عربي
H.E. Dr. Awad, highlights the Forty-Five Annual Commemoration of Land Day in Statistical Figures
On The Occasion of the Forty-Five annual commemoration of Land Day, on 30/03/2021, H.E. Dr. Ola Awad, President of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics "PCBS", highlighted the Land Day in statistical figures, as follows:
The Palestinian people remember the Annual Commemoration of Land Day. It is the day in which the Israeli occupation laid hand over and confiscated 21 thousand dunums of land in Al-Jalil, Al-Muthalath and Al-Naqab on the 30th of March 1976. On this day, the Israeli occupation confiscated the land and responded violently to the protestations, killing six young Palestinian demonstrators. Accordingly, this day has become a commemoration to embody the belonging of the Palestinian people to their homeland, and also to commemorate those young martyrs.
The Israeli Occupation forcibly laid hand over more than 85% of the total area of the historical Palestine
The estimated number of the Palestinians by the end of 2020 was about 13.7 million; about 5.2 million of them live in the State of Palestine and about 1.6 million Palestinians live in the 1948 territories. Also, about 6.2 million Palestinians live in the Arab countries, whereas almost 738 thousand Palestinians live in foreign countries. The Israeli occupation is exploiting more than 85% of the total area of the lands of the historical Palestine. It is also worth mentioning that Jews in the era of the British Mandate exploited only 1,682 Km2; a percentage of 6.2% of the lands of the historical Palestine.
Continuous Confiscation of Land
The Israeli occupation used the land classification according to the Oslo Accords (A, B and C) to tighten control of the Palestinian land, especially in areas classified as (C) which are under the full control of the Israeli occupation in terms of security, planning and construction, where 76% of the total area classified as (C) is directly exploited by the Israeli occupation; settlements regional councils are controlling 63% of it. While the area of authority regions in the Israeli settlements in the West Bank (Including closed regions allocated for expanding those settlements) is about 542 km2 as it is by the end of 2020; representing about 10% of the total area of the West Bank. Whereas the confiscated areas for the purposes of military bases and military training locations represent about 18% of the West Bank area, in addition to the Annexation and Expansion Wall that has isolated more than 10% of the area of the West Bank. Consequently, more than 219 Palestinian localities were badly affected by the establishment of the Annexation and Expansion Wall. Also, the Israeli occupation authorities confiscated about 8,830 dunums of the Palestinian lands, in addition to another 11,200 dunums declared to be natural reserves by the Israeli occupation in preparation for their seizure.
Israeli Settlements: Continuous Expansion
By the end of 2019, there were 461 Israeli occupation sites and military bases in the West Bank, including 151 settlements and 26 inhabited outposts that were considered as neighborhoods following established settlements, in addition to 140 settlement outposts. As for the number of settlers in the West Bank, it reached 688,262 settlers by the end of 2019; at a growth rate of almost 2.6%. Attracting Jews from abroad represents more than the third of net population growth rate in Israel. Thus, data shows that around 46% of settlers live in Jerusalem governorate, where their number reached about 316,176 settlers; out of which 232,093 settlers live in East Jerusalem (J1) “includes those parts of Jerusalem which were annexed by Israeli occupation in 1967”. In regards to demographics, the proportion of settlers to Palestinian population in the West Bank is about 23 settlers per 100 Palestinians, and it was the highest in Jerusalem Governorate, where there were 69 settlers per 100 Palestinians. Accordingly, 2020 witnessed a significant increase in the pace of construction and expansion of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, where the Israeli occupation approved the construction of 6,719 new settlement housing units in addition to plans of establishing 12,159 colonial units during the same year and 11 new settlement outposts were approved to be established.
More than 1,000 settlers’ attacks
In 2020, settlers, under the protection of the Israeli occupation army, carried out about 1,090 attacks against Palestinian citizens and their property, an increase of 9% over the year 2019, and the attacks varied from uprooting, destroying and burning of 8,925 trees, carrying out 21 run-over attacks, 8 kidnapping attempts, 26 shootings, and 47 A leveling operations of citizens' lands. Nonetheless, livestock were not spared from those attacks, as 445 heads of cattle were killed and stolen. This is in addition to burning, destroying and damaging 350 cars and vehicles.
Jerusalem: Intensive Judaization with no controls and continuous demolitions
During 2020, the Israeli occupation demolished and destroyed 976 Palestinian buildings; around 30% of which were in Jerusalem Governorate, 296 demolitions, of which 180 buildings were inside the neighborhoods of Jerusalem. Whereas the self-demolition operations for Palestinian buildings reached 89 operations, where most of which located in Jerusalem Governorate. During the year 2020, the Israeli occupation orders to demolish and stop the construction and restoration of about 1,012 buildings in the West Bank and Jerusalem, an increase of about 45% over 2019. The occupation authorities are also placing obstacles on the issuance of building permits to Palestinians.
The occupation forces policy of the demolishing Palestinian-owned buildings and the resulting displacement of residents from their homes in the West Bank has not stopped. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has documented that the occupation forces have demolished 7,514 structures since 2009, including 1,343 donors-funded structures, which led to the displacement of 11,356 persons, while 123,788 persons were affected. The demolitions were distributed by 19% in East Jerusalem, in addition to 79% in areas classified as C and about 2% of the demolitions in areas classified A and B. Furthermore, OCHA documented about 851 structures demolished in 2020, of which 157 are donors-funded structures, which led to the displacement of 1,001 citizens and 5,389 citizens were affected. Khirbet Homsa in the Jordan Valley represented the vivid picture of the systematic demolitions. This locaity was demolished three times during the last quarter of 2020, where dozens of families live in Khirbet Homsa, including more than 40 children.
Israeli Violations against the Palestinians
The number of Palestinian and Arab martyrs killed since the Nakba in 1948 and until this day (inside and outside Palestine) reached about 100 thousand martyrs[1]. Moreover, the number of martyrs killed in Al-Aqsa Intifada between September 29th, 2000 until December 31st, 2020 was 10,969. It is said that the bloodiest year was 2014 with 2,240 Palestinian martyrs, 2,181 of them were from Gaza Strip during the war on Gaza. During 2020, the number of Palestinian martyrs reached 43, 9 of whom were children and 3 women. While the number of the wounded Palestinians during the year 2020 reached about 1,650. By the end of 2020, there were 4,400 Palestinian detainees in the Israeli occupation prisons, 170 of them are children and 35 women. In regards to the number of detention cases during the year 2020, it amounted to be about 4,634 cases, including 543 children and 128 women.
Sources:
1. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics 2020: Israeli Settlements in the West Bank, 2019. Ramallah - Palestine.
2. Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission 2021: Summary of the most Important Violations in Palestine, 2021. Ramallah - Palestine.
3. The Commission of Detainees Affairs, 2021.
4. Abdullah Hourani Center for Studies and Documentation, the Harvest of the Israeli Violations for the year 2020. Ramallah 2021.
5. Peace Now Organization, 2021.
6. Human Rights Watch 2021.
7. UN Office for the Coordination of the Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Territories (OCHA), 2021.