LONDON: The Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem Governorate condemned Israel’s Ministry of Housing for publishing two tenders to build a new neighborhood in a Jewish settlement on Palestinian land northeast of occupied East Jerusalem.
It described the announcement for the new construction in the settlement of Geva Binyamin as a “dangerous escalation” in Israel’s settlement expansion and annexation of land on the northeastern slopes of Jerusalem.
The move is part of “a frantic race to impose a new demographic and geographic reality to serve the Greater Jerusalem scheme,” it said in a statement.
Israel’s Ministry of Housing has published two tenders: One for the construction of 342 settler units across five complexes, and the other for 14 detached houses for army reservists. The project, approved in January, will expand the Geva Binyamin settlement’s area by about 15 hectares toward the Bedouin community of Jaba’, east of Jerusalem.
Since January, Israel has announced the construction of 5,667 new settlement units in the West Bank and Jerusalem, marking an unprecedented and record-breaking figure, almost double the peak recorded in 2018. Settlements are deemed illegal under international law and are viewed as obstacles to the establishment of a Palestinian state.
On Wednesday, dozens of right-wing Israelis and settlers breached the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem under heavy protection by police, in the latest provocation against Muslim worshipers and guards, according to a press release by the Islamic Waqf Department, the custodian of the complex.
