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Palestinian Terrorism and Surging Illegal Construction in Judea and Samaria

(Israel Hayom) David M. Weinberg - The real sources of instability in Judea and Samaria stem from escalating Palestinian terrorism, surging illegal Palestinian construction in zones of strategic importance to Israel, and numerous arson attacks. Attacks on Palestinian property and individuals committed by a few extremists at the fringes of the Israeli community are fewer than the level of violence by Israelis against Israelis in Tel Aviv. While attacks of all types on Palestinians total about 1,100 incidences a year, mostly harassment and vandalism, this pales in comparison to more than 5,000 Palestinian bomb, car-ramming, knifing, and shooting attacks a year aimed at killing Israeli civilians. And this super-pales in comparison to the 1,200 Israelis slaughtered by Hamas on Oct. 7 or the 20,000 rockets and missiles fired by Hamas into Israeli civilian population centers over the past half year. There are about 4,000 Israeli "structures" (mobile homes) considered unapproved or illegal in Judea and Samaria. This includes homes for which final residence permits are pending or homes where a garage or additional room was built without permits. But 85% of these "structures" are inside the municipal boundaries of recognized Jewish communities. That leaves only some 500 structures that critics say are "changing the footprint of Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria." Compare this to at least 90,000 Palestinian homes that have cropped-up illegally in Area C of the West Bank in recent years, purposefully placing Palestinians in areas that never before had an Arab presence. Moreover, firefighters have battled well over 1,000 fires in Judea and Samaria, many of them adjacent to Jewish towns and Israeli army bases, almost all of them caused by arson. The writer is a senior fellow at Misgav: The Institute for National Security & Zionist Strategy.
2024-07-09 00:00:00
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