The Israeli occupation authorities have recently intensified, with an increasing and accelerating pace, their approval of settlement plans targeting the occupied city of Jerusalem, including the establishment of high-rise settlement units and towers, the construction of tourist centers and hotels, and massive water parks and amusement parks, and billions of shekels have been allocated for this.
The approval of the board of directors of “Ma’ale Adumim” settlement, the largest of the Israeli settlements in occupied Jerusalem, was not a huge settlement project to establish a huge water park and a hotel in the “Mishor Adumim” industrial zone on the road between Jerusalem and Jericho, the last of which, but there are dozens of projects that are still awaiting approval and implementation.
Israeli sources revealed a huge settlement project in the “Mishor Adumim” settlement, east of Jerusalem, that includes a huge water park and a hotel with about 1,000 rooms on an area of 100 acres.
According to the Israeli plan, “a huge complex will be built over the next three years, and on the agenda: a hotel, a new water park with 21 slides, six swimming pools, and a playground.”
Takeover and Expansion
The new project is part of a large settlement plan targeting the eastern region of Jerusalem; With the aim of expanding the so-called “Jerusalem municipal boundaries”, and seizing the largest possible number of Palestinian lands in that area, says the settlement affairs specialist and head of the East Jerusalem Lands Defense Committee Bassam Bahr.
Bahr explained, in an interview with “Safa” agency, that the occupation authorities are seeking to confiscate about 67,000 dunums east of the city, starting from the village of “Mikhmas” to the east of the town of “Al-Sawahra” and to control it completely.
He points out that the implementation of the plan is based on two aspects: “land theft and the displacement of Bedouin communities, that are located in the eastern region, in order to expand settlements and establish new settlements and outposts, as well as tourist hotels, games and a water park.”
According to Bahr, the occupation announced several settlement and Judaization projects in east Jerusalem, including the establishment of commercial and entertainment centers, parks and hotels, and the opening of new tunnels.
The occupation authorities are also planning to build a new bridge that starts from the settlement of “Ma’ale Adumim” to the town of Al-Zaim; This is to separate the settlers from the Arab places in the area.
According to the new plan, the settlement complex will include the establishment of 1,000 hotel rooms, an indoor water park with 21 water slides, six swimming pools, an 8,000 square meter fashion complex, a 4,000-seat amphitheater, a restaurant complex, and the second largest theme park in the world (after Japan). . According to the Hebrew website Ynet.
“For the first time in decades, an innovative water park called (Water Cass) will be opened in Israel, which will be open to visitors throughout the year,” he added.
He pointed out that “about 1.5 billion shekels will be invested in the new project and it belongs to the Kass Group, owned by Hanush Kass. The group won the tender, valued at 60 million shekels, to purchase 100 acres in the Israel Garden in Ma’aleh Adumim.”
Big risks
And these projects, as the specialist in settlement affairs warns, pose great risks to the occupied city. It aims to seize more lands, deport the Bedouin population, erect a wall in the eastern region, and a gate east of the town of Al-Eizariya, leading to the separation of the north of the West Bank from its south, and eliminating the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state.
He affirms that the Israeli occupation, through the rise of settlements, wants to “besiege” the occupied city of Jerusalem, empty it of its residents, and establish new settlement neighborhoods; To bring the largest number of settlers to it on the one hand, and also to seize the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque to implement their plans of incursions and prayers, on the other.
He points out that there are daily Israeli decisions to seize lands in and around Jerusalem, and to expand private settlements in the northern, eastern and southern regions; In order to impose a security cordon around the city and resolve the ‘demographic issue’ of having Arabs in the region, leading to its complete capture.
In order to confront these plans, Bahr stresses the need to achieve national unity, intensify the popular movement and rally by uniting the Palestinian people with all its sects and components, as happened last year, during the events of Al-Aqsa Mosque and Sheikh Jarrah, and to thwart the occupation’s plans, including the “electronic gates” scheme.
He added, “The steadfastness of Jerusalemites and Palestinians must be supported financially and morally, especially in the Bedouin communities, which constitute a thorn in the throat of the occupation for their steadfastness and resilience, and a Palestinian popular donation must be given in order to resist all settlement projects.”
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