The Elad Association for settlement received 28 million shekels ($7.8 million) from the Israeli occupation authorities in support of its projects in Wadi Al-Rababa in the town of Silwan, south of Al-Aqsa Mosque, an investigation by Israeli newspaper Haaretz revealed.

Haaretz revealed that the Elad Association, which promotes the forced expulsion of Palestinians by Israeli settlers in Al-Quds, received $7.8 million to support Judaization schemes in the Wadi Al-Rababa neighborhood and change its Palestinian feature, under the pretext of establishing public parks and agricultural projects and developing the area in a touristic way.

This comes at the expense of the original owners of the land, stripping them of their rights, confiscating their land, and preventing the geographical Palestinian expansion in Silwan.

The settlement project run by Elad is supported by several Israeli occupation institutions, including Al-Quds municipality and several Israeli ministries.

On his part, Ahmad Samreen, a member of the Wadi Al-Rababa neighborhood committee, said the donations collected by the Elad Association are aimed at tightening the occupation's grip on the neighborhood, "Israel"-izing and Judaizing it.

Samreen stressed that the Palestinian owners of the targeted lands in Wadi Al-Rababa will continue the struggle to protect their lands.

Through their steadfastness, 800 Al-Quds residents are resisting the Judaization and settlement schemes in the neighborhood in the town of Silwan, south of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Samreen explained that for years, Al-Quds residents in Wadi Al-Rababa have been suffering from Israeli occupation harassment, the latest of which was the deployment of surveillance cameras in the neighborhood that monitor the movements of landowners in an accurate and intense manner.

He added that Israeli occupation bulldozers continue to attack lands and uproot perennial olive trees rooted in the land for 400 years, while settlers continue to organize noisy parties on Palestinian lands to disturb life in the neighborhood and displace its citizens.

Last summer, the Elad Association, which is considered the spearhead of settlement and Judaization in occupied Al-Quds, revealed last summer a Judaization project in Silwan called The Farm in the Valley, to attract thousands of Israeli settlers into participating in the activities of the so-called National Park that was held on Palestinian lands in the town of Silwan, at the behest of the occupation municipality.

The Israeli settlement association illegally placed its hand on private land owned by Palestinians in Silwan and turned it into an illegal settlement farm.

It uses agricultural activities, especially tree planting, in an attempt to change the features of the original land and create a new history consistent with the Zionist narrative about the occupied city of Al-Quds.

It is noteworthy that the Elad Association is considered one of the richest non-governmental organizations in the Israeli occupation, and it supervises about 70 settlement outposts in Silwan, most of which are located in the Wadi Hilweh area, which is the closest area to Al-Aqsa Mosque, and it funds the Israeli excavations in the area.

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