Thread by @EpshtainItay

The humanitarian, normative, and political state of affairs in occupied #Palestinian territory, January 2022. Long thread, let's begin:

Seven months after an #Israeli government, led by Prime Minister @naftalibennett and Foreign Minister @yairlapid was sworn in Israel has approved, for deposit or validation plans for 6,417 settlement housing units and tendered for the construction of an additional 1,300.

Once constructed and populated, it would have facilitated – according to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics – the implantation of additional 23,200 settlers, in violation of Article 49 GCIV #IHL.

@ochaopt data shows that during the same period, 570 Palestinian properties – including residence, livelihood-related, and public infrastructure – were destroyed or seized (of which 116 were donor-funded structures), adversely affecting 11,200 Palestinians.

Destruction of donor-funded aid - including @eu_echo, @EUCouncil member-states - continued unabated despite several publicized demarches carried out by donor-states, and repeated statements at the @UN Security Council to the same effect.

Israeli officials, including Defense Minister @gantzbe held that Israel is advancing a "balanced construction plan" through concessions to the Palestinians, which includes plans – that should they be approved – allow for 1,300 housing units in Palestinian towns and villages.

Further scrutiny of the plans reveals that of those housing units, 848 (75 percent) are existing structures that lack an Israeli-issued building permit, and 282 (25 percent) are new structures envisaged under the plans (with no guarantee as to the subsequent permits).

Plans promoted for Palestinians are centered in communities in Area B of the West Bank (under the nominal control of the Palestinian Authority), which have organically evolved into Area C (directly administered by the Israeli Military Government) [...]

in the peripheral governorates of Jenin and Tulkarem (46 percent and 18 percent of potential permits, respectively), with the remainder 36 percent split between Bethlehem (20 percent) and Hebron (16 percent).

Conversely, plans for settlement establishment and expansion are centered in the mountain ridge (Nablus and Ramallah governorates representing 29 percent of permits each), the Jerusalem and Bethlehem periphery (20 percent of permits), and Hebron (7 percent) [...]

where they would be most disruptive to a territorially contiguous and economically viable future Palestinian state.

There is considerable overlap between the list of Israeli enclave settlements under the @POTUS45 Administration 'Peace to Prosperity' plan presented in January 2020, and those settlements that stand to benefit from the plan promoted by the current Israeli government.

Hebron, Nablus, and Jerusalem governorates also constitute hotspots for settler violence directed against Palestinians and their property, accounting for 71 percent of all incidents of settler violence recorded by @ochaopt @OHCHR_MENA.

The patent illegally - and inherently discriminatory character - of the Israeli-imposed spatial planning regimes is also evident in East #Jerusalem, underscored by events earlier this week.

Annexation by any means, and the ancillary destruction of property, denial of essential services, and illicit obstruction of humanitarian relief to which Palestinians are subjected will exacerbate their humanitarian plight, resulting in their forcible transfer [...]

and will necessarily prolong the occupation and conflict, suppressing a resolution of the question of Palestine in all its dimensions, humanitarian, normative and political.

Israeli policies and practices, carried over by the current government, are antithetical to confidence-building measures; and as long as it continues along this trajectory, would have little or no positive impact on the volatility of the West Bank and Gaza.

Humanitarians with their ear to the ground - such as my colleagues at @NRC_Norway @NRC_MiddleEast -can confirm the urgency of international efforts to resolve outstanding issues if we are to avoid increased disturbances, tensions, and hostilities in coming weeks and months.