A detailed outline plan for 3,000 new housing units known as Gilo Southeast (TPS 125195) is anticipated to arrive at the Local Committee on July 26 according to the Municipality website, though the committee agenda has yet to be determined.

The plan would expand Gilo southeast, narrowing the gap between Gilo and the still nascent plan for Har Homa West (see light blue arm extending west from built up area of Har Homa on map), and filling in the space between Gilo and the Tunnel Road to Gush Etzion. Its northeast tip would edge up onto Givat Hamatos.

This plan is yet one more link in a chain of developments designed to seal off the southern perimeter of Jerusalem from the West Bank, nullifying prospects for a two state solution.

Please see below for an overview of these plans and their cumulative effect.  It should be noted that Givat Hamatos, a long recognized red line for the international community, was not promoted in the recent spate of plans for 1,700 housing units now advancing in the planning system. That being said, promoting a new plan for 3,000 units on land abutting Givat Hamatos indicates that the Israeli government will continue to do everything just short of advancing Givat Hamatos to fill in any remaining gaps along the southern flank.

Context

Givat Hamatos [link here for map] would supplant Har Homa as the newest settlement to be built in East Jerusalem since 1997. 

The plan was originally proposed in four parcels, the most serious of which is Givat Hamatos A (TPS 14295 for current plan approved in 2012; originally TPS 5834a), consisting of 2,600 new housing units.  Parcel A was approved at the end of 2012 but approval was not officially published until September 2014, in the days leading up to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s UN address and meeting with former US President Barak Obama. For the 10% of the land that is privately owned, publication of tenders is not required before issuance of building permits.  Construction startup is now contingent on completion of infrastructure works.

Givat Hamatos D (5834D) - alluded to in a May Yedioth Ahranot report on the Ministry of Housing and Construction's intentions to promote 15,00 new units across East Jerusalem - is planned for construction of 1,081 hotel rooms on an area of 171 dunams.  This parcel was approved in January 2013, with approval yet to be published.  

Givat Hamatos B (5834B) is actually designated for Palestinian development – roughly 500 new units in an already built-up area that would add additional stories to existing buildings. The parcel was approved at the end of 2012 but approval was not officially published until July 2016, after landowners petitioned the District Court.

Givat Hamatos C (5834C), proposed for 1,452 housing units, was the only parcel to be rejected in December 2012, likely due to objections from private land owners.  In mid-June 2016, Ir Amim reported that the upcoming Local Committee agenda included a Municipality promoted plan (TPS 30099) for development of road infrastructure in the area originally designated as Givat Hamatos C. The new infrastructure plan opens the door to revival of building plans.

The significance of Givat Hamatos exceeds its singular importance as being the first new settlement to be [potentially] built in East Jerusalem in two decades. Construction of Givat Hamatos would cap off a wave of simultaneous developments along the southern flank of East Jerusalem that will – if realized - enable the complete consolidation of Israeli control and render the two state solution nonviable. 

• Givat Hamatos is located immediately west of the rapidly expanding Har Homa, where approvals for roughly 3,700 units were issued in 2012, most of which have now been tendered.   Construction of a new road connecting Har Homa and Givat Hamatos - already in operation - signals readiness to advance the plan for Har Homa West, which has yet to enter the planning committees.  Har Homa West would link Har Homa with Givat Hamatos.

• The Ministry of Transportation and Jerusalem Municipality recently completed construction of a 6-lane highway through the heart of the residential Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Safafa, just west of Givat Hamatos. Construction is now progressing on an interchange at the exit from Bet Safafa which will directly link the Begin Highway – the major thoroughfare in West Jerusalem – to Road 60 (the “Tunnel Road”) connecting Jerusalem to the Gush Etzion settlement bloc in the West Bank. The interchange is the final piece of infrastructure needed to seamlessly connect the settlements south of Jerusalem to the center of the city and north to other parts of Israel.

• The continually expanding settlement of Gilo.  Beyond the new plan for Gilo Southeast:

The 797 unit Gilo Western Slopes plan (TPS 13157) has already been tendered and hundreds of building permits issued.  Construction of roads and infrastructure is rapidly advancing. 

An additional 770 units under a reparcelization plan for Gilo Southern Slopes (TPS 175505), expanding Gilo toward Beit Jala, recently received final approval. As the land in question is privately owned, there will be no tender process; once infrastructure construction is completed, land owners will be able to directly apply for building permits. The remaining area, with potential for 500 housing units, awaits a reparcelization plan which, as far as known, has yet to be initiated.

A third plan for the neighborhood (TPS 13290) comprising 100 housing units next to the neighborho0d of Beit Safafa was approved in 2012 but has yet to be tendered.

Gilo Southwest, a plan for 2,100 housing units which would expand Gilo in the direction of the Tunnel Road (Road 60) and Beit Jala, has yet to be discussed in the planning committees.

• At the end of April, Ir Amim reported that Israeli authorities had resumed construction of the Separation Barrier around the village of Al-Walajeh after having halted work in 2014.  It is estimated that at most, it could take several months to finish the remaining sections of the fence.  In tandem, the first demolitions to be conducted in East Jerusalem beyond the Separation Barrier occurred last year – in Al-Wallajeh.

Please address all inquiries to:

Betty Herschman

Director of International Relations & Advocacy

Ir Amim (City of Nations/City of Peoples)

Jerusalem, Israel

betty@ir-amim.org.il

054-308-5096

www.ir-amim.org.il

Facebook: tinyurl.com/IrAmimEng

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