Nablus- Like all residents of the town of Qarawat Bani Hassan, near the town of Salfit in the northern West Bank, Fawzi Rayyan observes with his own eyes the expansion of settlements on their land in the “Kiryat Netafim” settlement, which expands to new types. construction, while people there are deprived of their most basic rights to expand their homes and build on their land or rebuild it by cultivating and benefiting from it for decades.
In a military order recently signed by Avi Ballut, commander of the central region of the Israeli occupation army, he authorizes for the first time urban renewal in the context of dense or saturated (layered) construction within the settlements of West Bank. number of settlement units in one place and therefore an increase in the number of settlers. It is not a single building that spans a large area and with a smaller number of settlers.
Although the Israeli decision is considered new in terms of allowing “intensive settlement”, it was implemented before its publication, as is the case in the “Netafim” settlement and other West Bank settlements, which were monitored by Al Jazeera Net.
Citizen Fawzi Rayan (53 years old) feels great regrets every time he looks towards his land “Airplanes” and the lands of “Abu Zuwayr” and “Khallet Abu Hadid”, which he knows by his old name and which belong to the inhabitants of his country. village, where the “Netafim” colony is located, he turns away so as not to be even more oppressed by the acceleration of the wheel of construction.
And this, while the occupying army and settlers continue all bulldozing or construction operations in his city, attack citizens and confiscate their equipment.
Prosperous settlement
Rayan tells Al Jazeera Net how he experienced “the first divide”, as he described it, which occurred in the “Netafim” settlement in 1978, when the settlement movement was active in the north of the West Bank.
The situation of the colony and the ongoing expansion processes are reminiscent of the class structure, as he and his family, numbering 50 people, are deprived of access to their land and reconstruction despite obtaining decisions Israeli courts proving their ownership and rights. right to dispose of it.
At the sight of landowners, settlers moved from expensive single buildings to multi-storey buildings with residential units in the “Netafim” settlement, and about 6 buildings have been erected so far since the start of construction by the occupation in 2019, according to Ibrahim. Assi, mayor of Qarawat Bani Hassan.
Asi told Al Jazeera Net: “In 2019, the settlers demanded the expansion of their settlement’s structural plan, but they started and are still continuing construction before getting a response or permission from the courts, and the authorities occupation, in return, did so. will not address objections presented by landowners to the rejection of settlement construction.
Risks threaten the Palestinians
According to Assi, this is one of the “most dangerous” colonization operations, as it confiscates land and begins to build on it, it also doubles the number of settlers and considerably intensifies their presence, thus compromising their future desires for colonization. need for expansion and withdrawal of more Palestinian land to cover this density.
Intensive settlement saves settlers from the exorbitant costs of independent construction, which, according to Assi, in Netafim, reached one and a half million shekels per house (about 420 thousand US dollars), and also brings them closer to each other and protected at within their buildings from any danger.
On the ground, intensive new construction in Netafim will connect it to surrounding settlements, particularly the Barkan settlement, with its industrial and residential parts, and cut off the route to 40,000 Palestinians living in villages west of Salfit and the will besiege it.
Of the 9,500 dunums (one dunum equals a thousand square meters) belonging to the population of Qarawat Bani Hassan, or approximately 7 thousand people, the occupation classifies 92% of them in zone C and subjects them to its administrative authority and military, of which around 200 dunums are controlled by the Netafim colony, and 6 other colonies surround the village. The occupation has refused to expand its organizational structure of 8,650 dunums since 1993 and continues any attempt. Build outside and tear it down.
According to the Israel Hayom newspaper, urban development projects will soon be launched, which will include many facilities based on saturated construction rather than rural construction in the settlements, thereby increasing the number of housing units per acre, which will allow a significant increase in numbers. of settlers.
The newspaper said: “If the entire West Bank has 115,000 settlement units, then the Settlement Authority plans to build 10,000 units within a year, which is equivalent to 10% of the construction volume in the West Bank , and therefore more colonies over time. »
In pursuit of a million settlers
Despite the Israeli military commander’s recent decision to authorize intensive construction in the settlements, the matter is not new, according to Amir Daoud, head of documentation at the official Palestinian Wall and Settlements Authority. ; Intensive construction is in fact practiced by Israel on the ground, “and most settlement construction bids in 2024 were intensive construction.”
The danger of intensive or saturated construction, according to Daoud, lies in many factors, the most important being to facilitate the construction of large buildings, in addition to the demographic increase of settlers and to attract the largest number of between them, in a plan to install a million settlers in the West Bank, which also explains the massive construction of settlement roads.
In addition, the danger of this construction lies in exceeding the limits of territorial planning when approving the structural plan of the settlement, thereby increasing the area of confiscated land. Thus, they strive to accelerate construction without administrative complications and land planning complexities. .
Statistics from the Wall and Settlements Commission estimate the number of settlers in the West Bank and the city of Jerusalem at around 780,000 settlers, spread across 180 settlements and around 240 settlement outposts, and they control 5% of the land area. from the West. West Bank, while the occupation as a whole controls 42% of West Bank land under the designations of military zones and state lands, bypass streets, etc.