Israel Plans to Build 2,300 Illegal Housing Units in East Jerusalem

JAKARTA - Israeli authorities plan to build 2,300 new housing units to expand the illegal Gilo settlement built on Palestinian land in the southwest of East Jerusalem, an Israeli nonprofit organization focused on issues in Jerusalem said on Wednesday.

The Ir Amim organization warned that the project was another step towards further efforts to isolate East Jerusalem from Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.

"The plan includes construction on Palestinian land confiscated under Israel's Absentee's Property Law," the organization said, according to Anadolu (6/8).

At least 28 dunams (6.9 acres) of land included in the plan were confiscated from their owners who are Palestinians and classified as "state land" before being allocated for settlement expansion, the group highlighted.

The extent of the confiscated land could increase, as dozens of dunams of land in the plan are still classified as land with "unknown ownership," the organization warned.

The location designated for the construction includes a vast olive grove with ancient trees - some of which are decades old - reflecting the Palestinian residents' private ownership of the land.

They warned that the implementation of this project could result in the removal of these trees once construction begins.

Previously, Israel in February announced the start of a land registration procedure in Area C of the West Bank on behalf of the state, in accordance with the Law on the Property of Absent Owners.

The law allows the registration of land in the name of the state if Palestinians cannot prove ownership with official documents.

Many Palestinians own ancestral land without holding official title deeds, especially after Israel suspended the land status settlement procedures that previously applied under the Ottoman administration, the British Mandate and Jordan after Israel's occupation of the West Bank in 1967.

The head of the International Law Department at the Commission for Resistance against Colonization and the Separation Wall, Hassan Breijieh, previously told Anadolu that the move was "the expropriation of Palestinian land and its registration in the name of the state, which opens the way for its transfer to the Israeli occupation."

He warned that it threatened a large area that included unregistered land in the West Bank.

At the end of June, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced an acceleration of settlement construction in the West Bank, saying that his government had established 160 settlement farms and approved the construction of more than 100 new settlements.

It is known that the United Nations and most countries in the world consider Israeli settlements built in occupied Palestinian territory to be illegal under international law, and believe that this undermines the prospects for a two-state solution.

The Israeli-based Peace Now movement estimates there are around 500,000 settlers in the West Bank, in addition to around 250,000 other settlers living in settlements in East Jerusalem.

Separately, the Palestinians believe these projects are part of an accelerated Israeli policy, which aims to expand settlements, confiscate land, and create a new reality on the ground.