NABLUS, November 26, 2011 (WAFA) - The National Bureau for the Defense of Land and Resisting Settlement said in its weekly report published on Saturday that there was a rise in Israeli government authorizing settlers to use Palestinian land in East Jerusalem alleged to be absentee property.

The Israeli government authorized and funded settlers groups to use alleged absentee property that included houses and land in the Old City, Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem, said the report.

It added that Israel also planned to build a Talmudic garden on the east side of Mount Scopus and al-Issawiya in Jerusalem, thus changing the land status from public construction areas to national gardens, where construction is restricted for Palestinians yet expedited for settlement purposes to geographically link settlements around Jerusalem.

The National Bureau considered the Israeli plan “dangerous” and in line with the escalating settlement practices in Jerusalem to demographically change Jerusalem population by increasing the Jewish presence.

The report also featured a rise in Israeli army and settlers’ attacks in Hebron, including continuous demolition of property, razing and confiscating land for settlements expansion, and assaulting Palestinians.

Israeli authorities handed Palestinians in Rabod, a village south of Hebron, orders to stop construction in four houses under the pretext of having no building permits, as well as destroyed a water well, along with its retaining walls.

Settlers from Kiryat Arba settlement, east of Hebron, and in its old city continued their attacks on Palestinians, whereas settlement activities in Bethlehem increased after the Israeli government confiscated 700 dunums of Palestinian land in northern Bethlehem behind the Apartheid Wall which will completely separate Jerusalem from its surrounding Palestinian towns.

The report also registered settlers’ assaults in Nablus, Salfit and Qalqilya in the northern West Bank.

Armed settlers raided Palestinian villages in southern Nablus under the Israeli army protection, and raided Joseph’s Tomb, east of Nablus, to perform Jewish rituals and prayers.

Wastewater from Revava settlement flooded Palestinian land in the nearby town Deir Estia, which completely destroyed dozens of olive trees and flooded hundreds others, causing severe loss to farmers, said the report.

In Qalqilya, Israeli bulldozers razed hundreds of orange and olive trees along with several greenhouses in Azzun, a village south of Qalqilya, to resume the construction of a new part of the Apartheid Wall, which will take over thousands of dunums.

R.Q./M.S.