Netanyahu meeting with Israeli officials to ‘push out as many Palestinians’ from Gaza
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly holding a high-level meeting to discuss what Israel is framing as the “voluntary migration of Palestinians from Gaza”, even though it has been condemned as ethnic cleansing.
Israeli officials, speaking anonymously to the media, have said that as early as next month they’re trying to put together these plans to push out as many Palestinians as they can while [offering] no promises that Palestinians are going to be allowed to come back to Gaza.
This is the same government that has been calling for the expulsion of Palestinians, to re-occupy Gaza, and to rebuild illegal settlements in the Palestinian territory.
Netanyahu signs off on E1 settlement plan, says ‘there will be no Palestinian state’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has signed off on the controversial so-called E1 plan to expand settlements built on land in the occupied West Bank and surrounding East Jerusalem and said “there will be no Palestinian state”.
The plan aims to isolate occupied East Jerusalem from its surroundings, cut geographic and demographic continuity between the north and south of the occupied West Bank, and undermine the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
“We are going to fulfil our promise that there will be no Palestinian state, this place belongs to us,” Netanyahu said during a visit to the illegal Maale Adumim settlement in the occupied West Bank, where thousands of new housing units would be added.
“We will safeguard our heritage, our land and our security … We are going to double the city’s population.”
The plan includes about 3,500 apartments that would be situated next to the existing illegal settlement of Maale Adumim. Rights groups have warned that this will displace and uproot Palestinian communities, including Bedouin communities, from their lands.
The move is also expected to significantly increase the number of settlers in the area, amid a surge in settler attacks on Palestinians and their property.
Jerusalem Governorate warns E1 plan seeks ‘demographic change’
Israel’s controversial E1 illegal settlement plan would “bring about demographic change” and “consolidate the so-called Greater Jerusalem [vision] to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state,” the Jerusalem Governorate has said in a statement, shortly after the plan was signed off by Netanyahu.
“Today’s agreement aims to accelerate colonial construction and strengthen settlement schemes to link the settlement of Maale Adumim to the Mishor Adumim settlement area and E1 projects,” it added.
The plan foresees the construction of 7,600 settlement units, including 3,400 in the E1 area.
The E1 plan was authorised last month by Israel’s far-right minister of finance, Bezalel Smotrich, who also holds a key Defence Ministry position concerning the occupied West Bank, meaning that he has some say on settlement expansion.
The plan would prevent any sort of continuity from the occupied West Bank to East Jerusalem and further dismantle the prospect of a Palestinian state in the future.
Israeli forces arrest more than 100 Palestinians in Tulkarem raids
Israeli forces have arrested more than 100 Palestinians in raids on the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarem and have imposed a curfew on the city, Al Jazeera Arabic reports.
As reported earlier, Israel’s military has been conducting raids in Tulkarem after it said two Israeli soldiers were wounded when their vehicle was “hit by an explosive device”.
