Israel Plans to Annex More Palestinian Lands in Mount Sabih to Build Settlement Outposts
(AWP) - The locals of Mount Sabih, southern Nablus, keep building rooms on their lands and stick to them in the face of Israel’s settlement expansion, approved by the Israeli security cabinet, which also legitimized five illegal settlements.
Abu Haytham, a landlord on Mount Sabih, which is facing a threat of confiscation by Israel, lives in a room he built on his land in the mountain.
“Israel does not own an inch of the Mount Sabih lands. The locals will stand up against the continuous settlement attempts,” he emphasized.
“Mount Sabih is our land. They do not own anything here. Even if they adopted it [the settlement plan], it will not be implemented because this is not their land. It is ours. The mountain is ours. What do they own to come here?” he wondered.
“Whether they adopted the plan or not, they are not doing anything but creating problems. Since they said they will come and take the land, they have to know that this is our land and the homeland is ours. They cannot force us to accept this,” stressed Abu Haytham.
Monadil Hanani, a member of the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front (PPSF) Politburo and the official in charge of the Palestinian popular resistance, considered that the new settlement scheme announced in Mount Sabih was part of other settlement operations Israel was concealing from the world, adding Israel keeps building more settlements over Palestinian territories.
“This is certainly the application of a decision by the occupation government a few days ago, which included the legitimization of several settlements, one of them is the settlement built on Mount Sabih in Beita, and the area of Barqa, where the Hermesh settlement stands. Also in Hebron and Jerusalem, there are several settlement outposts they have not announced yet, but we think they will be recognized away from the world and the media,” he explained.
“We believe that these policies will end up in failure. The occupation cannot control our lands. In Mount Sabih, we have vanquished them several times within the framework of the popular resistance and non-stop activities, marches and sit-ins in Mount Sabih and all other sites, but not in the pace required in the light of an emergency state announced by the occupation. The occupation forces are trying to carry out executions. We have taken this into consideration in order to protect people’s lives and property,” he noted.
Mohamed Kharyoush, a young Palestinian activist and a local of the mountain, said, “In Mount Sabih, we offered many sacrifices of martyrs and injured people. Many have been thrown into Israeli jails. We have always been protecting the mountain.”
“We will never give it up. Many, including relatives, friends and neighbors, have died for it. We will remain steadfast until we liberate it. We will breathe our last for it,” he stressed.
Israeli Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich is expected within the next few days to expropriate Palestinian lands in Mount Sabih in Beita village to build the Evyatar settlement outpost, unlicensed by the Israeli civil administration, after the Israeli government had approved licensing it on Thursday.