New Israeli plan to Judaise Galilee

Haaretz has reported that the World Zionist Organisation’s Settlement Division, a branch of the Israeli government, is preparing a new-old plan to Judaise Galilee in order to achieve a demographic balance with the Palestinians. The newspaper noted that the WZO is approaching various ministries suggesting that they bid on a tender to prepare a development policy to absorb 100,000 new Jewish residents in the heart of Galilee, in the area surrounding the Al-Batouf Valley. Along with Arraba, Sakhnin and Deir Hanna, it forms what is known locally as the Land Day Triangle.

Land Day has been commemorated since 1967 in response to the Israeli government’s announcement of a plan to expropriate thousands of acres of land for “security and settlement” purposes. In the ensuing confrontations with the Israeli army and police, six Arab-Israeli citizens were killed, about 100 were wounded and hundreds more were arrested.

The WZO Settlement Division supports the Prawer Plan to displace 40,000 Bedouins and confiscate 200,000 acres of their land in the Negev Desert. Almost fifty villages will be destroyed in the process.