The Jerusalem Governorate announced Monday that approximately 7,000 Palestinians living in 22 communities across the Jerusalem wilderness are at imminent risk of forced displacement due to the expansion of Israel’s colonial E1 project and the construction of the so-called “Sovereignty Road.”
In addition to its broader impact, the colonial infrastructure will effectively sever the communities of Jabal al-Baba and Wadi Jamal from the nearby town of al-‘Eizariya, isolating nearly 100 residents and deepening the fragmentation of Palestinian life in the area.
Just days ago, Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich approved the construction of thousands of colonialist units within the E1 zone, located east of occupied Jerusalem.
The move is widely condemned as a strategic blow to any viable Palestinian state, undermining territorial contiguity and entrenching the geographic and demographic fragmentation of the West Bank into disconnected enclaves.
According to B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories – the implementation of E1 construction plans will establish uninterrupted urban continuity between the Ma’ale Adumim colony and Jerusalem.
This will intensify the isolation of East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank and severely disrupt the geographic link between its northern and southern regions.
In related news, the Israeli army invaded the Ennab area in ath-Thaheriya town, south of Hebron in the southern West Bank, and demolished several shops.
It is worth noting that in July of this year, the Israeli army demolished 122 Palestinian structures, including 60 inhabited homes, 11 vacant homes, 22 agricultural buildings, and 26 commercial sheds. Additionally, demolition orders were issued targeting 33 more structures.
All of Israel’s colonies in the occupied West Bank, including those in and around occupied East Jerusalem, are illegal under International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention in addition to various United Nations and Security Council resolutions. They also constitute war crimes under International Law.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory”.
