Several obstacles and restrictions were placed in front of the current government before it started to assume its responsibilities, and despite all conditions, there were accomplishments and maybe they were not satisfactory but they were steps on the path and we hope that we can continue in the near future to achieve more things.
The desire of this government to confront the settlement activities was clear because these activities constituted a grave danger on the Palestinian future, in general, and on the future of the West Bank, in particular, following the Israeli unilateral withdrawal from Gaza Strip. The government activities to limit the spread of settlements were focused in the area of conducting media and mass mobilization campaigns, in addition to a group of public relations activities and attempts to exert pressure on the international community to pressure Israel to put an end to the settlements through taking several legal measures to put an end to the settlements activities and the building of the wall, and there was technical support to the phase after withdrawal. There has been integrated effort between the Negotiations Affairs Department and the Ministry of Planning to try and provide all possible physical support to the activities confront the wall and the settlements.
Of course, several ministries and government parties contributed in the efforts within the available potentials. A ministerial committee was formed to follow up the affairs of the wall and the settlements. This committee met and issued several decisions which were ratified by the government and execution of some of these decisions started immediately. A technical committee was also formed consisting of several ministries and relevant parties to follow up all matters dealing with the wall and the settlements.
The Planning Ministry was commissioned in May to follow up the file of the wall and the settlements after the transfer of the responsibilities of the ministry of state on the affairs of the wall and settlements with its all team and tasks to the Planning Ministry. Moreover, there have been efforts by the General Administration of the Geographical Center which offered support and information and documented this on the maps and followed up the settlement activities but the halt of the international support prevented the efforts in that direction.
There is also the General Administration of the Spatial Planning at the Ministry which contributed with the General Administration of the Geographical and Technical Support Center in setting up special plans on the situation that will prevail in case of an Israeli withdrawal similar to the withdrawal from Gaza Strip. On the media front, there were several positions at various occasions calling for mobilization and reaching to the masses and the relevant international parties through media publications. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs also worked on the issue of the settlements and the wall through raising the issue during the visits and meetings with the various delegations.
At the Finance Ministry, payments were disbursed as operational expenses to the unit of the wall and settlements despite all obstacles and financial restrictions and hard conditions. The expenses of the attorneys commissioned to defend the lands threatened with confiscation because of the wall were provided, in addition to the expenses for the land surveyors and the studies to help the land owners to cling to their lands.
With regards to the impediments that faced us, we didn’t have enough budgets because of the suspension of the international support. The affairs of the civil affairs were also scaled down to the minimum levels as it didn’t receive copies of the military orders to follow them up as was the case in the past because of the obstacles dealing with devoting most of the time to solve the immediate crises and internal problems that the Palestinian society faced politically and at the security level in relation to the strike and suspension of work in the public sector.
As part of the Planning Ministry work with the two above mentioned administrations, the ministry remained updated on the information and changes resulting from the Israeli practices on the Palestinian lands in order to exert pressure on the international community to assume its duties and responsibilities in this area, in addition to the work of the ministry in publishing all kinds of material and information in cooperation with the Negotiations Affairs Department through providing it with the maps and various information.
There was also immediate work on developing and formulating national policies to organize the process of integrating the settlements or Israeli settlements in the West Bank in case of their evacuation. Work was completed in September on preparing an initial draft on the policies document that was supposed to be finalized and there was focus in it on the regions directly affected by the wall and the regions surrounding the settlements.
We can summarize the work of the unit of the wall and settlements which was merged in the Ministry of Planning in the following three areas:
1- The legal dimension: a team from the unit of the wall and settlements offered legal assistance through lawyers who dealt with a large number of cases in various areas of the West Bank, whether in relation to cases dealing with settlements or cases dealing with the wall.
2- The area of supporting the steadfastness of the people: it might be the case that financial assistance offered to the families or groups of Palestinians affected directly by the wall and settlements was very modest but recommendations to that effect were submitted.
3- The popular action area: there were various activities along with cooperation with several national parties to perform actions in this direction, mainly in dealing with the activity to mark the second anniversary of the issuance of the Ruling of the International Court of Justice at The Hague, in addition to activities in relation to the settlements and the wall in the area of Jerusalem, Bilin and several other national and popular committees active in the area of confronting settlements.
In conclusion, a decision has been recently issued by the Cabinet on unifying all legal follow in relations to lands and settlements and the wall and this decision is being executed now. An emergency budget of 835,000NIS was allocated to cover the expenses pertaining to the issues of the land, the wall and settlements.
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