On the 8th of August 2016, the Israeli developer Nehemiah Davidi and architect David Guggenheim advanced a new plan to build about 2500 housing units in the illegal Israeli settlements of Gilo, which located between Jerusalem and Bethlehem Governorates.
According “Haaretz”, Israeli newspaper of the 2500 housing units to be constructed on more than 280 dunums of land, located southeast of Gilo settlement and nearby the Israeli Bypass road No.60. Moreover, the Israeli resources revealed that part of the targeted land are owned by Palestinians who fled in the year 1948.
Currently, the plan in its initial stages, but sooner or later, the Israeli Building and Planning committee in the Israeli Municipality of Jerusalem will approve the plan, since Israel considers Gilo settlement as a neighborhood in Jerusalem city.
It is worth mentioning that the chairman of the local committee in Jerusalem Municipality, Meir Turgeman, announced that “the plan to promote the construction as t would be submitted to the Planning and Building Committee very soon. [1]
Old-New Plan for Gilo Settlement
It’s worth pointed that the new revealed plan it’s not a new one, where according to the Israeli recourse and on the 9th of June 2012, the Israeli Planning and Building Committee board deliberated on a plan to build 2500 housing units in Gilo settlement, where the aforementioned plan would be separate from another additional plans that were formally announced during the month of May 2012 ( include the construction of 2000 housing uniits in Gilo settlement)[2]
An analysis conducted by the Geo-Informatics department in the Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem (ARIJ), showed that the targeted land, where the new housing units will be constructed, located southeast of the Gilo settlement and within its” borders” adopted by the Israeli authorities. The area were the proposed 2500 housing units to take place reach to 280 dunums of land, and are not classified as ‘State land” as the Israeli resources revealed. However, the targeted are, and all the settlement area as well, located within the Illegal and unilateral declared boundaries of Jerusalem ..
Accordingly , it becomes clear that the Israeli Authorities, illegally, confiscated Palestinian land for the construction of the illegal Israeli Settlements.
Israeli Plans to expand Gilo Settlement
Following the construction of Gilo settlement in the year 1971, the Israeli Authorities issued dozens of plans and tenders to construct thousands of housing units in the settlement.
From the beginning of the year 2016, the Israeli Authorities approved and issued plans and published tenders to construct in total 1099 Housing units (without the new plan), as follows:
|
# of housing units |
Type of the announcement |
# of the plan |
|
90 |
Issue permits |
— |
|
770[3] |
Submit plan |
TPS plan No. 175505 within the TPS 13261 to build 1,240 housing units |
|
89 |
Publish tenders |
S/134/2016, within the TPS 13159 to build 797 housing units |
|
150 |
Approve a plan |
—- |
Furthermore, Ir-Amim organization revealed that during the past four years, the Israeli Authorities emerged a new “master plan” for the illegal Israeli settlement of Gilo. Where from the year 2012 until present, the Israeli Authorities approved and published plans to construct more than 5,175 housing units (included the new plan).. For more information about Ir-Amim documents click the link below:
Israeli Settlement of Gilo…
In the year 1970, the Israeli government confiscated 2,738 dunums from Beit Jala town, Beit Safafa and Sharafat villages located at the northwestern side of Bethlehem Governorate. In the year 1971, the Israeli bulldozers started the construction of Gilo, and since then, Gilo has gone under an intensive urbanization process. Today, the area of Gilo settlement stands at 2947 dunums and inhabited by around 44,520 Israeli settlers.
It’s worth pointed that after the construction of the Segregation wall\, the Israeli Authorities annexed the settlement to the Israeli side of the wall to be part of Jerusalem borders which nowadays considered illegally “according to the Israeli Authorities” as a neighborhood in Jerusalem city.
