2020 recorded the highest rates of settler attacks
20 years of settlement in the Palestinian territories in one year
The occupation displaced hundreds of Palestinians during the year 2020. Archives
The official in charge of the Jordan Valley file in Tubas, Moataz Bisharat.
From the source
Researcher in the Department of Labor and Planning Muhammad Al-Hroub.
From the source
Hundreds of Palestinian families are left homeless.
From the source
The occupation demolished hundreds of homes and service facilities.
From the source
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12 months were all the most difficult and difficult for all Palestinians. This is the summary of the events of 2020, which is considered the highest in settler attacks on the Palestinian lands 20 years ago, in light of the rapid escalation of settlement activity.
During the past year, Palestinian towns and cities witnessed an intensification of settlement activities, at high rates, according to the records of Palestinian and Israeli human rights institutions. A report issued by the National Office for Land Defense and Settlement Resistance states that the occupation plans to raise the number of settlers in the West Bank to about one million Settler, while raising the pace of settlement in the West Bank over the past year, to reach its highest levels in 20 years.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (B'Tselem) confirms that the West Bank witnessed in the past 2020 a high jump in demolishing Palestinian homes, indicating that the occupation displaced 1006 Palestinians, including 519 minors.
A group of projects
Muhammad Al-Hroub, a researcher at the Abdullah Al-Hourani Center for Studies and Documentation, affiliated to the Department of Action and Planning in the Palestine Liberation Organization, notes that the year 2020 was marked by the announcement of the occupation, a number of settlement projects, which include building thousands of settlement units.
It shows that the number of settlement units that were finally approved by the occupation in the cities of the West Bank and the Holy City of Jerusalem, during the year 2020, amounted to nearly 6,500 settlement units, and plans to build 12,000 housing units are still in the process stage.
The researcher Al-Hroub said, in an exclusive interview with Emirates Today, that settlement plans during the past year were manifold. The occupation approved the establishment of 1,000 settlement units in the area known as "E1", which is the area separating the south of the West Bank from its center and north, located on The lands of the towns of Anata, Al-Tur, Al-Eizariya and Abu Dis, out of the "3500" settlement units, while approving a project to establish a new settlement neighborhood that includes building 450 settlement units near the western entrance to the town of Sur Baher, south of the holy city of Jerusalem.
The occupation also approved, according to Al-Hroub, a number of projects related to the construction and expansion of bypass roads in the West Bank and the Holy City of Jerusalem.
Among these projects is the expansion of the bypass road of the Walaja road in the south of the Bethlehem governorate, which leads to the Gush Etzion settlement complex, the construction of a road extending from the Adam settlement to the Hizma military checkpoint in the northeast of Jerusalem, and the linking of the settlement bloc of Binyamin, which lies on the lands of Ramallah with the city of Jerusalem.
At the same time, the occupation bulldozers paved two settlement streets in the towns of Huwara and Al-Arroub, as they confiscate more than 800 dunums and prevent hundreds of farmers from accessing their lands along the two streets.
Demolition and confiscation
To clear the way for the encroachment of settlements towards the Palestinian lands and the building of settlement units, during the year 2020 the occupation confiscated thousands of dunams in all Palestinian areas, and pursued the policy of demolishing homes and displacing Palestinian families, for the purposes of settlement expansion.
Last November, the occupation completely removed Khirbet Homsa, after the demolition of more than 80 residential and agricultural facilities, which caused the displacement of 85 individuals from the original inhabitants of Khirbet.
Bisharat says: “Khirbet Homsa, due to the demolition and displacement process, was declared a disaster area.”
For his part, the researcher at the Abdullah Al-Hourani Center for Studies and Documentation reports that, during the year 2020, 976 houses and facilities were demolished by the occupation bulldozers, including 353 homes and 622 agricultural, animal, commercial and service facilities, indicating that this represents an increase of 30% compared to 2019.
He explained that the demolitions were concentrated in the governorates of Hebron, Tubas, the northern Jordan Valley, Jericho, Bethlehem, Ramallah, and Al-Bireh, while the occupation demolished six homes for the families of Palestinian prisoners in the cities of Birzeit, Kober, Ramallah, Rogeeb, Yabad, and Jenin in the West Bank.
The researcher Alhroub indicates that during the year 2020, the occupation distributed (1012) demolition decisions, halting construction, restoration and evacuation, which included Palestinian homes, commercial, agricultural, animal and service facilities, an increase of 45% over the year 2019, as Hebron governorate alone recorded 22% of the total of these decisions.
It is noteworthy that during the year 2020 the occupation confiscated approximately 8,830 dunums of Palestinian citizens ’lands, as part of the policy of seizing and appropriating lands, and announcing the seizure of 11,200 dunums, at the expense of three natural reserves in the Palestinian Jordan Valley.
Settler violence
The "B'Tselem" information center reports, in a study on a summary of events during the past year in the occupied territories, that West Bank residents have been subjected to settler violence brutality.
To tighten their arbitrary grip against the Palestinians and their land, the occupation has provided settlers with drones over the past year, to track the Palestinians and construction operations in the West Bank cities.
According to the researcher at the Abdullah Al-Hourani Center for Studies and Documentation, settlers and the gangs associated with them carried out, under the protection of the occupation army, during the year 2020, (1090) attacks against Palestinian citizens and their property, an increase of 9% over the year 2019, and 49% of these attacks occurred in Nablus and Hebron governorates. Meanwhile, 185 civilians were wounded.
Al-Hroub went on to say: “The attacks were comprehensive and varied, as 8,925 olive and almond trees were uprooted, destroyed and burnt, 21 trampling operations were carried out, eight attempted kidnappings, an attempt to establish 18 new settlement outposts, 26 shootings, and 47 razing operations of citizens’ lands, which included razing. About 1,500 dunams. ”
The settlers' attacks were comprehensive, as 8,925 olive and almond trees were uprooted and burned, 21 run-over operations were carried out, eight attempted kidnappings, and an attempt to establish 18 outposts, 26 shootings, and 47 sweeping operations of 1,500 dunums of land.
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During the year 2020, the occupation distributed (1012) demolition decisions, halting construction, restoration and eviction, including Palestinian homes, commercial, agricultural, animal and service facilities, an increase of 45% over the year 2019, as Hebron governorate alone recorded 22% of the total of these decisions.
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