Thousands of Israeli colonists storm hilltop south of Nablus

Thousands of Israeli colonists Tuesday evening stormed the top of the Jabal Sabih in the Beita town, south of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, according to a local official. Mahmoud Barham, head of the Beita Village Council, said that thousands of colonists, including Yossi Dagan, head of the settlements council in the northern West Bank, a broke into the top of Jabal Sabih (Sabih Mount) to participate in a concert. The top of Jabal Sabih has become a scene of weekly rallies by Palestinians against the pillage of their land. In late June, the Israeli occupation authorities imposed punitive measures on the Palestinian Authority and approved five flashpoint colonies, including Evyatar, initially established in 2021 atop Jabal Sabih, which enjoys a strategic location as it overlooks the Jordan Valley, a fertile strip of land running west along the Jordan River which makes up approximately 30% of the occupied West Bank. Colonial outposts are established informally by colonists without prior approval fr om the Israeli government. They are often formalised or legalized a few years after establishment. Following relentless Palestinian protests against the land grab, the government struck a deal with settler leaders that saw dozens of settlers evacuated from the outpost in July 2021, leaving a military presence in the area. Far-right and pro-settler leaders, including Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, had vowed repeatedly to return settlers to the outpost. Seizing the two hilltops represents a panoptical defensive tool as they would grant the Israeli occupation with a panoramic view over the Jordan Valley and the whole district of Nablus. This is why the Israeli occupation authorities have assigned them a place in its colonial settlement expansion project. The construction of the two colonial outposts atop Mount Sabih, south of Beita, and Mount Al-Arma, north of the town, besides to a bypass road to the west is an Israeli measure to push Palestinian villages and towns into crowded enclaves, ghettos , surrounded by walls, settlements and military installations, and disrupt their geographic contiguity with other parts of the West Bank. The number of settlers living in Jewish-only colonies across occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank in violation of international law has jumped to over 700,000 since the signing of Oslo Accords in 1993. Israel’s nation-state law, passed in July 2018, enshrines Jewish supremacy, and states that building and strengthening the colonial settlements is a “national interest.” Source: Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA