‘Israel’ to approve high-risk settlement plans in Jerusalem

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Palestine

‘Israel’ set to discuss approval of two high-risk settlement plans in Jerusalem.
Plans threaten to sever geographic continuity of a future Palestinian state and displace dozens of families in Sheikh Jarrah.

The Jerusalem Governorate warned Sunday that the so-called ‘Israeli’ District Planning and Building Committee plans to discuss the approval of two highly dangerous settlement schemes on Monday.

The first plan targets lands of the former Jerusalem International Airport, proposing the construction of nearly 9,000 settlement units north of Jerusalem on an area of approximately 1,243 dunams. The governorate said the plan would create a massive settlement barrier cutting the geographic link between Jerusalem and Ramallah, striking a major blow to the possibility of a contiguous Palestinian state.

Originally scheduled for December 2025, the plan was postponed due to political considerations but has been reintroduced on the committee’s agenda. The “Atarot Plan”, the governorate noted, aims to eliminate what was envisioned as the airport of a future Palestinian state, a key symbol of political and sovereign importance. It also seeks to separate Palestinian communities behind the separation wall from those in front of it, effectively creating a human settlement barrier to prevent the formation of a geographically connected Palestinian state.

The plan is part of the so-called “Greater Jerusalem” project, designed to annex roughly 10 percent of the West Bank through networks of tunnels and bypass roads linking settlements northeast of Jerusalem. The governorate said these moves are aimed at altering the demographic balance in favor of settlers through forced displacement and demolition of Palestinian homes, replacing them with settler populations.

Sheikh Jarrah targeted

In parallel, the committee will discuss the “Nahla Shimon” plan in Sheikh Jarrah, specifically in the Al-Naqa’a area, which would demolish the neighborhood and build a settlement covering 17 dunams with 316 units on the lands of about 40 Palestinian families. The plan relies on discriminatory ‘Israeli’ laws allowing settler associations to claim property from before 1948 while denying Palestinians the right to reclaim forcibly seized lands.

The governorate warned that Sheikh Jarrah is not being targeted by a single plan, but rather is undergoing a systematic policy of demographic and urban reshaping. Additional settlement projects aim to link these initiatives with outposts in the eastern part of the city, including Karam al-Mufti and Jabal al-Masharif, extending to the Hebrew University campus. This would split the neighborhood into north and south sections, facilitate control, and create a continuous settlement belt across Palestinian areas in East Jerusalem.

For decades, settler associations, backed by ‘Israeli’ authorities, have organized campaigns to evict Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah using legal, planning, and administrative tools to enforce forced displacement and consolidate settler presence. Plans include large-scale urban renewal projects with approximately 2,000 housing units for settlers, exceeding the total number of Palestinian homes in the neighborhood, alongside land registration, expropriation of public spaces, and reallocation for religious and nationalist projects.

The governorate emphasized that Sheikh Jarrah is not merely a residential neighborhood but a historically significant area with geopolitical and diplomatic importance. It has hosted Palestinian resistance symbols, national and international institutions, including the historic Shepherd Hotel, Karam al-Mufti, the PLO office, and several Arab consulates until 1967.

Targeting the neighborhood, the governorate said, aims to erase political and historical symbols, redraw the geopolitical map, and undermine the “Green Line”, serving ‘Israel’s’ settlement project. These plans constitute crimes of forced displacement and illegal alteration of the status quo. The governorate confirmed it will continue monitoring the issue through legal, political, and international channels to defend Palestinian rights and Jerusalem’s status as the capital of a Palestinian state.