Israeli authorities have approved a plan to build 549 new homes for settlers on land across the Green Line in south Jerusalem, an advocacy group said on Monday.
Ahmad Laban, an official with the Israeli-led group Ir Amim said a regional planning body in the Israeli-controlled Jerusalem Municipality approved the plan, which still needs to take further bureaucratic strides before it is finalized.
The regional committee of organizing and building in the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem had approved to present a new settlement plan to build 549 housing units.
“An announcement will be made on this issue soon,” Laban said of the plans, which will be submitted to the public for possible objections over a period of 60 days, in accordance with Israeli law.
The new settlement housing is planned on Palestinian land in the town of Beit Safafa, west of the Jerusalem-Hebron road. Laban said the planned expansion consists of five six-story buildings built on 153 dunums of land. The development is listed as Plan 5834B.
According to Laban, the plan is intended to further drive a “demographic wedge” between Palestinian communities in East Jerusalem and the greater West Bank. If built, the new settlement would interconnect the existing settlements in south Jerusalem including Har Homa and Gilo.
Though the international community does not recognize Israeli sovereignty there, Israel considers a chunk of the West Bank ringing Jerusalem to be its own territory. Israel occupied the area in 1967. Palestinians living in these areas reject Israeli citizenship.
Under pressure to build confidence with the Palestinian Authority, Israel declared a partial moratorium on the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank in November. The ban does not apply, however, to occupied East Jerusalem, including towns like Beit Safafa.
Front Page Features