Negative Indicators About the Demographic Reality of Colonial Settlements in W.B

By: Madeeha Al-A’raj
The national Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements stated in its latest weekly report , that Israeli Finance Minister ,and the Minister of Settlement at the Ministry of Army, Smotrich vowed that he would push his government to extend sovereignty into the West Bank the so-called called Judea and Samaria”in 2025 in accordance to his plan that compels the Palestinian people to choose 1 of 3 options, namely: accepting to live under the rule of municipalities under Israeli sovereignty, emigrating abroad with facilities and assistance allocated by his country for this purpose, and those who refuse either of these, will be referred to the military authorities to decide their fate.
Within the context, we read many reports and scenarios issued by institutions, research centers and specialists in the occupying state that address this issue, i.e. the fate of the West Bank and thus the so-called “two-state solution” in light of the fascist transformations taking place in Israel in state institutions and society.
Recently, the “Israel Hayom Newspaper” published a report stating that meetings are being held in closed Israeli rooms regarding the future of settlement in the West Bank, especially with Trump’s second term. According to the paper, dozens of public figures, including members of the Knesset and heads of local authorities affiliated with the settlements, gathered at the Ramada Hotel in Jerusalem at an exceptional conference organized by the West Bank Settlements Council at the end of last Nov, where the discussion revolved around establishing 4 new major settlements, one for the “Haredim” extremists and another for the Druze sect.
Inaddition to -convert-ing a number of settlements into cities, and expanding the powers of the regional settlement councils to include the areas between the settlements, with the imposition of Israeli sovereignty over open lands and the establishment of Arab local authorities i.e. municipalities instead of the Palestinian Authority, and dealing with the West Bank in a different way: ‘Jenin should be like Gaza, Tulkarm like Rafah, and Hebron like Nuseirat., no difference’ according to the head of the Yesha Council of Settlements in the West Bank, Israel Gantz .
The fascist tendencies smell bad, they are in line with Smotrich’s “decisive plan” that requires the Palestinian population to be concentrated in areas run by municipal authorities that receive services from Israel and pay for them, and the status of the residents there will be exactly the same as that of the PalestinianJerusalemites, while their national identity will return to what it was before 1967 under Jordanian administration, one of the interesting areas that public figures ‘far-right fascist and dull messianic who live on myths’ have focused on is, the exceptional investment plan in infrastructure.This plan was circulated a few months ago and was revealed by “Israel Hayom” as the plan of Israeli Energy Minister, Eli Cohen and his partner, MK Bavaron, to build power stations throughout the West Bank. Minister Cohen recently announced the construction of the first power station in the West Bank in the Tarqumiya area, and the construction of the largest solar energy field in Israel in the Jordan Valley.
Theplan of this far-right messianic and nationalist camp is based on preventing the establishment of a Palestinian State. It is a multi-layered and multi-stage plan. Here, the settlement outposts and the so-called pastoral farms are the focus of creating geographical contiguity between the settlements, encircling the Palestinian urban areas in such a way that the state is nothing more than municipalities run by Palestinians under Israeli rule.
The plan according to reports that are being promoted and circulated, along the road n. 578, road 508 and road 458, the Jerusalem-Jericho road, by establishing about 30 settlement outposts so that the eastern slopes in the West Bank and the crossroads that connect the Jordan Valley with the edge of the Jordan Valley where the main Palestinian cities are located, Nablus and Ramallah, are controlled by control points at the Hamra Crossroads ‘Tubas Governorate’, the Tapuah ‘Za’tara’ Crossroads, ‘Nablus Governorate’ and the Rimonim Crossroads ‘Ramallah Governorate’, and along road 60, which crosses the West Bank from north to south from Jenin in the north to Hebron in the south by establishing 30 settlement outposts, which allows for control of the edge of the Jordan Valley and the ability to cut off the Palestinian geographical continuity in the West Bank required for the existence of a viable state, and linking the isolated settlements, especially in the Nablus and Ramallah-Al-Bireh Governorates, with the Jordan Valley by establishing 5 settlement outposts east of Elon Moreh, and 6 outposts east of Itamar, and no less important is the advancement of paving bypass roads to these outposts and settlements, such as “Huwara” and other bypass roads, for which NIS 7,000,000 have been allocated in the next 5 years (20% of the road development budget in Israel’.
In addition to creating settlement continuity between Ariel in the Salfeet Governorate and the settlements of Eli and Shilo halfway between the cities of Nablus and Ramallah and from there to the Jordan Valley, where 21 illegal settlement outposts were established, and strengthening settlement in the southeast of the Hebron Hills between the settlements of Ma’on and Susya, through 16 settlement outposts and creating geographical continuity between Gush Etzion and Jerusalem, and separating 5 Palestinian villages, namely: Battir, Husan, Al-Walaja, Nahalin and Wadi Fukin from the city of Bethlehem.
Jerusalemhas an additional separate account in the plan of the extreme right-wing messianic camp with the aim of preserving the Jewish majority in Jerusalem, which has been diminishing for three decades due to negative immigration. It should be recalled here that after the June 1967 war, the percentage of Palestinians in the city was 26%, while now their percentage is 40. The plan here begins with completing the buffer zones, north of Jerusalem in order to isolate Ramallah from East Jerusalem, and in the south to isolate Bethlehem from Jerusalem by closing the gap between the Ramot Alon and Ramat Shevet neighborhoods, and from Ramat Shevet to the French Hill-Givat Hamivtar Junction., inthe north, the Atarot Neighborhood project.
At the center of the plan is the establishment of the Mevasseret Adumim Neighborhood ‘E1’, which could add 4,000 housing units to the Ma ale Adumim settlement in addition, 14 illegal settlement outposts have been established between Jerusalem and the Almog Junction.
These are just a few examples of the plans that this extremist Leninist and fascist camp dreams of implementing in the foreseeable future. But are such plans viable and successful, as the fascist and messianic Zionist forces dream of. to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian State,´-or-is there a demographic reality that makes these ambitions mere dreams and illusions. Here, the data from the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics on the number of settlers in the West Bank until the end of August 2024 reveals the great failure of this messianic and fascist right, despite efforts to increase the number of settlers in the West Bank, their number is stagnant, and reality does not match the dream, according to a study published in the “Haaretz Newspaper” a few days ago, prepared by Shaul Arieli, Zion Hirsch Hafler, and Gilad Hirsch Berger.
As for the data of the Central Bureau of Statistics in Israel for August 2024, showed that all of these steps indicate a desperate attempt to prevent the possibility of achieving the “two-state solution,” and that the plans to annex the West Bank´-or-most of area C, are desperate plans as all the steps taken by the settlers have failed in the face of the negative demographic situation that exists among the settlers in the West Bank. Ironically, the study adds, the violence initiated by the settlers to ignite the West Bank and exploit this to expel the Palestinians leads to the opposite result.
According to the figures, since the beginning of the year, 791 more settlers have left the West Bank than have moved to it ‘a negative overall migration balance’, and 623 have left to Israel ‘a negative internal migration balance’. This trend is evident in the four cities that absorb most of the settlement population (43%): In Modi’in Illit, the largest city, 286 people left, more than those, who moved to it, which means the 4thyear in a row that this Haredi city has suffered from a negative migration balance.
In Beitar Illit, the second largest city, 261 people left, more than moved in, after the negative migration balance improved slightly last year – in 2022, 1,858 people left, more than moved in. In Ma’ale Adumim, 440 people left, more than moved in. This is the 9thyear with a negative balance in the last 12 years. In Ariel, the smallest city, only two settlers have been added since the beginning of the year.
Accordingto the aforementioned study, this clear failure led among other things, to modify the approach to control the largest area of land with the least number of settlers. ‘The total built-up area of the settlements is only 1.5% of the West Bank’, hence the phenomenon of farms ‘which are part of the illegal and terrorist settlement outposts’ in recent years. Datafrom the Peace Now and Kerem Navot Movements showed that 2 Israeli organizations that oppose the occupation and settlement, there are now no less than 108 “farms,” in which a small number of people live, controlling about 650,000 dunams i.e. (12% of the West Bank) by removing Palestinians by brutal and illegal means.
These farms have become the lever of the colonial settlement project in the West Bank, enjoying generous budgets of ‘NIS 45,000,000 this year’, and national defense units have been placed at their disposal. Terrorist settlers serve in them, wearing military uniforms and are supplied with weapons to practice violence against Palestinians.
At another level, and in a move that is not without indications of the annexation and expansion policy, the Knesset discussed a draft law that would annex the settlements of the Hebron Governorate to the so-called Negev area in the Occupying State. The legal unit of the Hebron Reconstruction Committee explained last week in a seminar attended by a group of local and international institutions and municipalities in the Hebron Governorate, the seriousness of this project and the dangers that would result from annexing the Hebron settlements to the Negev region.
This is a draft law that the Jewish Power Party submitted to the Knesset on May 22, and passed by a majority in the first reading, with 52 members voted in favor of the law and 37 opposing it. The legal unit of the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee explained that the project includes 15 settlements, of which the occupation has only announced one, the “Kiryat Arba” settlement, while the project includes the Israeli settlements from west to south to east of the Hebron Governorate, passing through the “Ashkot settlement’ southwest in the Ramadin area, the “Shama settlement” south of the Al-Dhahiriya town, the “Otniel settlement’ south of the Dura city, the “Beit Yatir settlement’ on the lands of the Al-Samou town, then the “Susya settlement’ on the lands of Yatta town east of Hebron, reaching “Kiryat Arba” in the center of the city of Hebron.
Otherindications of the annexation and expansion policy pursued by the far-right and fascist Israeli Gov’t are the discussions taking place in the Knesset about the location of Palestinian Antiquities in the West Bank. It seems clear that the Occupying State seeks to steal the history of our homeland in various ways, including stealing antiquities and falsifying their identity through laws issued by the Knesset that grant the Israeli Antiquities Authority the power to work in archaeological sites in the West Bank, as happened recently after the Knesset General Assembly approved in a preliminary reading last July the enactment of such legislation, which indicates the premeditated policy of actually annexing areas in the West Bank to Israel.
The law has been brought up on the agenda of the Knesset once again in the Knesset after the chairman of the Education, Culture and Sports Committee, Yousef Tayeb, stated during a committee meeting last week that ‘if a Palestinian State is established, the archaeological sites must be under the control of the State of Israel.’ In the current discussions on this subject, MK Amit Levy of the Likud party, claimed that the goal is for ‘the State of Israel to care for its heritage’ by transferring responsibility for archaeological sites in the West Bank from the archaeological officer in the occupation’s ‘Civil Administration’” to the Antiquities Authority, due to the importance of these sites ‘in terms of Jewish history.’
The most prominent of these sites are ‘Khirbet Qumran.’ which contains the Dead Sea Scrolls, the city of Shiloh, ‘the first religious center of the people of Israel,’ Sebastia, ‘the capital of the Kingdom of Israel,’ the site of the prophet Samuel, and the Cave of Machpelah (Al-Ibrahimi Mosque).
List of Israeli Assaults over the Last Week Documented by the National Bureau:
Jerusalem:
• Forcing Citizen Hala Al-Obeidi to demolish her home in the Beit Hanina town, and forced another citizen in the town to remove his caravan ‘mobile home’.
• Demolishing a commercial store belonging to citizen Suleiman Falah Abu Khudair in Shuafat Refugee Camp.
• Storming the Al-Issawiya town, distributed demolition orders for homes and summoned residents to visit the Police.
• Demolishing the home of citizen Amer Eid Barakat, although the demolition order was only related to demolishing part of the wall, besides bulldozing agricultural lands in the village.
Hebron:
• Establishing a settlement outpost on citizens’ lands in the “Khalat Taha” area in the Al-Tabqa village southwest of Hebron, fired live bullets at citizens’ homes. Attacked farmers, prevented them from plowing and cultivating their lands, as well as forced them to leave the area at gunpoint.
• Storming the streets and neighborhoods of the old city of Hebron amid strict military measures imposed on citizens, including closed a number of roads and entrances leading to the area, restricted the movement of citizens.
• Chasing shepherds and prevented them from reaching their pastures in Khirbet al-Tuba in Masafer Yatta,.
• Preventing farmers from plowing their lands and planting winter crops near Susya in Masafer Yatta. Furthermore. in the village of Al-Tabban in Masafer Yatta, the occupation forces notified the cessation of work on a barn belonging to Nasser Mah’d Obaid, and handed citizen Raed Al-Amour two demolition notices of his houses.
• Bulldozing citizens’ land in the Um Al-Simsim area in the Al-Dhahiriya town.
• Demolishing the Khallet Amara School in the Um Al-Safa area, noting that this school consists of 6 caravans.
Bethlehem:
• Uprooting about 150 olive trees in the Al-Baqaa area, west of the Al-Minya village, on the side of the main road that connects Bethlehem to its eastern suburbs.
• Demolishing inhabited house belonging to citizen Ahmed Jamil Awad, located in the “Qarnat Al-Damas” area to the south of the Nahalin town, under the pretext of not having a permit, and an agricultural facility belonging to citizen Moh’d Mah’d Safi, consists of a “nursery”, an agricultural room, a bathroom and a kitchen, in addition to another agricultural room belonging to citizen Ibrahim Awad, under the pretext of not having a permit, chopped about 60 olive and grape trees, and destroyed a water network for irrigating crops and barbed wire for citizens Ghanem Shakarna and Abdul Basit Fanoun in the town.
Ramallah:
• Attacking the Um Safa town, assaulted two workers and detained them while the village council was laying a water line at the western entrance to the village. They also smashed a vehicle belonging to one of the citizens who was with them, and then they were taken to the hospital.
• Erecting a settlement tent in the Batn al-Halawa area, as new settlement outpost on the lands of the Sinjil own.
Nablus:
• Attacking citizens’ homes on the outskirts of Madama town, while occupation soldiers wrote slogans on one of the walls of the archaeological site on the Column Street in Sebastia town.
• Assaulting farmers while picking olives in the Khallet Al-Musa area north of the Salem village, destroyed the olive crop and bags, and stole the olive picking machine.
• Attacking an agricultural house in the Til village, and set it on fire, which led to the burning of all its contents.
• Handing over demolition orders for residential and agricultural facilities in Khirbet Al-Tawil, near the Aqraba town, and citizen Ali Ibrahim Tabl from Al-Sawiya was handed a demolition notice for his house.
• Demolishing 2 commercial facilities selling used car parts, while settlers burned a house under construction and two vehicles belonging to citizen Tayseer Ahmed Suleiman Awda in theHawara town.
• Burning a house under construction, belonging to Omar Rabhi Adel Shahada, a grocery store belonging to Moh’d Nayef Hanani, a cargo vehicle belonging to Moh’d Rabhi Shahada, and a Ford vehicle belonging to Saja Shahada, in the Beit Furik town.
Salfeet:
• Expelling farmers and activists in the Madoura area, northwest of the Bruqin town, while picking olives near the ‘Brukhin settlement’.
• Setting fire to an agricultural room on the southern mountain of the Haris village, belonging to the citizen Sadiq Younis, while others attacked citizens’ vehicles at the junctions of the towns and villages of Deir Ballut, Haris and Yasuf, and also closed an agricultural road with stones in the agricultural area of Al-Haraiq leading to the agricultural lands, as well as demolished stone chains in the Yasuf village.
Qalqilia:
• Bulldozing about 60 agricultural dunams and uprooting about 300 olive trees, belonging to the family of citizen Ghassan Abdullah Abu Khader’sland located in the eastern area of the Jayyous village, near the Apartheid Wall, covering.
Tulkarem:
• Notifying the family of the detainee, Moh’d Talal Abu Yassin, of the demolition of their house in the Bal’a town, east of Tulkarm, and gave the family 72 hours for objection. Furthermore, the family of Martyr, Tamer Fuqha from the Shweika Suburb, north of Tulkarm, reported that the Israeli Occupation Army notified to demolish their house by placing a notice on the walls of the house that had been evacuated earlier.
Jordan Valley:
• Storming the Arab al-Ka’abneh Elementary School in al-Ma’rajat, northwest of Jericho.
• Stealing a horse belonging to citizen, Yusef Bisharat in the Khirbet Makhoul area , destroyed agricultural crops in Khallet Khader near the Farsiyya area, planted on an area of scores of dunams.
• Erecting barbed wire fences and pyramid signs near the residents’ homes as part of a policy of seizing more land in theEin al-Hilweh in the northern Jordan Valley, where 12 families are threatened of actual displacement there.

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