Israel plans to build 2,300 illegal settlement units in East Jerusalem, organization warns

Israeli authorities are planning to build 2,300 new housing units to expand the illegal Gilo settlement built on Palestinian land in southwestern East Jerusalem, an Israeli non-profit organization focused on affairs in Jerusalem said Wednesday.

The project represents another step toward further isolating East Jerusalem from Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, the Ir Amim organization warned.

The plan calls for construction on Palestinian land confiscated under Israel’s Absentees’ Property Law, it said.

At least 28 dunams (6.9 acres) of land included in the plan were confiscated from their Palestinian owners and classified as “state land” before being allocated for settlement expansion, the group highlighted.

The area of confiscated land could increase, as dozens of dunams within the plan remain classified as “unknown ownership,” the organization warned.

The site designated for construction includes extensive olive groves with ancient trees, some decades old, reflecting private Palestinian ownership of the land.

Implementing the project would likely lead to the uprooting of these trees once construction begins, the group said.

In February, Israel announced the commencement of procedures to register land in Area C of the West Bank in the name of the state, in accordance with the Absentee Property Law.

The law allows for the registration of land in the state’s name when Palestinians cannot prove ownership with official documents.

Many Palestinians own land inherited through generations without possessing formal title deeds, particularly after Israel suspended land settlement procedures that had existed under Ottoman, British Mandate and Jordanian administration following the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in 1967.

Hassan Breijieh, head of the International Law Department at the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, previously told Anadolu that the measure constitutes “the expropriation of Palestinian land and its registration in the name of the state, paving the way for its transfer to Israeli occupiers.”

He warned that it threatens vast areas of unregistered land in the West Bank.

At the end of June, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced an acceleration of settlement construction in the West Bank, noting that his government had established 160 settlement farms and approved the construction of more than 100 new settlements.

The UN and most countries of the world consider Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian territory illegal under international law and believe they undermine the prospects for a two-state solution.

The Israeli Peace Now movement estimates that there are approximately 500,000 settlers in the West Bank, in addition to about 250,000 others in settlements in East Jerusalem.

Palestinians believe that these projects are part of an accelerated Israeli policy aimed at expanding settlements, confiscating land, and imposing new realities on the ground.