AI en Translation, Pages 1-25
Page 2
Arab Association of Political Science
Arab Association Of Political Science
Distribution: Limited
Date: 1/17/86
Executive Committee
1985 - 1987
President
Dr. Wamidh Nazmi
( Iraq )
Vice President
Dr. Shamlan Al-Essa
( Kuwait )
Secretary General
Dr. Ali El Din Hillal
( Egypt )
Treasurer
Dr. Walid Mubarak
( Lebanon )
⟦Dr. Ibrahim Sakr⟧
( Egypt )
Dr. Mohammed Bashir Hamed
( Sudan )
Dr. Shafiq Al-Samarrai
( Iraq )
Dr. Omar Al-Khatib
( Tunisia )
Dr. Ali Farfash
( Libya )
Observer Member
Dr. Ali Jarbawi
( Occupied West Bank )
Science and Arabism
Symposium "Prospects and Strategy of Arab Policy"
5 to 8 February 1986
Baghdad - Republic of Iraq
(( Zionist Settlement ))
Adel Hamed Al-Jader
Head of the Center for Palestinian Studies
University of Baghdad
*) The views expressed in this research represent the researcher's point of view,
and do not necessarily express the view of the Arab Association of Political Science
**) All rights reserved. This research may not be republished, in whole or in part,
without prior written consent from the Arab Association of Political Science.
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Introduction :-
Colonial settlement activity occupies a prominent place in Zionest
strategic planning. The settlement of the land of Palestine and the displacement of its people
is the essence and goal of the Zionist project, and it is the basis adopted by the entity
Zionist to impose a policy of de facto reality through the changes it creates
demographic and geographic as a result of the seizure of Arab lands.
And because of the importance of what this colonial settlement activity entails
of extremely important risks to the development of the Palestinian cause and its repercussions
on the economic and social conditions of the Palestinian Arab people
in the occupied territories in particular. We try to shed light on the development
of Zionist colonial settlement and its various dangers to the people
Palestinian Arab, and the international position, especially the position of the United States
America regarding settlement.
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Zionism and the Policy of Colonial Settlement
⟦Adel⟧ ⟦...⟧
Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe to Palestine began under the pretext of returning
from exile to the Land of Israel in an explicit attempt at colonial settlement,
since the late nineteenth century. Those first attempts, which
were carried out by scattered Zionist groups formed under British incitement via consuls
and English envoys, such as Laurence Oliphant, to Eastern Europe, were characterized by improvisation
and lack of planning, and most of them ended in failure.
However, the process of planned and programmed colonial settlement did not begin
except after the formation of the Zionist movement, as a political movement, through the first conference which
was held in Basel in 1897, and stipulated the goal of establishing a state for the Jews in Palestine.
This movement was formed under specific historical circumstances that called for
defining the role of such a movement within the framework of imperialist projects in the Arab
region. This region witnessed, in the last quarter of the nineteenth
century, prominent political developments that drew the political features of the Arab region
as a whole, and their effects have continued until the present time. The most prominent of these developments are:
- The intensification of imperialist conflicts and the increasing severity of the global capitalist crisis,
which pushed it to rely increasingly on exporting its crises
(narrow investment outlets, surplus capital, and human surplus) from
the center to the periphery.
- The approaching end of the "Sick Man of Europe" (the Ottoman Empire), which
raised the issue of re-dividing the Eastern world among the imperialist powers
anew. The competition between these powers led to the outbreak of the First
World War.
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- As for the other phenomenon, it was the first beginnings of the Arab
national liberation movements and their endeavor to establish a unified Arab state with its own legal
and national personality.
- Within this general historical framework, the emergence of the Zionist movement
as a purely European political-settler ideology took shape, defining its role
and its goal in establishing an entity in Palestine to confront the Arab national movement
and presenting itself as a colonial force to be transported to the East in exchange for
the new Zionist pocket becoming an agent for the great power that protects it.
Zionist colonialism ".. is a replacement-agent colonialism that does not have
an independent dynamic from the great powers that adopt it. Perhaps these two characteristics,
its replacement nature and its agency, are the two basic characteristics of Zionist
settler-colonialism."(1)
Thus, the subjective goals of the Zionist movement in establishing
a state for the Jews in Palestine merged with the general imperialist goals toward the
Arab region, and here the Zionist movement highlighted the (false consciousness) of Jewish
interests, as it wrapped its orientation in religious, spiritual, historical,
and national envelopes, and imperialism supported this Zionist orientation (2).
⟦line⟧
1) Dr. Abdel Wahab El-Messiri and others, The Zionist Project in Thought
and Application, Cairo, Dar Al-Mustaqbal Al-Arabi 1983, p. 28
2) Walid Al-Jaafari, Zionist Settlement in Palestine in the Past and Present
Samid Al-Iqtisadi, Issue 48 April 1984, p. 27
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The Condition
That the imperialist ⟦condition⟧ is the control over the region and ensuring its fragmentation, backwardness,
and dependency, and the exploitation of its resources, markets, and strategic locations. And this
condition requires the creation of an aggressive base in the region, considered as a permanent
guarantee to provide the aforementioned condition, and thus the subjective Zionist condition
can be solved through the general imperialist solution, or through the creation of a Zionist
entity qualified for such tasks. (1)
And the creation of such an entity requires certain conditions:-
- Winning over the world's Jews to the side of the "Zionist idea" and pushing them
to migrate to Palestine through enticement (creating religious and spiritual incentives
and welcoming) the migration of world Jews, and restricting them in
the societies in which they reside and creating a single outlet for them, which is Palestine.
- Uprooting and expelling the Arab Palestinian people from their land and absenting them physically,
civilizationally, and culturally, and replacing an existing reality with a new reality.
So it was necessary to evacuate the original inhabitants of Palestine from it and consequently Judaize it
as land, people, and market to build its Jewish state, and thus Zionist settlement differs
from its peers in Rhodesia and South Africa as it is exclusionary and does not aim to exploit
the patch of land on which it stands economically, including its original inhabitants, but rather
1) See Elias Shoufani "The Zionist Project and the Judaization of Palestine" Samed
Al-Iqtisadi Issue 29, April 1982.
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4
to the seizing of that piece of land from the hands of its legitimate owners and uprooting them from it.
The Zionist settlement project was never an economic project for its own sake
as this aspect of it lies in paving the way for the exploitation of the wealth of the Arab
countries surrounding Palestine (1).
The Zionist settlement movement in Palestine has passed through five
stages as follows: -
1- The first stage (1840 - 1884)
This stage began with Britain forcing Muhammad Ali to withdraw from
Palestine and returning it to the Ottoman Empire, where Britain sought since that
time to find a population block loyal to it in Ottoman lands. Where
it found that the best group to achieve this purpose were the Jews.
That stage witnessed the first attempts to purchase land from the Ottoman
authorities to realize Jewish settlement projects.
These first attempts were carried out by British agents of the Jewish
faith such as Moses Montefiore, then Lord Rothschild. Where, between the years
1882 and 1884, the first settlements were established. Followed by another settlement wave
between the years 1891 - 1896. However, those settlements soon
became deserted for the most part after the Jewish settlers themselves abandoned them and after
the Palestinian peasants proceeded to burn many of them.
2- The second stage (1903 - 1914)
This period witnessed the beginning of the Zionist movement's supervision of
settlement operations. During that period, the Jewish National Fund, which
(1) Previous source, p. 12.
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It was founded in 1902 to purchase some lands from the major feudal lords in the
Ottoman lands, such as the Sursock family, the Salam family, and others who owned these
lands in Palestine. By 1914, the number of Jews residing
in the new settlements had reached about 12 thousand, distributed among about 44 settlements. (1)
In addition to the other Jews residing in the cities, where the total number
of Jews reached about 80 thousand. These operations took place within the framework of an
Ottoman law issued in 1861, which allowed foreigners to own property in all parts of
the Ottoman Empire except for the Hijaz. (2) Despite the issuance of Ottoman
laws in 1882, 1893, and 1899 prohibiting the transfer of land
to the Jews, the system of privileges rendered those laws worthless.
Settlement was taking place under the umbrella of this system, and Jews
were entering Palestine under it and under the cover of various nationalities. (3)
1) Qahwaji, The Strategy of Zionist Settlement in Occupied Palestine,
Al-Ard Foundation, Damascus 1978, p. 96.
2) Abdul Aziz Muhammad Awad "The Ottoman Administration" p. 224
3) Dr. Khairiya Qasmiya, Zionist Activity in the Arab East and its Extent
1908 - 1918 Research Center, Palestine Liberation Organization, Beirut
pp. 24 - 25.
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3 - The third stage, which began as soon as the Turks were defeated
and Palestine fell under the British Mandate until
the establishment of the Zionist entity on Palestinian soil,
meaning from the year 1918 to the year 1948, and in this period
the settlement movement became heavily active, and what
helped with that was that the British Mandate document
for Palestine explicitly stated, without equivocation,
that it would place Palestine in economic, political,
and social (demographic) conditions that would encourage
the establishment of what is called the Jewish national home
in Palestine (1). And the British Mandate authorities
fulfilled everything they committed to
in this field; in fact, they added much more to it. . .
(1) See the texts of the Mandate document, paragraphs 2, 4,
6, The Arab League - The Main Documents
in the Palestine Issue - The First Collection
1915 - 1946, Cairo 1957, p. 128
+
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Where the migration movement to Palestine escalated. And the number of settlements
rose to reach 165 settlements in the spring of 1936 (1).
This matter appears clearly through the strategic tasks
for settlement during the British Mandate period, which can be summarized
as follows:-
- Securing the necessary British support to increase the numbers of immigrants.
- Securing British support and British protection for the settlements
in terms of arming, supply, material support, and direct protection
and forming "special battalions" composed of regular British soldiers
and members of the Haganah to protect the settlements.
- Acquiring new lands and settling lands that have strategic importance
and are devoid of Jews.
- Improving communication and connectivity between settlement areas and their borders.
- Preferring political-security considerations over economic-
agricultural considerations.
- Settling sites that allow expansion, and control strategic locations and road
axes.
- Developing military methods based on the "Wall and Tower" tactic (*) to
⟦line⟧
(1) Elhanan Oren, "The Role of Settlement and Its Security Objectives," Machbarkhot, Issue
170/171, October 1979, p. 195 from Walid Al-Jaafari, source
previously mentioned, p. 29.
(*) Establishing a ready-made settlement between dawn and dusk so that a small force
protects it until reinforcements arrive. Walls and towers are built to confront
the Arab resistance, and searchlights and a signal bell are mounted on the towers
to request help.
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What is called interconnected and regional defense to be able to protect settlement blocs
or a group of colonies, and this form of military organization "formed
the nucleus of the regular army." The Haganah played a fundamental role in
the settlement plan and in designing the protective walls and laying out the plans
for establishing settlement points and determining their needs.
- Spreading colonies along the coast of Palestine in order to serve
immigration and establishing another settlement belt from the shore to Jerusalem
and its heights, then extending south towards the Negev. (1)
4- The fourth stage. It begins from the establishment of the Zionist entity and the occupation of most
Palestinian lands until the great Zionist expansion, i.e., from 1948
until 1967. During this, settlement activity was confined within
the lands occupied by the Jews during the 1948 war, as well as the restoration
and rebuilding of some settlements affected by the war and the consolidation of some
strengthening and expanding them and developing them to suit the conditions and requirements of the phase
coming in the Arab-Zionist conflict. (2)
The most severe thing that hit Palestinian society following the establishment of the Zionist entity
because of it was the fragmentation of the Palestinian people and their transformation from a human group
homogeneous, constituting about seventy percent 70% of the population on their land
national into a number of minorities scattered in communities that increase in number or
decrease. And in a number of Arab countries and elsewhere, and above all, the people lost
the Palestinian political entity and its national identity was exposed to danger.
(1) Previous source.
(2) Dr. Muhammad Ali Al-Farra "Zionist Settlement in Palestine" Samed
Economic 30 - 1981, p. 37
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As for the settlement colonies, they have engaged in the general
military formation, in addition to their involvement in production operations and economic construction
of the entity, and we can summarize the prominent features of the path of Zionist settlement and its nature
at this stage as follows: -
- Establishing more settlement colonies, most of which are Kibbutzim,
to bridge "security gaps" and fortify weak points, especially
those on the borders.
- Strengthening existing colonies.
- Settling empty areas.
- Rebuilding the colonies that were destroyed during the war.
- Settling Jews in all areas of Palestine with a focus on Arab cities
that were emptied of their residents such as Jaffa, Lydda, Ramla, Beisan, Acre,
Majdal, Beersheba and others.
- Establishing large settlement sectors within the framework of what is called "regional
settlement" such as the Taanakh sector and the Lachish sector.
- The transition of the security role of the settlement colonies from internal security
to external security, meaning the mission of the security colonies has become
directed toward the border areas and beyond, based on the security concept
of Israel, which states: "Israel's security lies outside its borders."
- Spreading a network of water projects to supply former and new settlements
and providing water to empty areas for settlement, such as the Auja River project
(Yarkon) and the national water carrier.
- Concentration in the Jerusalem corridor and the establishment of the development city "Beit Shemesh".
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- Merging agro-social rehabilitation with military rehabilitation inside
the settlement colonies.
- Establishing projects within the new areas to build an economic infrastructure
such as the Potash project.
- Building business (development) cities to accommodate the largest number of new
settlers.
- Building two new ports, Ashdod and Eilat.
- Establishing a branched road network and border roads for the sake of what is called
"current security" (meaning the protection of border areas).
- The contribution of settlement in various economic activities, and in
developing industry, agriculture, and tourism.
- The border settlement colonies in the demilitarized zones played
a military role, as they formed a "military alternative" to repel sudden attacks,
and to support the regional defense of the "colonies."
- Heading towards the Arab presence in the Galilee, and beginning the Judaization of the region
by establishing "Upper Nazareth" facing the Arab city of Nazareth,
and setting plans for the Judaization of the Galilee and the Negev.
5- The fifth stage, starting from the aggressive war in 1967,
"Israel" completed the occupation of the rest of Palestine, and even went beyond
that into neighboring Arab countries, thereby suppressing what remained of
semi-normal conditions for the Palestinian people, which remained, in one way or another,
in the West Bank and Gaza Strip between 1948 - 1967, and after
June 1967, the Palestinian people as a whole transformed from a people living
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on its national land, complete or diminished, to another distributed over three
categories: the displaced ... in Arab countries and elsewhere, the colonized
in Palestine occupied in 1948, the occupied ... in the West Bank
and Gaza Strip (1). Where a new aggressive phase began that governed the course
of Zionist settlement in the occupied Arab territories until this
day. It is a stage during which the Israeli authorities followed a policy
similar to that which they have followed since the end of the century, which is the policy of population
infiltration through the establishment of settlements with the aim of imposing a new reality in the territories
occupied ....
⟦line⟧
(1) Dr. Elias Shoufani, previous source, p. 11.
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The basic structures of settlement
⟦line⟧
Despite the variation and difference between Zionist settlements in
terms of their forms, nature, and lifestyles, the majority depend
on agriculture as a source of livelihood for their inhabitants, and the most important types of settlement institutions are:
A- The Kibbutz: basically an agricultural unit, in which all members are considered owners
without having divided shares. They do not receive
a wage for the work they perform, while the Kibbutz provides for their material
needs such as food, housing, furniture, clothing, etc., in an equal manner
and without any discrimination (theoretically). Individuals are equal in everything as
it is mandatory for every adult individual, male or female, to perform all types and forms
of work within the framework of the Kibbutz (1). As a socio-economic institution
characterized by collective forms, it was the means of Zionist
replacement settlement and the primary method through which
Zionist settlers were able to impose their presence in the Palestinian
war reality. The true nature of the Kibbutz appears as a military settlement
institution in its construction and planning. These colonies remained
as the first line of defense for the settlers in Palestine before the establishment of the entity
and after it. The Kibbutz is not limited to being a tool of settlement, but
plays an equally important role as a tool of absorption.
⟦line⟧
I. Baruch Kimmerling. Zionism and Territory Berkly
Institute of International Studies 1983. P.248.
Also see: - William Frankel, Israel Observed, an
Anatomy of the State, Thames & Hudson, U.S.A 1980,
P.175.
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With the establishment of "Israel" in 1948, there were 149 kibbutzim out of a total
of 291 Jewish agricultural settlements in Palestine. There are currently in occupied
Palestine about 254 kibbutzim inhabited by about 120 - 130 thousand people, or about
3% of the total population of the Zionist entity. (1)
B - The Moshav, which is the agricultural settlement based on individual initiative,
private funds, individual ownership of land, and free exploitation of labor. It
was the first form of agricultural colonies in Palestine during the first wave of migration
(1882 - 1903), such as Petah Tikva and Rehovot. It did not take long before other types
of cooperatives branched out from the original Moshavah, such as the workers' Moshav
(Moshav Ovdim), which reached 58 colonies in 1948,
and the collective Moshav (Moshav Shitufi). (2) At the present time, there are about
380 Moshavs in the Zionist entity, including 26 Moshav Shitufis, with a
population of about 130 thousand people, or about 4% of the population of the Zionist entity. (3)
C - Nahal, which is a new type of settlement often built on the borders or in
the areas occupied after the 1967 war. These settlements have a predominant
military character; their residents are soldiers, although they practice the profession
of agriculture in peacetime. They were distributed as follows: 17 on the Lebanese border, 10 on the Syrian
border, 16 on the Jordanian border (the Ghor), and 15 on the Jordanian border.
(1) Habib Kahwaji, Settlement Strategy in Occupied Palestine, Al-Ard Foundation
for Palestinian Studies, Damascus 1978, p. 172 et seq.
See also: Frankel, Op. Cit., P. 182.
(2) Maher al-Kurd, "Settlement Policy of the Zionist Movement until 1948,"
Samid al-Iqtisadi, Issue 49, Year 1984, p. 182.
(3) Habib Kahwaji, previous source, 187.
Elon Amos, Israelis; Fathers & Sons, London 1973, P. 315.
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( Wadi Ay-na ). (1)
D - Private villages and agricultural settlements, which are the oldest types of Zionist
agricultural settlements in Palestine. Production in them is based on private
ownership and hired labor. These villages were established either with the migrants' private
funds, or with the help and contribution of the Zionist Organization and the Jewish
National Funds. After World War II and with the assistance of the Zionist (Rassco)
company, a number of private villages were established as part of a program to settle
Jewish soldiers discharged from the British army. When "Israel" was established in
1948, there were 44 private settlements inhabited by seven thousand people, in addition to
35 middle-class cooperative villages inhabited by about 11 thousand people. After the
establishment of the Zionist entity, and especially between 1948 - 1958, about 20 private
agricultural villages were established. With the expansion of the scope of civil and municipal settlement in the
Zionist entity, a number of private agricultural villages turned into municipal settlements
and cities. At the present time, there are more than 50 private agricultural villages in Israel. (2)
1) These figures can be counted from the map in the following book: -
Carta Historical Atlas Of Israel, Carta, Jerusalem, 1977, P. 57
Quoting Abd al-Rahman Abu Arafa, The Practical Settlement of Zionism,
Arab Institute for Research and Publishing, p. 177.
2) Habib Kahwaji, previous source, pp. 207 - 208.
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The Settlement Movement: Its Dangers and Dimensions
Since the beginning of Zionist settlement in Palestine, "Israel"
has promoted the false claim that Jews want Palestine and nothing else due to their
spiritual and historical connection to it; however, this claim appeared in its true form after the 1967 war
when "Israel" clearly announced its colonial purposes and plans
and its settlement projects in an unprecedented manner, thus revealing its true
ambitions in Palestine and in the confrontation states, knowing that it does not distinguish between confrontation states
or distant or near countries, as announced by the former Defense Minister Ariel Sharon during
a lecture in Tel Aviv regarding the strategy of the Zionist entity in the eighties:
He emphasized, first, striking any Arabic forces that could pose a danger to "Israel", no matter
how distant those forces are, and hinted at striking countries even in Morocco; and second, striking
even the Arab countries that have not taken political positions against Israel, regardless of how
far they are from Israel. (1)
This means that Zionism considers war as a whole to be a goal for its ambitions and expansion.
It is no coincidence that the former Israeli Defense Minister Ezer Weizman stated, "We are building
our forces to reach from the Gulf to Tangier" (2), and it is no coincidence that Israeli aircraft
struck the Iraqi nuclear reactor.
(1) Dr. Hamdan Badr, "It is not true that Israel's borders are unlimited, rather they
have been drawn since 1919," Arab Affairs Magazine 19 / 20, p. 109.
(2) Same source, p. 115.
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Therefore, the settlement movement that followed the 1967 war is considered a
dangerous indicator, not only for Palestine, which Israel managed to swallow, but for the Arab homeland
as a ⟦line⟧ whole.
The aggressive war in 1967 resulted in the Zionist entity's occupation
of the rest of the Palestinian territories (the West Bank and the Gaza Strip) in addition to the occupation of new Arab
territories in the Golan and Sinai. The results of this war became the pinnacle
of the entity's military capability and increased its expansionist appetite, and it began making preparations
to draw new borders preparing it for a coming expansionist phase. It was up to
Israel to deal with the newly occupied territories in a way that allowed it
to reorganize these areas in a manner consistent with its settler-colonial nature,
and the role entrusted to it in the Arab region. Since the first day of the occupation, it laid
the necessary foundations for a comprehensive and integrated program toward these areas, aiming thereby
to prevent the seeds of any potential Palestinian independence and to create political,
demographic, social, and economic changes consistent with Israel's vision for the occupied territories
and their political future. This is because the completion of the Zionist project requires the dissolution of
the Palestinian people physically, politically, civilizationally, and culturally, just as it requires control over
Arab land to eliminate its Arab identity and Judaize it by bringing in more immigrants
and settling them there, claiming that it has the right to establish settlements in any part it deems
appropriate in the areas for which it denies the status of occupation and claims that they are Israeli lands
reclaimed by the Jewish people.
This makes us wonder about Israel's goals and purposes for the
settlement movement, especially after the 1967 war, and we can summarize these goals in
the following points.
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A - Zionist Settlement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
⟦line⟧
If we look at the special geostrategic composition of the Arab countries
adjacent to the section on which the Zionist state was established, especially the West
Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Arab population "quantity" present inside
the West Bank and the cultural, affiliated, and national "quality" of the people of this region,
in addition to its other features, including its consideration as the only Arab gateway
for Israel to address the Arab Mashreq—this special composition of the West
Bank is what lies behind, in reality, all the recent and coming developments of the Arab-
Zionist conflict. Through understanding this special situation
of the West Bank, one can explain the settlement drive of the Zionist government
since '67 until today inside the West Bank in a serious attempt to uproot the identity of this
land, as it followed the method of demolition and destruction.
Since the first month of the occupation, more than 20,000 dunams were confiscated in
the Latrun area after the destruction of three Arab villages: Imwas, Yalo, and Beit
Nuba. Confiscations continued until they reached about 350,000 dunams in Jerusalem
and the West Bank alone for the benefit of Jewish settlements, in addition to more than
a million dunams closed by military orders for what was called "security purposes." In practice, the
occupation authorities seized about 25 percent of the area of the West
Bank, in addition to 400,000 dunams representing 8 percent of the area of the West
Bank, which are the lands of absentees and are effectively confiscated.
Arab farmers lost about 100,000 dunams of their most fertile agricultural
lands which they owned privately. As for the Gaza Strip, the percentage of confiscated
lands or those effectively confiscated reaches 33 percent of the total area of the
Strip, which amounts to 400,000 dunams, including 40,000 dunams of government land,
and 93 dunams which the population considers to be of unclear ownership, in addition to properties
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the absentees, which is estimated at 8000 dunams. (1)
On 10/4/1981, the Zionist newspaper Haaretz published an investigative
report in which it stated:
"In Karnei Shomron we saw the road being constructed which
links the settlement to the Qalqilya-Nablus road and another way close to the village of Baqir.
This road passes through the lands of the people of Qalqilya. 400 dunams
of the town's lands were confiscated to pave this road, and we saw inside large areas of
the confiscated lands piles of trees that had been uprooted, as well as piles of rubble
of Arab houses that were built on them. But Ariel Sharon does not want us to see this
side that depicts a tragedy; he wants us to see the other side, the Jewish
urbanization. The truth is that wherever you look, you only see Jewish settlements
established, and in contrast, confiscated lands and piles of uprooted trees and rubble of Arab houses
scattered here and there." (2)
Since the Zionist occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967, the
number of houses demolished has reached about 1259 houses, in addition to the confiscation of Arab
lands. In the Syrian Heights, they have destroyed 150 Syrian towns and villages so far,
leaving only five villages as they are. The Zionist authorities often
justify their demolition of Arab houses and villages either on the pretext of security or an attempt
to revive archaeological sites and places that relate to the short period of time which
1) Figures are derived from the newspapers Al-Tali'a, Al-Ittihad, Al-Quds, and the book:
Treatment of Palestiniand in Israeli-Occupied west
& Gaza Palestine Humman Rignts Ruccetin june 1978,
p.2.p.4
And also the warning of Abdul Rahman Abu Arfa, previous source, pp. 21-22.
2) See Dr. Muhammad al-Farra, previous source, p. 40.
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the Jews lived for Palestine. On this basis, the Zionist entity changed most of
the names of Arab and Islamic villages and landmarks and gave them Hebrew names after
demolishing and erasing them in order to change the map of Palestine in its entirety.
The primary purpose of the Zionist movement is to gather the largest possible number of
world Jews and concentrate them in "Occupied Palestine" through a process of "demographic
overturn" by which Jews replace the Arab citizens of the country. The principle of
getting rid of the Arabs by displacing them was considered the only means to achieve Zionist dreams.
In this regard, the Zionist Yosef Weitz points out that "there is no way for us to solve
the problem except by transferring the Arabs from here and moving them to neighboring countries. And if
we speak of transfer, they must all be transferred, except - perhaps - Bethlehem, Jerusalem,
and Nazareth. As for what remains, they must all be moved to Syria, Iraq,
or even to Transjordan." (1)
In the beginning, expanded immigration was used to raise the proportion of the Jewish
population. Jewish immigration from abroad continues to play an important role in this
matter, matched by pressure using various means to expel Arabs from their lands.
After the Zionists occupied new Arab lands in 1967, different opinions emerged within the Zionist
leadership regarding the appropriate political formula for dealing with the new
lands and their future. Some demanded the immediate annexation of these areas in line
with the Zionist vision regarding what is called "the Greater Land of Israel," and some
(1) Diaries of Yosef Weitz dated 12/19/1940. See The Complete True Zionism,
Chapter Five, p. 2.
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The other called for annexing the largest possible area, and the smallest possible number of Arab residents
based on his vision of what is called the "purity of the Hebrew state" and as a result of his fear
of the implications of the demographic distribution on the future of Israel. In other words,
the first group wanted first to complete control over the land, without paying attention to the impact
of the Arab human presence and proposing a series of measures aimed at gradual
and final uprooting over time. The "Likud" bloc currently represents this
group best. As for the second group, what concerns it first is what is called
"unity of the people" and postponing what is called "unity of the historical land" until
appropriate conditions are available. This group is represented by the "Ma'arach" alignment. (1)
If we know that the area of the West Bank and Gaza Strip is about 6 million dunums,
i.e., 25% of the area of Palestine, and the number of residents of the region until the end of the year
1979 reached about 1.1 million people, constituting approximately 30% of the total Arab
Palestinian people.
(1) The goal of both groups is one, which is control over the land and its Judaization
and thus completing the Zionist project, however the tactics of both groups have
differed, and this difference was reflected in the policy followed by both groups
in the occupied territories, especially regarding the proposed political projects
and the settlement projects that were implemented or planned for implementation. The most important projects
proposed were: 1- Fachman project 2- Raanan Weitz project 3- Yisrael Galili 4-
Sharon project 5- Likud project 6- Israeli Ministry of Defense project and
Ezer Weizman project. See Habib Kahwaji, The Strategy of Zionist Settlement in Occupied Palestine,
Zionist Settlement Projects in the Occupied Territories. p. 261 et seq.
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As a result of the June war and the occupation of the West Bank, about half a million
Arabs were expelled or forced to displace, and about 108,000 citizens also displaced,
mostly due to economic conditions or as a result of the deportation operations practiced
by the occupation authorities until 1975, at an annual rate of approximately 13,000
citizens, which rose in recent years to about 15,000 citizens, 60 percent of whom are
skilled individuals or job seekers, meaning that most age groups of migrants fall
between 20-40 years. (1) As a result of the Zionist occupation, about 136,000
Arabs left, which caused the population to drop to only eight thousand. (2)
However, due to the high natural increase rates among the Arab population, their
number recently rose to about 15,000 people. This high natural increase
of the Arab population is what worries Israel and makes it fearful in the long
run, as it sees the demographic factor as akin to a future bomb; if the
natural increase of the Arab population remains as it is, and if the Arabs
continue to be concentrated in certain areas of Arab Palestine, the Arabs will numerically
outnumber the Jews, and then the Zionist entity may vanish as a state. To avoid
this, the Zionist entity confiscated many Arab lands in
areas witnessing an Arab majority and built settlements on them. The first came
1) Figures are derived from Abd al-Rahman Abu Arafa, Settlement: The Practical Application of Zionism,
Arab Institute for Research and Publishing 1981, p. 79, which in turn relies on newspapers published
in the occupied territories: Al-Ittihad 7/12/1976, Al-Taliya 14/2/1980,
and Maariv newspaper 3/5/1977.
2) Dr. Muhammad Ali al-Farra, previous source, p. 40
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An action carried out by the Zionist entity to establish settlements in
June 1967 when 160 Arab houses were demolished in the city of Jerusalem
Old [City] in order to establish a plaza in front of the Western Wall. After
this directly, 600 buildings were expropriated, and about 6500
Arab owners and residents were moved from there. And it was occupied
the new buildings later by Jewish residents.
And in Security Council Resolution No. 446 issued on
March 22, 1979, a committee was established for the purpose of "studying
the situation (1) relating to the settlements in the Arab territories
occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem.
⟦line⟧
(1) Report of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 446
(1979)