JERUSALEM, Israel has granted a settler group 28 million shekels to advance the fervent settler-colonialism campaign of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi al-Rababa.

The Israeli daily Haaretz revealed in an investigation that the Israeli occupation authorities have given the Elad shadowy settler group 28 million shekels ($7.8 million) to fund its “tourism projects” in Wadi al-Rababa in Silwan neighborhood, next to the Old City.

Elad group pursues the declared objective of “Judaizing” East Jerusalem, including Silwan, as a part of its mission to expand Jewish presence across the occupied city and to uproot the indigenous Palestinian population under the guise of archeological and touristic endeavors.

Judaization is a term that refers to the policy of forced expulsion of Palestinians, land grab and colonial settlement construction championed by successive Israeli governments.

Funded by several occupation institutions, including the Jerusalem Municipality, Israel’s Nature and Parks Authority, the Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Ministry and the Jerusalem Development Authority, under the guise of tourism and development, the new settlement project is intended to strip rightful Palestinian landowners of their land and strangle the geographic expansion of Silwan neighborhood.

Elaborating on the real reason behind this project, Ahmad Sumrein, a member of the local neighborhood committee, said that the funds given to Elad are designed to consolidate the occupation authorities’ grip over the neighborhood, while affirming that the landowners would continue to fight against the colonial settlement campaign.

For the neighborhood residents, surveillance, police raids, land grab and settler harassments are a daily reality. The occupation authorities have installed surveillance cameras to monitor movement of the neighborhood residents, municipality bulldozers have proceeded with uprooting centuries-old olive trees and settlers have been noisily partying there.

Source: Palestine News & Info Agency