Settlement in the elections of Israel .. Endless war to win votes

Mervat Sadeq-Ramallah

In recent weeks, the Cooper Village Council, near Ramallah in the center of the West Bank, has received decisions to re-confiscate about 1,000 dunums, mostly agricultural, in favor of the expansion of the Nahaliel settlement south of the village. The residents said that they had recovered it years ago after the occupation efforts to confiscate it in the 1980s and 1990s.

According to the Committee for the Follow-up of Lands Threatened to Confiscation, what is facing the village of Koper is part of a plan to "annex" about 2500 dunums of its land and the lands of the villages of Mazraa Al-Gharbiya and the neighboring Beitillu villages to "Nahaliel" and expand and link them to the surrounding settlement blocs such as Hallamish and Ateret.

Some 500 Israeli settlers have been living in Nahaliel since its establishment in 1983. They are part of some 430,000 settlers living in Israeli settlements in the 1967 occupied West Bank, including, according to settlement experts, about 5% of the vote in the Knesset elections. Israel, along with some 200,000 settlers living in East Jerusalem, occupied in 1967.

Aktham Barghouti, a member of the Committee for the Follow-up of Confiscated Lands, says that the recent annexation decisions have targeted agricultural areas that had been sought by settlers since the settlement was established three decades ago, and the residents succeeded in recovering and preserving them through reclamation.

Although the decisions did not justify re-controlling them, Barghouti said, "This is clearly related to the political electoral developments inside Israel and the attempts to appease the settlers, especially after the declarations by Netanyahu and the Israeli parties that they intended areas in the West Bank."

In the official Palestinian arena, the endorsement of new settlement plans or revival of old ones is seen as an attempt by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "to win the votes of the settlers and their supporters from the extreme right and right in Israel, by exploiting its adoption and absolute support for settlement and deepening in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem." Jerusalem, "the Palestinian foreign ministry said.

The Foreign Ministry said that Netanyahu is using the election race to expand settlements and Judaization operations and provide support to the settlers' militias and gangs, and unleashes his government and its arms to implement the largest number of settlement plans to satisfy the settlers and their movements and Judaism.

Schemes
Recently, settlement operations have escalated, with Netanyahu's personal involvement, as happened when he stormed the heart of the southern West Bank city of Hebron, and his statement "We will stay here forever" and boasted that his government was "the forerunner in pioneering settlement building here."

In the last two months, the Israeli occupation authorities announced the implementation of a plan to expand the so-called "tunnel road" to link Jerusalem to the settlements of Gush Etzion at the expense of the lands of Beit Jala south.

It also announced the confiscation of 100 dunums of land south of Nablus and north of Ramallah, and another 1,000 dunums to implement a large settlement plan on the lands of Jinsafut, east of Qalqilya, and another targeting the lands of Wadi Qana, north of Salfit, and confiscate 85 dunums in Shu'fat to build tunnels, bridges and roads to deepen communication between the settlements of the Jordan Valley. And East Jerusalem settlements.

In its August report, the Palestinian National Center for Land Defense draws attention to the decision of the so-called "Israeli Central Brigade" to deposit a master plan for the Modi'in settlement bloc, which extends into the West Bank and reaches the border of Beit Sira, west of Ramallah. Housing, as part of a long-term plan for the settlement, which extends over an area of ​​50,000 dunums.

The plan seeks to increase the population of the gathering, which began construction 20 years ago on the land of the village of "Bir Amaen" Palestinian destroyed, to about a quarter of a million settlers and now includes 23 thousand housing units inhabited by about 89 thousand settlers.

The new plan promises the settlers of Modi'in to build a huge shopping mall, a medical center, an academic center, a railway, and improve its internal network.

The PA says that these decisions are invalid and illegal under international law, the Geneva Conventions, and the signed agreements.

"It confirms Netanyahu's stances, anti-peace electoral slogans, and his desperate attempts to intimidate the Israeli electorate with an" external enemy "in order to gain control of them by claiming that he is the only one able to provide them with protection and security.

Settlement is one of the most important files that have torpedoed the direct Palestinian-Israeli negotiations stalled since 2014, where the Palestinian leadership requires a halt to construction of settlements on its territories occupied in 1967 before returning to the negotiating table. Netanyahu and his rivals in other parties used the race to threaten the annexation of the West Bank's major settlement blocs in the event of victory.

Jerusalem and settlement
Palestinian settlement and map expert Khalil Tufakji says that Netanyahu and his rivals in the Israeli elections agree on two issues, the first of which is the dispute: Jerusalem as the unified capital of Israel, and then settlement on the occupied territories in 1967.

Tafakji monitors more than 20 announcements for the entry into force of settlement schemes previously prepared in preparation for tenders for construction in the West Bank and Jerusalem over the past two months, especially in the areas of Bethlehem, Ramallah and Qalqilya.

Netanyahu, his rival Benny Gantz and other Israeli parties are based on the issue of settlement in their race as they seek to win the votes of settlers living in the West Bank, who make up about 5% of settlers eligible to vote. According to al-Tafakji, "these people can prevail among the wrestlers."

In their election campaign, Israeli parties are targeting mainly the major settlement blocs in the West Bank, as well as small outposts and isolated settlements that are approving plans to build new settlement units to expand and connect them to the major settlement blocs, which will in effect lead to the capture of 60% of the West Bank.

According to al-Tufakji, the Jordan Valley is not merely in the electoral calculations, but control of it and Netanyahu's announcement that he intends to annex it to Israel in the event of his victory comes within the framework of strategic economic ambitions, primarily before it is security and political.