Israel working on the second phase of Greater Jerusalem project

Israel has started the second phase of the Greater Jerusalem project, which aims to expand the borders of occupied Jerusalem to encompass 10 per cent of the total area of the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian expert in Jewish settlements said.

Director of the Map Department in the Arabic Association for Studies based in Jerusalem, Khalil Tafakji said that the decision of the Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon, which was announced yesterday, to annex hundreds of dunams and add them to the land of three settlements in Gush Etzion is part of the project.

The Gush Etzion settlement bloc is a cluster of Israeli settlements adjacent to occupied Jerusalem and Bethlehem in the West Bank. “This is a dangerous development in the project,” Tafakji said.

Speaking to Arabi 21, Tafakji explained that the project makes great demographic changes in favour of Jews as the Palestinian population decreases to only 13 per cent in the city.

Tafakji said that this project was proposed by the late Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon during his term as Minister of Infrastructure in 1997. He said the first phase of the project was completed as Israel could include all settlements established inside Jerusalem’s borders after 1967.

He noted that the second phase in the project includes expanding the settlement of Ir Ganim in the occupied West Bank to the southwest of Jerusalem. Tafakji said that 10,000 new residential units were planned to be built in this settlement.

He said that building the 10,000 units would make a “great and dangerous” demographic change in Jerusalem and the West Bank. He noted that the most dangerous phase in the project is connecting the Gush Etzion block with the other Israeli cities by a railway in order to facilitate the movement of settlers.

Regarding the relationship between the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks and this project, Tafakji said: “The continuation of the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority is dangerous. Israel used the negotiations to cover up its settlements and Judaisation projects.”

Settlement and Judaisation projects threaten the future of the occupied West Bank if it is to remain a Palestinian territory, he explained, and anyone insisting on the viability of a two-state solution is only misleading the Palestinians because there is no land remaining in the West Bank to establish a viable state on.

There is an Israeli consensus among all Israeli parties regarding the necessity to include the Gush Etzion block to Jerusalem in any future political settlement with the Palestinians.

This consensus is common between the right and left wingers in Israel. Most settlements were launched when the labour party was in control.

A number of senior Israeli officials live in this settlement block, including Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Housing and Development Minister Uri Ariel.