Agricultural investments in that area would also be promoted since Israel was able to dig water wells and establish an infrastructure of networks for use in previous settlement expansion, he added. Tafkaji pointed out that this area is full of tourist, historical and religious sites, such as the shrine of Nabi Musa, the Baptismal site, Qarn Sartaba (Alexandreion) and the Herodion mountainous area, which will come under absolute Israeli control. Israel would make a huge leap toward implementing the Jerusalem 2050 project (also known as Jerusalem 5800), especially in the Nabi Musa area, where it plans to establish the largest airport in the Middle East to receive 35 million passengers.” Tafkaji explained that “this project achieves several goals for Israel, mainly the ethnic cleansing of the Bedouins and their expulsion from these areas under the pretext of establishing a national park. Khalil al-Tafkaji, director of maps at the Jerusalem-based Arab Studies Society, told Al-Monitor, “This project helps Israel fully put its hands on the area extending from the Ramallah wilderness to the Jordan Valley, passing through Arab al-Rashayida and the wilderness of Ta’amra and Al-Sawahirah, which is a vast mountainous area overlooking the Jordan Valley, up to the Jordan River and the Dead Sea.” The unveiling of the new plan came a day before the White House announced the program of US President Joe Biden's visit to the Middle East, which extends from July 13-16 and includes stops in Israel, the Palestinian territories and Saudi Arabia. The plan also largely supports settlement construction in the E1 area near the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, as Israel Hayom quoted director of the Judea and Samaria Cluster Keren Geffen as saying that they seek to create a new, unprecedented national park in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and establish a single network. The area in question is located on the open land between the north and south of the West Bank, which means that implementation of the plan would be the final nail in the coffin of establishing a Palestinian state that is geographically contiguous. Mobile restaurants would be established in the park, in addition to a hotel at the northern end of the Dead Sea and a joint information and reservation center. Israel Hayom newspaper revealed June 13 a settlement plan to build a national park covering around 1 million dunams (a dunam equals 1,000 square meters) between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea in the West Bank.Īlthough the Israeli government did not comment on the project, nor did it set a date to present the plan to competent authorities for approval, parts of the plan are already being implemented.Īs per the plan, which would separate the northern West Bank from its south, nearly half of the land overlooking the Dead Sea would be seized. Reports of a new massive settlement project in the West Bank are proving controversial among Palestinians. The larger settlements are named.US President Joe Biden and outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Nafali Bennett had hoped for ‘ calm’ ahead of Biden’s visit, but Israeli settlement plans may make that unrealistic. The second map, prepared by the Foundation for Middle East Peace, is entitled “Settlements Established and Evacuated 1967-2008.” It maps Israeli settlements coded according to the decade in which they were established, settlement outposts established before and after March 2001, and settlements evacuated in September 2005 (this map includes Gaza). The map also shows Palestinian-inhabited areas, Israeli settlements, military areas, roads, the Green Line and separation barrier route, and Areas A, B, C, and H2 as designated in the Oslo Agreement. On the right side of the map are photographs illustrating the different kinds of barriers. The first map, prepared by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, is entitled “West Bank: Access and Closure, December 2007.” This very detailed map shows checkpoints coded according to type as well as other physical barriers (e.g., earthen mounds, trenches, etc.) There is a table breaking down the location of these by governate. To view each map in full, click on the thumbnail (a pdf file will open). Two recent maps are useful guides to aspects of the present situation in the West Bank.
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