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Plans could advance for over 10,000 new settlement homes in East Jerusalem

January 24, 2017 at 11:00 am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent ‘green light’ to settlement construction in Occupied East Jerusalem could see plans for more than 10,000 new housing units advance.

Settlement construction plan

  1. Givat Hamatos A – 2,600 housing units
  2. E1 – at least 3,700 housing units and 2,100 hotel rooms
  3. Givat Hamatos D – 1,100 hotel rooms
  4. Har Homa West – between 400 – 1,500 housing units
  5. Kidmat Zion – 230 housing units
  6. Herod’s Gate – 21 housing units, synagogue and public buildings
  7. Ramat Shlomo – 500 housing units
  8. Gilo Southwest – 2,100 housing units
  9. Ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood in Atarot – thousands of housing units

On 22 January, Netanyahu declared that he would lift limitations on construction in East Jerusalem settlements, following the inauguration of US President Donald Trump.

According to Ir Amim, an Israeli NGO monitoring Israel’s occupation and colonisation of the east of the city, “during President Obama’s administration, Israel promoted building plans on a very large scale” in East Jerusalem.

However, since the breakdown of the John Kerry-led talks in 2013-’14, “there has been a significant slowdown in approval of building plans and publishing tenders, together with carrying out large-scale construction in numerous areas through previously approved plans.”

The NGO has compiled “a list of building plans which have been halted for several years”, and which now seem likely to be advanced. All together, they constitute more than 10,000 housing units in illegal settlements in Occupied East Jerusalem.