Ahlul Bayt News Agency - Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are suffering from the rising Judaization and settlement schemes which expose the Israeli occupation and the settler gangs' malicious intent. These schemes don't only threaten the Palestinian citizens, but also their houses, their holy sites, and everything related to the Palestinians' lives.
In this report, the Palestine Information Centre sheds light on the settlement file and the statistics of competent authorities and settlement experts who affirmed that the settlers and their extremist groups' crimes committed against the Palestinians, their properties, and sanctities have been steadily increasing.
Shocking statistics
According to the latest statistics issued by the Popular Committee against Wall and Settlement, the settlement areas in the West Banl reached about 505 including settlements, settlement outposts, military outposts, services areas, and industrial and touristic sites, let alone the 93 houses which have been misappropriated partially or completely in Jerusalem.
16% of these settlement areas are in Jerusalem and Ramallah, 13% in al-Khalil and Jericho, and 12% are in Qalqilya.
Settlers' assaults
The Committee's statistics indicated that the settlers have escalated their assaults against the Palestinian citizens; in 2013 about 550 violations by Israeli settlers were reported, in 2014 the assaults were more than 760 while since the beginning of 2015 until end of August the assaults have reached 400.
The committee also pointed out that in 2014 the settlers' assaults in the West Bank governorates reached about 887 cases. Nablus took the lion's share of these violations, followed by al-Khalil and Jerusalem.
These violent attacks included beating up, running over, hurling stones, attacking Palestinian properties, kidnap attempts, shooting, breaking into houses, releasing gas and chemical materials, stabbing, burning homes, burning houses of worship, and even burning Palestinian citizens to death.
Even the trees and the farms were not spared the settlers' assaults; they burn and cut trees, attack the farmers, prevent water from reaching the farms, and unleash dangerous animals in the Palestinian agricultural lands.
The committee drew attention to the fact that over the past few years the settlers' assaults were limited to direct attacks against Palestinian citizens or against their trees and crops whereas today the systematic attacks, which are openly supported and protected by the Israeli army, extended to include the Palestinian lands, tress, houses, and mosques.
For his part, Suhail Khaliliyya, from the Applied Research Institute-ARIJ in Bethlehem, pointed to the noticeable increase in the settlers’ number which coincides with a similar increase in the settlement construction during the recent years.
According to the institute, the number of the settlement outposts has remarkably increased during the last years and the settlements have been expanded at the expense of the Palestinian lands.
The institute reviewed aerial photos that show that the number of the settlement blocs has increased by about a million square meters compared to the years 2012 and 2014.
Khaliliyya affirmed that the Israeli occupation pursues a systematic policy to expand the settlement construction in an attempt to impose new facts on the ground and force the Palestinians to exchange their lands that are located in areas desired by the Israelis.
Official support
The researcher stressed that the Israeli government supports the settlers' crimes, contrary to what it claims in the media, and clarified that when the Dawabsha family house was burned the Israeli army reached the scene very quickly which indicates that the army knew about the arson attack beforehand.
He warned that this will boost the settlers' persistence in carrying out these heinous systematic attacks especially that the Israeli parties always side with the settlers in their crimes against Palestinian innocent civilians.
The researcher, however, affirmed that the settlers' indulgence in committing crimes against Palestinian citizens will never weaken the Palestinians' steadfastness and adherence to their land.
source : abna
