The Planning and Building Committee in the occupation municipality approved a plan considered the largest in East Jerusalem on the lands of Jabal Abu Ghneim, to build 326 settlement units, including schools, kindergartens, and a synagogue, in preparation for transforming this settlement into a settlement city and raising the construction rate in it to rates that exceed all settlements inside and outside the occupied city.

Land and settlement expert Khalil Al-Tafakji told Al-Quds that this is the second project approved by the Israeli municipality within a week in southeastern occupied Jerusalem. Last Friday, it approved a large settlement project on the lands of Sur Baher and Umm Tuba, and a few days before that it approved a similar settlement project, “The Lower Canal.” ", in Beit Safafa in an unprecedented settlement fever.

He added that the municipality and the Ministry of Settlement Affairs are working to advance settlement projects with a clear vision aimed at striking the two-state solution and preventing any possibility of withdrawal or division of Jerusalem according to the borders of June 4, 1967, by linking, surrounding and merging the neighborhoods of East Jerusalem with West Jerusalem and linking the city to its two parts with a wide and complex network of Overlapping roads that prevent its re-separation to become the capital of the Palestinian state.

Al-Tufakji explained that the plans approved in the last two years depend on building a wall of settlement units and forming settlement cities on the Green Line in an attempt to obliterate it. This is represented by expanding the “Gilo” settlement with its branches, expanding the Jabal Abu Ghneim settlement, and building settlement neighborhoods in a straight line from west to east in the south. East Jerusalem to separate occupied East Jerusalem from the cities of Bethlehem, Beit Jala, and Beit Sahour.

Al-Tufakji pointed out that the so-called (lower canal) project was approved last week on the Green Line of Shatba, on the lands of Sur Baher, with 1,800 settlement units, and this is also related to what was approved in the “Gilo” settlement to expand it and build 282 settlement units by building 3 towers with 17 floors on top, lands confiscated since 1970 from Beit Jala lands.

The land and settlement expert said that the occupation established a settlement wall from the southeast of the city of Jerusalem to the southwest of the city, separating the villages of Sur Baher, Umm Tuba, and Sharafat from the Palestinian cities in the south, Beit Sahour, Beit Jala, and Bethlehem, and controlling the roads connecting these cities and villages, in addition to the settlement road. Known as (American Street), a part of which was cut and opened, linking these settlements to the colonies located outside the city limits, for which a budget of "500" million dollars was allocated after the formation of the current right-wing government, pointing to the approval of the construction of the "Kadmat Sion" settlement outpost on the lands of Abu Dis to connect these outposts to existing settlements, part of which is located within the municipal boundaries and the second part outside them.

He added that these projects complement each other and are interconnected in the final stage, through the construction of the highest and longest bridge deep into the Palestinian territories on Wadi al-Nar, with the opening of two tunnels in the Mount of Olives and Abu Dis areas, within the vision of the extreme right for what is called the “Fabric of Life Street,” which establishes a network of racist roads for Palestinians to separate them from the network of settlement bypass roads that connect the East Jerusalem settlements to the neighborhoods in West Jerusalem and the Valley settlements. Note that this project includes opening a series of tunnels, part of which was opened, and next year they will be completed and the rest will be opened to connect the settlements in East Jerusalem to West Jerusalem and connect the city tightly in order to connect and integrate the neighborhoods of the two parts of the city.

He said, "The occupation municipality revealed that the project in Jabal Abu Ghneim is an investment to achieve economic profits for the developers."

According to the municipality, the plan, which covers an area of 12.7 dunums, includes areas for huge settlement construction, commercial and labor buildings, and an open public space, with the construction of 3 residential towers with a height of 31 floors (and 37 floors), where 326 settlement units will be built.
The municipality said that the plan includes a large area of about 3.5 dunums to build a new school, sports and youth uses, parks and other facilities, and 3 kindergartens, each with a building area of 130 square meters, a yard of 175 square meters for the kindergarten, and a synagogue with an area of 175 square meters.

The occupation municipality said, "The new buildings are for the benefit of families and young couples in the settlement and those who would like to move to live in Jerusalem."

Al-Tafakji pointed out that the area targeted by the new settlement neighborhood is located in the middle of the town of Sur Baher, on an area of 12 dunums, and is bordered to the south by the Jabal Abu Ghneim settlement, to the north by the Talpiot neighborhood, to the west by West Jerusalem, and to the east by the American Street. He said that with this project, the encirclement of this town with settlement streets and colonies will be completed, and its separation from the neighboring Jerusalem towns, such as Jabal Mukaber and Beit Safafa, to become isolated from them.

He said, "The town of Shuafat was cordoned off from the eastern side by the Pisgat Ze'ev settlement and from the western side by the Ramat Shlomo settlement, and it was surrounded by Bypass Road 21, and today there is a project to build settlement outposts for Deputy Mayor Aryeh King in its west," referring to the religious settlement concentration in the town of Silwan, where the number of outposts, ranging from a room to a building, in Silwan is 34, a large number of which are concentrated in the Wadi Hilweh neighborhood, close to the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque.

He concluded by saying: “The reports of the occupation municipality and the Ministry of Settlement Affairs have shown that settlement construction in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank has doubled and set new records since the formation of the current Israeli government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu. 

Since the beginning of the year 2023, the government has approved the establishment of more than 13 thousand units, compared to 10 Thousands of units approved in 2020.