Plan: 1,000 housing units in Har Homa

Neta Sela
Published: 01.09.07, 20:50

The southeastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Homa, the construction of which was at the focal point of the dispute between Israel and the United States, is set to be significantly expanded: The Local Committee at the Jerusalem Municipality submitted on Monday a plan to build 1,000 housing units in the neighborhood.

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The plans to build Har Homa were faced with staunch opposition. When the Benjamin-Netanyahu-led government decided in 1997 to begin construction south of Jerusalem, then-Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat suspended negotiations with Israel, and the added US pressure postponed the plan’s implementation; however, thousands of housing units have been erected in the neighborhood since then.

The neighborhood is located at the southernmost tip of a large area that was confiscated in 1967, and while it is under Jerusalem Municipality jurisdiction, the neighborhood is closer to central Bethlehem.

Some of Har Homa’s 2,000 dunams were confiscated from nearby Beit Sahur, which is under Palestinian Authority control, and the Palestinians are protesting the continued construction in the area to this day.

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New plan to build 1000 housing units in illegally settlement Har Homa

JERUSALEM, Palestine, January 10,2007 (IPC+ Agencies) - -Israeli sources said that the Local Committee at the Jerusalem Municipality submitted on Monday a plan to build 1,000 housing units in the illegally built Har Homa settlement on the Palestinians grabbed lands of Abu Ghuniam mountain in occupied east Jerusalem.

The sources mentioned that expanded lands for building such settlement housing units is situated between the Arab village of Sur Baher of east Jerusalem and Bethlehem of the West Bank , pointing out that the mayor of west Jerusalem is working to cement other Jewish illegal settlements built nearby Bethlehem such as "Gilo " and " Givaat Hamots" settlements in the course of increasing the Jewish population in Jerusalem at the expense of the indigenous Palestinians.

Online edition of the Israeli newspaper Yeodit Ahranot reported yesterday that the municipality's planning and Construction Council said the plan was initiated by the Housing Ministry and elaborated that Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski has said "the plan serves as just one example of an alternative to the Safdie plan."

Lupolianski froze two weeks ago the Safdie plan, which calls for a major development project, which will include about 20,000 housing units over an area of 26,600 dunams in the hills west of the city, bearing in mind that the plan aims to increase the number of Jewish population in Jerusalem city in the shadow of the increase number of Palestinians a thing that is bothering the Israelis.

It is important to mention that the Israeli decision to start building in Har Homa in 1997 foiled the ties between Palestinian National Authority and Israeli government headed at that time by Bin Yamin Nitanyahu, even though Israel went ahead in its plans and Illegal housing unity nested Abu Ghuniam mountain.

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