The Jewish-dominated Jerusalem municipality is planning to seize more Palestinian homes and real estate in East Jerusalem even as Israel has quietly stopped approving new West Bank projects in an attempt to heal a rift with the United States , Palestinian and Israeli sources said.
Hatim Abdulqader, former Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem affairs minister, said that the “occupation municipality is taking legal procedures against Palestinian owners as a first step to evict them for the benefit of Jewish occupiers.” Abdulqader told Arab News that the “municipality is targeting homes in East Jerusalem neighborhoods of Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan, near the Old City and Al-Aqsa Mosque.”
Yair Gabay, a member of the Jerusalem municipality, told Israel Radio that the government of Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu is “aware of the municipality plans and supports them.”
The development came after extreme Jewish groups forcibly occupied several houses early August. On Monday, a group of occupiers raided a home near a school run by the UN refugee agency UNRWA in Silwan and occupied it by force, Palestinian residents said.
On Aug. 2, Israeli police evicted two Palestinian families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah after the Israeli High Court ruled that the properties were owned by Jewish families.
Several government officials meanwhile said that Israel has decided to temporarily stop green-lighting new projects in the West Bank because of international pressure.
The move falls short of the US demand because it doesn’t amount to a full freeze — projects approved in the past are still being built, and groups tracking settlements say the pace of construction in the settlements has not slowed.
Still, it could be an indication Israel is seeking a compromise with Washington over the issue. Officially, Israel has said some construction must continue to allow for the growth of families of occupiers.
The decision to temporarily shelve new construction was made jointly by Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Housing Minister Ariel Atias, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Kobi Bleich, a spokesman for Atias — the official directly responsible for signing off on government construction — would not confirm or deny the report. Mark Regev, a spokesman for Netanyahu, said he had no immediate comment.
Peace Now, an Israeli group that opposes settlements and tracks their construction, says the government has not issued new plans for West Bank settlement projects since Netanyahu took power in March.
According to Hagit Ofran of the group’s Settlement Watch program, the last new tender for government construction in the West Bank was issued in November, 2008, when former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was still in power. But housing units approved in the past remain under construction, mostly in large settlements that Israel hopes to keep under any peace deal, Ofran said.
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