Israeli occupation forces blow up house near Tulkarm | Brussels to push sanctions on Israeli ministers, fund for Gaza rebuild | AFAC Addresses Global Challenges with New Program: Ecologies of Culture | EBRD and Quds Bank Launch $10 Million Package to Boost Green Economy and Women-Led Businesses in West Bank | From Camp Walls to the Separation Barrier, Artist Paints the Story of a People | President of European Council welcomes proposal to impose sanctions on Israel | Unprecedented Meeting Connects Palestinian and Foreign Journalists With Gaza Reporters Amid War | Gaza peace deal ‘at final stages’: Trump tells Axios | Palestinians Say Israeli Policies Have Driven Sharp Decline in Christian Presence | Poll: Palestinians See Israel’s Banking Waiver Decision as Direct Threat to Financial Stability | In Hebron, Palestinian Families Turn to Homegrown Farming Amid War and Economic Strain | Over 500 Activists Sail Toward Gaza in Massive Flotilla, Risking Clash With Israel | SFI and IACA Hold Youth Dialogue on Israeli Apartheid | Israeli navy using water cannons, stun grenades in assault on Gaza-bound Sumud Flotilla | Israeli Navy Intercepts Majority of Freedom Flotilla Boats Bound for Gaza | Hamas Hands Response to Trump’s Gaza Plan to Mediators, Signals Willingness for Talks | Rights Group Urges Global Action to Stop Ongoing Atrocities Two Years After October 7 | Death toll in Gaza surges to 67,139 since outbreak of Israel's genocide campaign | Poll: Most Palestinians Back Gaza Ceasefire, Show Cautious Openness to Trump Peace Plan | Palestinian Journalists Hold Symbolic March in Ramallah Marking Two Years of War on Gaza |
Israeli occupation forces blow up house near Tulkarm | Brussels to push sanctions on Israeli ministers, fund for Gaza rebuild | AFAC Addresses Global Challenges with New Program: Ecologies of Culture | EBRD and Quds Bank Launch $10 Million Package to Boost Green Economy and Women-Led Businesses in West Bank | From Camp Walls to the Separation Barrier, Artist Paints the Story of a People | President of European Council welcomes proposal to impose sanctions on Israel | Unprecedented Meeting Connects Palestinian and Foreign Journalists With Gaza Reporters Amid War | Gaza peace deal ‘at final stages’: Trump tells Axios | Palestinians Say Israeli Policies Have Driven Sharp Decline in Christian Presence | Poll: Palestinians See Israel’s Banking Waiver Decision as Direct Threat to Financial Stability | In Hebron, Palestinian Families Turn to Homegrown Farming Amid War and Economic Strain | Over 500 Activists Sail Toward Gaza in Massive Flotilla, Risking Clash With Israel | SFI and IACA Hold Youth Dialogue on Israeli Apartheid | Israeli navy using water cannons, stun grenades in assault on Gaza-bound Sumud Flotilla | Israeli Navy Intercepts Majority of Freedom Flotilla Boats Bound for Gaza | Hamas Hands Response to Trump’s Gaza Plan to Mediators, Signals Willingness for Talks | Rights Group Urges Global Action to Stop Ongoing Atrocities Two Years After October 7 | Death toll in Gaza surges to 67,139 since outbreak of Israel's genocide campaign | Poll: Most Palestinians Back Gaza Ceasefire, Show Cautious Openness to Trump Peace Plan | Palestinian Journalists Hold Symbolic March in Ramallah Marking Two Years of War on Gaza |
Israel advances settler expansion plan in occupied Jerusalem, imperils Palestinian contiguity
Jerusalem /PNN/
An Israeli committee has advanced a plan for the construction of 1,465 settler units in occupied Jerusalem, the latest move aimed to erase the so-called Green Line that separates territories occupied by Israel before 1967 from those it occupied after that year.
According to the plan, half of the approved units would be built between the settlements of Givat Hamatos and Har Homa, and the rest would be in the occupied East al-Quds.
After the so-called “Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee” approved the plan, it has been advanced to the “deposit” stage. More approvals are still required before the execution of the plan.
The Israeli rights group Peace Now decried the project, saying the planned units would “prevent territorial contiguity” between Palestinian neighborhoods in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Bethlehem.
“This is another way in which Israel is erasing the Green Line in Jerusalem , ending Palestinian contiguity, and expropriating the lands of Palestinians,” said Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher at the left-wing Ir Amim NGO.
“When Palestinians tried to plan construction there, it was rejected — and now the territory will be confiscated,” Tatarsky added.
More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law as they are built on occupied land. The United Nations Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.
Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Last month, a Palestinian expert said Israel’s settlement projects in the occupied East Jerusalem are aimed at changing the demography and the status quo of the city's borders.
Suheil Khalilieh said that Israel seeks to confiscate as much Palestinian land as possible to expand settlements in East Jerusalem by taking advantage of the powers granted to the official in charge of the so-called Absentee Property Law.
