Last July, following reports of government intentions to promote plans for thousands of new settlement units over the Green Line, the District Planning and Building Committee advanced plans for 1,700+ units, including a revival of projects in the highly sensitive Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

Six of those plans were for continued development along the northern perimeter of East Jerusalem, in Pisgat Ze’ev.  One of them, TPS 464859, for 116 housing units to be built on top of 160 previously approved units, was deposited for public objections last week. The remaining five plans were deposited today.  The 60 period for objections for all of these plans has now commenced.

Most of the plans will expand Pisgat Ze'ev to the west, pushing it further to the limits of Beit Hanina, and east toward Hizma. The narrowing proximity of Israeli and Palestinian neighborhoods along the northern perimeter increases tensions on the ground, throwing into stark relief the endemic discrimination between planning and resource investment in Palestinian and Israeli neighborhoods. Further, enduring discrimination in the planning process – the suppression of detailed outline plans (requisite for access to building permits) for Palestinian residents alongside continued growth and expansion of Israeli neighborhoods/settlements in East Jerusalem – serves as a powerful Palestinian displacement mechanism in support of Israel’s demographic goals.

Politically, these developments will exacerbate the challenge of drawing a border conducive to a fair and stable division of Jerusalem under a two-state solution, another example of the government’s policy of unilaterally determining facts on the ground to diminish prospects for an agreed political resolution on Jerusalem.

Please address all inquiries to:

Betty Herschman

Director of International Relations & Advocacy

Ir Amim (City of Nations/City of Peoples)

Jerusalem

betty@ir-amim.org.il

054-308-5096

www.ir-amim.org.il

Facebook: www.facebook.com/IrAmimEng

Twitter: @IrAmimAlerts