The Orient House
7
May 2001
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Israel
to Build New Israeli Settlement
Last
Friday the Planning Board of the Jerusalem Municipality
announced the construction of 12 new housing units to
strengthen efforts for Jewish settlement in the Sheikh Jerrah
neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem. On Friday, Israeli
newspapers published a notice from the Planning Board urging
interested Jewish settlers to review the master plan (No.
2724) for the area.*
The
plan to build the settlement in Sheikh Jarrah has been in the
planning process for several years but was held up due to
Palestinian property claims and objections.
Already on April 14, 1996 the Israeli Planning Board
published an announcement that the master plan for the
settlements in Sheikh Jarrah would be postponed due to an
injunction by Palestinian land owners who objected to the
change in the status of the land which had been used as a
public garden since the British Mandate.
International
law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention, clearly states
that building settlements in occupied territory is illegal.
The Orient House believes that this latest Israeli initiative
to build settelements in occupied East Jerusalem will further
destabalize the region and is further evidence that Israel is
not interested in negotiating Jerusalem but in continuing to
create new facts on the ground to prejudice the political
status of the city.
*The units will be constructed on parcels of land (25-26) Block No. (30505).
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