THE Palestine Scholars Association (PSA) has warned that the Israeli occupation regime has transitioned from targeting the Palestinian people and their land to a new phase of warfare directed at Islamic rituals and holy sites.
‘Israel’s attacks on mosques, the holy Qur’an, the adhan (call to prayer), and the Aqsa and Ibrahimi Mosques constitute a systematic aggression against the identity of the Islamic nation as a whole, not merely against the Palestinian people,’ the PSA said in a statement released on Saturday.
The PSA highlighted a series of violations carried out by the Israeli occupation, including the destruction of about 1,000 mosques in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war.
They also cited documented instances of Quran copies being burned, torn, and desecrated by Israeli forces and settlers, as well as public insults directed at Prophet Muhammad inside the Aqsa Mosque during settler tours.
Additional violations include arson attacks on West Bank mosques and a preliminary bill recently approved, in its first reading, by the Knesset restricting the call to prayer (adhan), PSA added.
The PSA urged the leaders of Islamic countries to assume their responsibilities by supporting Palestine, protecting its holy sites, and strengthening the steadfastness of Palestinians.
Israeli occupation authorities have intensified their use of military orders as a tool to expand settlements in the West Bank, issuing 114 orders to seize Palestinian land since October 7, 2023, according to the National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements.
In its weekly report on Saturday, the bureau said the number of military orders issued during this period was equivalent to the total number issued by Israeli authorities over the past 20 years.
The orders have led to the seizure of around 25,000 dunums of land and the establishment of 53 new settlements, some of them built on land belonging to Palestinian communities that were forcibly displaced, including Ein Samiya and Al-Muarrajat, the report said.
It warned that settlement plans were no longer confined to Area C, but had extended deep into Area A, which is under Palestinian control, according to the Oslo Accords.
The report also revealed a plan led by settler movements, with support from ministers in the Israeli government, to seize 100 strategic points inside Area A in what they call ‘Judgment Day’, alongside the Israeli army’s establishment of a permanent military site in part of Jenin.
It said Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich was accelerating the implementation of government decisions aimed at channelling funds to settlements ahead of upcoming elections.
These measures include granting tax exemptions to settlers and expanding the classification of ‘national priority areas’ to include settlements in the Jordan Valley and around Gaza.
The report said these steps coincided with Knesset approval for the establishment of six new settlements around Ramallah, as well as the allocation of millions of shekels for the ‘Jubilee Cave Park’ project near the settlement of Ofra.
It added that Israel’s Interior Ministry had granted official codes to four settlement outposts in the West Bank: Asif, Malachei HaShalom, Avia and Yitav. The move paves the way for legalising the outposts and linking them to government institutions.
According to the report, the move comes as 37 official codes have been granted to settlement outposts over the past six months, amid pressure by the religious Zionism party to permanently restore settler presence and a religious school inside the Joseph’s Tomb compound in Nablus.
The report also cited Israel’s Haaretz newspaper as saying last month that settlement and displacement projects in the northern West Bank were expanding rapidly and becoming a reality imposed on the ground by force of arms.
Haaretz described the developments as a ‘revolution’ led by settlers with government and military support, aimed at rebuilding and reviving four settlements evacuated under the 2005 disengagement plan.
The UK, US and EU trade unions cannot just stand by and watch these savage attacks on the Palestinian people. They must call general strike actions to demand the immediate establishment of the State of Palestine.
