Israel enabling ‘largest private settlement’ in history of East Jerusalem

The Israeli government is directly enabling the largest private settlement compound in the history of occupied East Jerusalem, two NGOs warned this week.

The report, “Broken Trust: State Involvement in Private Settlement in Batan Al-Hawa, Silwan”, has been jointly released by Peace Now and Ir Amim, and sets out to detail “settlement planning in one of the most sensitive and volatile areas in Jerusalem” – Batan Al-Hawa in Silwan.

According to the NGOs, the Ateret Cohanim settler organisation has been working since 2001 to transform Batan Al-Hawa into a large Israeli settlement “through sales without tender, questionable acquisition of Palestinian properties” and “forced eviction and removal of Palestinian families.”

If successful, the report states, “Batan Al-Hawa will become the largest settlement compound in a Palestinian neighbourhood in the Historic Basin of the Old City” and significantly “tightening the emerging ring of settlements around the Old City.”

Meanwhile, documents obtained by a freedom of information request have confirmed the role of settler organisation ELAD in organising the justice ministry’s intervention in and eventual overturning of a 2015 decision to limit the scope of the Kedem Compound in Silwan.

According to Ir Amim, the settler group plans “a five-story structure over more than 16,000 square metres in the old Givati Parking Lot in Silwan, just opposite the ELAD managed City of David and about 20 metres from the walls of the Old City.”