August 15, 2018

This morning, the Israel Land Authority published a tender for 603 housing units  in Ramat Shlomo under the “Biden Plan” ((TPS 11085), so called for the plan’s unfortunate announcement during a state visit from former US Vice President Joe Biden in March 2010. 

The plan (see light blue strip on southern edge of Ramat Shlomo), which comprises a total of 1,500 housing units, was approved in December 2012 following UN recognition of Palestinian observer state status.  Tenders for 825 units have already been published, with hundreds of units already under construction.  Today’s tender applies to almost all of the remaining units under the plan.

In 2017, advancement of settlement plans in Jerusalem was renewed with vigor. The two waves of plan promotion in July and November involved the promotion of 2,328 residential units, concentrated almost entirely on the northern perimeter of East Jerusalem: Ramot, Ramat Shlomo, Pisgat Ze’ev and Neve Yaakov, where 11 plans comprising 2,058 residential units moved forward in the planning system. [For more on recent settlement trends in Jerusalem, see Ir Amim's 2017 annual report.]

These plans expand the Israeli neighborhoods/settlements in such a way as to consume the remaining space between them and nearby Palestinian neighborhoods ( a critical geo-political link between Jerusalem and Ramallah) so as to inhibit their development and further complicate any future division of the city.

Please address all questions 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