(Jerusalem) Israeli officials on Wednesday recommended building around 3,500 new housing units for Israeli settlers in East Jerusalem, a project denounced by the UN, Palestinians and local NGOs.
The local planning and housing committee of the city of Jerusalem, made up of elected municipal officials, spoke in favor of the construction of these units, of which 2,092 are planned near Mount Scopus and 1465 between the sectors of Givat Hamatos and Har Homa, officials and NGOs said.
These sectors are located along the “green line” theoretically separating East and West Jerusalem. A limited number of planned units are located on the western side, internationally recognized as Israeli side of the Holy City.
This decision has the consequence that these projects will henceforth be studied, from January 17, by the regional – and no longer local – planning committee of Jerusalem, which has the authority to approve them.
“These projects add to the tensions on the ground and testify to blatant discrimination”, denounced the anti-colonization NGO “Peace Now”. “The government is building just for the Israelis in East Jerusalem, while hundreds of thousands of Palestinians can build next to nothing there,” she added.
Organizations fear, among other things, that the construction of units between the areas of Givat Hamatos and Har Homa will help block the link between Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem and the neighboring Palestinian city of Bethlehem.
Some 200,000 Israelis live in East Jerusalem, where 300,000 Palestinians also reside. Israeli colonization, illegal under international law, has continued under all Israeli governments since 1967.
The UN, NGOs and the Palestinian Authority are worried that new Israeli construction projects will also cut the link between the West Bank and areas of East Jerusalem populated by Palestinians, and thus undermine the possibility of a viable Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
During a meeting at the end of December at the Security Council, the UN envoy for the Middle East, Tor Wennesland, said he was “deeply concerned” by various construction projects in Jerusalem, which could prevent “the contiguity of a future Palestinian state ”.