A new settlement plan threatens to displace thousands of Palestinians and isolate Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank

Occupied Jerusalem (ST): The Israeli occupation authorities have announced a plan to establish thousands of new settlement units in the occupied city of Jerusalem that threatens to completely isolate it from the rest of the West Bank and displace thousands of Palestinians, within the framework of implementing annexation plans and imposing new facts on the ground that prevent any opportunity to establish an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.

The new plan includes the establishment of 4 thousand settlement units spanning an area of 12,443 dunums of Palestinian land to expand a settlement constructed to the east of occupied Jerusalem and link it to a network of apartheid roads, that Palestinians are not allowed to pass through, with the rest of the settlements along the area extending to the city of Jericho in the West Bank. This means encircling occupied Jerusalem with settlements from all sides, cutting off its geographical connection with the occupied West Bank and completely isolating it from it.

Spokesman for the Palestinian government Ibrahim Melhem confirmed in a statement that the occupation is accelerating the implementation of its settlement plans in occupied Jerusalem with the aim of changing its character, legal status and demographic composition to Judaize it and implement annexation plans in flagrant violation of international law and international legitimacy resolutions, stressing that the occupation crimes will not change the fact that the steadfastness  of the Palestinian people on their land will bring down all the occupation colonial plans.

The specialist in Jerusalem affairs, Fakhri Abu Diyab, explained that this plan is part of a huge settlement scheme to Judaize the occupied city of Jerusalem, indicating that the occupation has announced that it will implement it in three phases, noting that the execution of this settlement project will make the establishment of a geographically continuous Palestinian state impossible.

In turn, the director of the Jerusalem International Center, Hassan Khater, stated that this scheme threatens to displace 9 thousand Palestinians from the towns of Khan al-Ahmar, Abu An-Nuwar, al-Sawahira and others, and to besiege thousands of others in the towns of al-Eizariya, Abu Dis and al-Sawahira by the Apartheid Wall and isolate them from occupied Jerusalem, while the settlements are linked together and expanded. 

Coordinator of the Popular Committees for Resistance to Settlement and Judaization, Salah Al-Khawaja, explained that the occupation is working to expand the settlements east of occupied Jerusalem, to seize 540 km2 of Palestinian lands in the vicinity of the city to implement annexation plans, stressing that the Palestinians will continue to steadfastly resist the occupation and will thwart its plans to uproot them from their land that has become prey to settlement Judaization in light of the international community’s inaction and silence on the crimes of the occupation.

Member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization Wasel Abu Yusef indicated that the occupation expands settlement activity, ignoring all international laws and resolutions of international legitimacy to eliminate any opportunity to establish an independent Palestinian state on the line of June 4, 1967 with Jerusalem as its capital, taking advantage of the silence of the international community over its crimes, which requires urgent  action from the United Nations to implement the UN Security Council resolutions, foremost of which is Resolution No. 2334, which affirms the illegality of settlement activity and demands an immediate end to it and the need for the International Criminal Court to open an official investigation into the crimes of the occupation and hold those responsible accountable.

K.Q.