Occupied Jerusalem: Israel has formally submitted plans for a new colony neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem in what will be the first sector's first new district in 14 years, Peace Now said yesterday.
The new district, Givat HaMatos, will be located on the southern flank of occupied East Jerusalem which lies close to the West Bank town of Bethlehem, in what the colony watchdog described as the first neighbourhood to be planned since the establishment of Har Homa in 1997.
"Unlike recent plans that caused controversy in Gilo and Pisgat Zeev which expanded the footprint of existing neighbourhoods, the new plan creates an entirely new footprint of a new Israeli neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem," Peace Now said in a statement.
Territorial isolation
The establishment of Har Homa in 1997, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was serving his first term as premier, infuriated the Palestinians who said its construction would complete a ring of Jewish colonies around occupied East Jerusalem, effectively cutting it off from the rest of the West Bank.
The new district will lie on some of the land between Gilo and Har Homa in what the NGO described as "a game changer that significantly changes the possible border between Israel and Palestine."
"The new neighbourhood will complete the isolation between Bethlehem and occupied East Jerusalem, and will destroy any possibility of a territorial solution in Beit Safafa and Shurafat," the group said, referring to two Arab neighbourhoods.
