Ramallah, 8-4-2023 - The CWRC said that the occupation authorities approved a few days ago 6 master plans for the purposes of expanding a group of settlements in the West Bank, which included the construction of two new settlement neighborhoods. In a statement issued today, Moayed Shaaban, the head of the commission, this evening, Saturday, stated that the number of settlement units amounts to 543 settlement units, and the approvals target a total of 1,188 dunums of land on which these settlements were planted.
He pointed out that the approved master plans for the settlements targeted Ramallah and Nablus governorates, by approving a master plan aimed at building a new settlement neighborhood belonging to the "Rahalim" settlement, with 212 settlement units on an area of 572 dunums, while the second plan targeted the lands of Jericho Governorate from During the approval of two master plans for a major expansion of the "Mevo Yericho" settlement, with the aim of building a new neighborhood for the settlement with 181 new units on an area estimated at 533 dunums of land, noting that this settlement was converted from an outpost into a settlement two years ago, to be greatly expanded these days. Shaaban added that there is another plan for the expansion of the "Ward Yericho" settlement, which is located on the lands of Aqabat Jabr and Nabi Musa in the Jericho Governorate, by 5 settlement units on an area of two dunums, stressing that the approvals that are taking place in the settlements of the Jericho Governorate and the Jordan Valley are inseparable from the large schemes aimed at controlling completely. Completely on the lands of the eastern slopes and the Jordan Valley. A master plan was also approved with the aim of conducting an expansion within the "Tana Amrim" settlement, located on the lands of Khirbet Zanuta in the Hebron Governorate, with 68 settlement units on an area estimated at 26 dunums, while the recent plans targeted the lands of Masha villages in the Salfit governorate for the benefit of the "Etz Ephraim" settlement. To build 5 settlement units on an area of two dunums, and the lands of Arab al-Ta’amra in Bethlehem governorate for the benefit of the “Nokdim” settlement, to build 32 housing units on an area of 9 dunums.
Shaaban continued: The occupying state not only evades its obligations to the countries of the world to stop settlement, but also transgresses and violates all international norms and laws that criminalized settlement, and makes this kind of permanent changes to the occupied land as the occupying power supported by international silence and double standards that are being applied in the world.
He pointed out that the occupying state is continuing with its colonial settlement plans to fragment the land and isolate the Palestinians in small population ghettos besieged by large settlement blocs linked by settlement roads of a racist nature, whose function, in addition to controlling and appropriating the land, is to expel the Palestinians and destabilize their existence and their lives.