by: Shimaa Eid Abualhawa

The Israeli occupation is planning several colonial projects aimed at gaining greater control over Palestine and annexing more of its lands under its authority. One of such projects is the "Allon" colonial project, endorsed by the Labor Party. It seeks to establish a strategic and political settlement extending across the Jordan Valley and the eastern slopes of the West Bank highlands.
Objectives 
The project was named after its creator, Israeli Minister of Justice Yigal Allon, who submitted his proposal to the Israeli occupation government in July, 1967, immediately after the July aggression, under the title "Future of the Palestinian Lands and Approaches to Addressing the Refugee Issue." 

This project seeks to achieve three central goals, revolving around establishing security borders for the Israeli entity on the Jordanian side, ending Israeli control over the Arab areas it occupies, and preserving a Jewish character for the state.

It also identifies the Jordan Valley area to remain under the Israeli occupation control, in addition to the Al-Quds area and the Hebron area. Regarding the lands of the West Bank, it would be returned to the Jordanian authority with a complete separation between them. 

Moreover, it addresses the annexation of the Gaza Strip to the Israeli occupation's sovereignty, the resettlement of refugees outside the Strip, the return of refugees to Egypt while retaining its southeastern coast from Eilat to Sharm Al-Sheikh.
 
Allon Comes into Effect
It is noticed that the plans of the Israeli occupation government have responded in one way or another to what is mentioned in this colonial project. During the era of the Labor Party until 1977, 34 settlements were built, including 12 in Al-Quds. "Kaft Etzion" settlement was the first one built in 1967, followed by Kiryat Arab. This indicates that the settlement enterprise went beyond the Allon Project and the strategic security concept of establishing settlement with diverse objectives in locations and sites surrounding Al-Quds and Bethlehem, as well as along the Green Line. 

Alaa Al-Rimawi, an Israeli affairs expert, mentioned to PALM Strategic Initiatives Centre that the project was implemented through the same concept of settlement in the occupied West Bank. 
"Three colonial projects drew inspiration from the Allon project and expanded upon it, increasing the number of illegal settlers in the West Bank to one million," Al-Rimawi said. He added that the project exceeded its original scope, as the Israeli occupation sees the West Bank as a safe haven for settlers due to the presence of an ample space to reinforce settlement expansion with a million-strong presence in the West Bank. The current absolute control over the West Bank is evident in the pattern of construction in area C and the longitudinal and latitudinal spread in various areas of the West Bank. This is further supported by numerous settlement projects that have been approved up to this day.