Israel to build 2,969 new settlement units in Jerusalem

Israeli District Committee in Jerusalem has approved plans to build 2,969 new settlement units in the French Hill, Pisgat Ze’ev and Givat Shaked settlements, Safa news agency reported on Wednesday.

According to the Israeli left-wing Ir Amim association, which specialises in Jerusalem issues, the Committee decided to accept all the modified plans and documents related to the settlement project after deliberate study.

Safa reported Ir Amim as saying that the Israeli occupation authorities had put off discussion of a plan for building 240 settlement units in Ramot Settlement in Jerusalem.

Specialist researcher, Fakhri Abu Diab, said that the Israeli occupation approved the settlement plan in Jerusalem and allocated a massive budget for the implementation.

Speaking to Safa, Abu Diab said that the Israeli occupation authorities are to confiscate thousands of dunams owned by Jerusalemites in the centre, south and east parts of the holy city. This would endanger the Palestinian residential communities in the targeted areas.

He pointed out that such projects would need streets, highways and other services, noting that Israel carries out such projects at the expense of the Palestinians.

At the same time, he said that the new plan would divide the Palestinians’ residential gatherings in the occupied part of the city into small “islands” without any geographical connections.

Diab stated that this project would also isolate the city of Jerusalem from the Occupied West Bank in favour of the Israeli Jewish settlers.

West Bank settler population now makes up more than 720,000 people. Settler leaders predicted faster population growth under the Israeli new ultranationalist government.

“I think that, in the coming years of this government, there will be more building than there has been in the last 20 years of governments,” Baruch Gordon, the director of a pro-settlement group and resident of Beit El settlement said.

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