Israel processes approval of more than 3,400 new housing units for Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem

The Israeli National Planning and Construction Council, the competent body for construction in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, is processing the approval of 3,412 new housing units for Israeli settlers in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian Authority has denounced.

Palestinian officials have further warned that the plan will affect some 2,000 Palestinians residing in Bedouin communities outside Jerusalem who would have to leave their homes, a forced displacement amounting to a war crime.

The head of the Palestinian Authority’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, Muayad Shaaban, explained that these are the TPS YOSH 420-4-7 and TPS YOSH 420-4-10 plans to be implemented in an area of about 210 hectares.

“The two plans would connect all settlements in the eastern region that lie outside the borders of the Jerusalem municipality with the municipality itself and would turn Palestinian villages into isolated enclaves surrounded by settlements,” Shaaban has explained.

They would also defenitively separate the northern West Bank region from the south. The affected communities are Jabal al Baba, Wadi al Yamal, Bir al Maskub, Wadi Snisil and Abu George Bedouin.