The Arabs can contest all they like but only Jews have the right to build here
The Jerusalem Local and Building Committee on Wednesday furthered talks over previously approved 891 additional housing units in the contested southeast Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo, which is over the 1949 Armistice Line.
In a brief statement, a municipal official said that despite media reports that Wednesday’s meeting approved the units, the discussion was technical in nature to determine boundaries lines and other considerations, such as gas lines, for the homes.
In April, construction commenced for 708 Jewish homes in the contested neighborhood in a forested area, drawing the ire of both Palestinian activists and environmentalists alike.
According to critics, the announcement to build in Gilo last year while US Secretary of State John Kerry was in Israel helped derail peace talks, and proved that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has no intention of agreeing to a two-state solution.
Indeed, when the Construction Ministry announced the approval of the Gilo tenders, Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher at Ir Amim, contended that the construction was intended to block the contiguity of a Palestinian state.
“The units are part of over 4,500 units approved since 2012, and if realized, tenders like this would cut off Bethlehem from east Jerusalem,” he said. “It’s not just building beyond the Green Line, this kind of construction dramatically changes the facts on the ground.”
April’s groundbreaking came one week after the planned construction of some 1,500 apartments in the capital’s southeastern Har Homa neighborhood were frozen, and two days after preliminary plans for the construction of 2,200 Arab housing units in the capital’s southeastern Jebl Mukaber neighborhood were approved by the Interior Ministry’s District Planning and Building Committee.
At the time, right-wing city councilman Arieh King condemned both the freeze and approved Arab expansion as a “de facto means” of changing demographic facts on the ground.
“When the government and municipality are approving thousands of apartments for Arabs, and at the same time are freezing new developments for Jews, what they are doing is changing the demographic status of Jerusalem,” he said following the announcement.
The Construction Ministry has repeatedly denied that the Gilo approval is politically motivated.
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