"Israel" plans to build 700 new settlement units in al-Quds

Local Editor, 28-12-2009

"Israel" announced on Monday its plan to build 700 new settlement units in East Jerusalem (al-Quds).
According to the daily Haaretz, Mark Regev, government spokesman, said that the "Israeli" Housing Ministry invited contractors to bid on building 198 houses in the Pisgat Ze'ev settlement, 377 in Neve Ya'akov, and 117 in Har Homa.

In 1967, "Israel" occupied East Jerusalem, along with the rest of the west bank. Later on, it took over the city and considered it as an immersed part of "Israel". On the same year, "Israel" also expanded its municipal boundaries, to make the term "East Jerusalem Settlements", actually be located in the West Bank. For example, Har Homa is located closer to Bethlehem than Jerusalem.
As Haaretz quoted Regev saying on Monday: "We make a distinction between the West Bank and Jerusalem. Jerusalem is our capital and remains such".

Hatem Abdul Qader, a Fatah official, said on Wednesday, regarding "Israel's plans for Jerusalem that "Israel" is planning to demolish 900 Palestinian houses in the city. He also told Voice of Palestine radio: "The plan was given to a private firm to demolish the houses and building settlements in the Old City in Jerusalem". He added that the plan is based on reducing the Palestinian presence in Jerusalem.

Furthermore, Haaretz also mentioned on Sunday that the "Israeli" state is considering an annex of privately-owned Palestinian land so they can build a sewage treatment facility to serve the Ofra settlement in the West Bank. This came as an opinion from the "Israeli" state Prosecutor's Office to the High Court of Justice on Sunday.
Yesh Din, the "Israeli" human rights group is working on a petition for the court against the treatment plant.

Haaretz quoted Shlomo Zacharia, one of the lawyers representing Yesh Din as saying: " The fact that today the state is trying to legitimize the land theft... by seizing land retroactively, for the sake of a settlement that was not long ago classified as ‘the largest illegal outpost in the West Bank,' is nothing short of an outrage".