at gun point, grabbed thousands of hectares in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank districts of Hebron, Bethlehem, Ramalla and Nablus. According to data provided by the Israeli ''Peace Now Movement,'' over 23 hilltop settlements were erected in the period from 23 October 1998 to 10 April. The vast bulk of the new settlements and outposts are 1-5 kilometers from existing settlements.
In Gaza, Jewish settlers seized over 80 hectares of privately-owned Palestinian land at the Gush Katiff settlements between 25 March and 25 April. Sixty more hectares near the town of Rafah were declared slated for confiscation, apparently for the expansion of the settlement of Moraj. All in all, over 35% of the entire area of the Gaza Strip has now become undersettlers control.
Needless to say, the confiscated area include the best farm land in the Gaza Strip, and contains most of the increasingly scarce water sources in the strip. In the Hebron area, efforts by the settlers to seize ''as much land as possible'' have been intensive and widespread. The national and Islamic committee against land grab reported in early May that over five hundred hectares of land were seized in the Hebron district since the signing of the Wye Agreement. A considerable land grab has been taking place around the town of Yatta, 15 miles south west of Hebron, where over 25 hectares were confiscated in the month of April alone.
Twenty additional hectares were seized a few miles south west of the nearby town of Sammu, where a new settlement is being built. In addition, hundreds of hectares of farm land belonging to Palestinian farmers along the ''front line areas'' were confiscated. This land is located mainly is adjacent to the former armistice line between the West Bank and pre-1967 Palestine, which suggests that Israelis are seeking to push the borders eastward by a few kilometers.
In the town of Hebron itself, over a hundred hectares of privately-owned land belonging to villagers from Shuyokh (10 miles northeast of Hebron) and Sair (14 miles northwest of Hebron) were seized. The land grab around Kiryat Arba'a is aimed at expanding the settlement and creating an industrial zone there. It is also aimed at creating a ''Jewish metropolitan center'' linking Kirayt Arba'a and other Jewish settlements around Hebron. Normally, the settlers employ sinister means to arrogate the land, such as spraying lethal pesticides to prevent Palestinian livestock from grazing.
Moreover, they usually root out grown olive trees, ostensibly to obliterate any signs reminding the beholder that the land were belonging to Palestinian farmers and were actually stolen from them by force. In the Bethlehem area, over 220 hectares were declared slated for confiscation for the opening of a new bypass road circumventing Arab villages in the area. That road, which the Israelis claimed was agreed upon in the Wye Agreement, will link the settlement of Efrat with the planned settlement of Har Homa at Jabal abu Ghneim. The settlement of Efrat itself has been steadily ''creeping'' at the expense of the neighboring Palestinian village of Artas (pop. 10,000), just like the rest of settlements, known as the Gush Etzion, extending between the northern outskirts of Hebron and Bethlehem. These settlements have expanded by fifty percent since the signing of the Oslo Accords five years ago, and continue to expand at a fast pace, with new bocks of flats and red-tiled apartments being built almost round the clock.
In Ramalla, an exceptionally aggressive campaign of land grab has been going on for the last few weeks, particularly since March, when the outgoing Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu decided to go for early elections. At least, 200 hectares of Palestinians' land were seized at the two villages of Deir Qeddis and Shabin, 20 miles west of Ramalla, along the armistice line.
Again, as in the Hebron area, the goal of the Zionists seems to push the borders eastward as much as possible. In Nablus, prefabricated houses and mobile homes were erected on land belonging to the villages of ''Yitma'' and ''al Sawiya,'' apparently for the purpose of expanding the settlement of Rahalim. Moreover, another settlement ''Brakha'' was being expanded at the expense of the adjacent Palestinian village of Deir al Hatab. A few miles away, Israeli bulldozers last month pulverized tens of hectares of farm land and rooted out thousands of olive trees, belonging to villagers from ''Asala'' and ''Nabi Elyas.'' The frenzied onslaught of settlement expansion, particularly in the West Bank, is aimed at increasing the settler population from 160,000 to a potential 200,000, which would create a ''solid and irreversible faith accompli'' in the area.
Moreover, a key goal of the current spate of land grab is to enclose Palestinian autonomous areas to prevent their expansion beyond the 10 per cent of extra territory granted them in the second phase of redeployment stipulated in the Wye Agreement. The settler onslaught is in total harmony with Jewish settlement ambitions in the West Bank, mainly ''repopulating Judea and Samaria with Jews,'' as one of the settlers' leaders put it.
According to peace now, around 1680 new settlement units were built in 1996, 1900 in 1997 and 3900 in 1998. The figure for this year is expected to top 5,000. Needless to say, these ''facts on the ground'' are likely to make any prospective ''final status settlement'' between Israel and the Palestinians fragile and volatile,'' if not impossible all together. (IRNA)