truth is that it is a project that began immediately after the occupation of the city
in 1967. In essence, it is the expansion of the Jerusalem municipal boundaries of
the Israeli authorities, and more pressure on the Palestinians by all means to
emigrate or leave the city, and in return bring more settlers to occupied
Jerusalem. This requires building settlements to accommodate them.
The Greater Jerusalem project, in addition to the above, is to make the
Palestinians a minority and the settlers a majority. Accordingly, all Israeli policies
in Jerusalem that are hostile to the Palestinians, including displacement and
demolition of homes, restrictions on their daily lives through economic and social
restrictions, isolating the city from its surroundings in the occupied lands, building
barriers and crossings on the city, restrictions on construction, urban expansion,
restrictions on education, etc. And prior to that, the annexation of Jerusalem
immediately after the occupation, and the giving of an Israeli blue identity to the
Palestinian residents of Jerusalem in a distinction between them and the
Palestinians in the occupied territories. All of these policies serve the Greater
Jerusalem project.
To implement this plan, the beginning was the dissolution of the Arab
Municipal Council in the city and the annexation of the occupied area of the city
to East Jerusalem to be under the sovereignty of the Israeli municipality of
Jerusalem. The city was also annexed after its occupation in 1967, and some
neighborhoods were demolished in the Old City and settlement outposts were
established in their place, as is the case with what happened to the Al-Magherba
neighborhood. The decision was taken to expand the borders of the Jerusalem
municipality by an area of 172 km2, and to establish what is known as settlement
and security belts around Jerusalem and around the surrounding mountains; the
northern belt near Qalandia, the eastern belt and the southern belt near
Bethlehem. Eighteen settlements have been established within these belts,
perhaps the most famous of which are the settlement of Ma'ale Adumim in the
east and near the town of Al-Eizariya, and Gillo in the south, near the town of Beit
Jala, west of Bethlehem, and the settlement of Psagot and Givat Ziv in the north.
This plan of expanding the municipality’s borders and establishing these security
and settlement belts was known as (the expansion plan), and 200,000 dunams
(dunam is 1000 squar meter)were confiscated for this plan, which continues to
develop until today.
The settlement plan known as (E-One) aims to annex eastern settlements
to the city of Jerusalem and confiscate large areas, especially in the Al-Khan Al-
Ahmar area east of Al-Eizariyya and Abu Diss towns. Expanding the existing
settlements and building a huge infrastructure of streets, electricity and water
networks, and displace many Palestinian communities in the area. This project is
one of the features and provisions of the Greater Jerusalem Project.
The Greater Jerusalem project, in addition to the aforementioned, poses a
threat to the rest of the West Bank. The north of the West Bank is separated from
its south, and travel movement is restricted through limited roads that are under
the control of the occupation forces, closing them whenever they want and
opening them whenever they want, as has been the case for fifteen years. There
is only one crossing that connects the north of the West Bank with its south,
known as the Container Crossing, to the southeast of Al-Eizariyya. Which became
the only crossing and way for Palestinians in the West Bank after Jerusalem was
closed and Palestinians were prevented from commuting through the city of
Jerusalem as they used to in the past, even during the occupation.
The Greater Jerusalem project, in addition to its direct effects on the
Palestinians and the Palestinian presence in the city and its suburbs, is also a
major obstacle for the Palestinian people’s implementation of their national rights
to establish their independent state in the occupied territories. It prevents
geographical contiguity between the territories of the Palestinian state if the two-
state solution is achieved. The Palestinians are deprived of the right of
sovereignty over 10% of the occupied lands, which is the area formed by the
Greater Jerusalem Plan, and the expansion of the municipal boundaries to include
this area. This settlement project in and around Jerusalem undermines the
possibility of any peace, and keeps the conflict situation present and continuing.
It also leads to the isolation of Jerusalem and its Palestinian residents from
their Palestinian surroundings and depth, which leaves difficult effects on their
lives because it leads to the fragmentation of their social structure, by isolating
families and relatives from each other, and thus it is a racist policy that
Palestinians are exposed to. It will also lead to the administrative isolation of
many villages and towns historically attached to Jerusalem, as is the case with
villages such as Al-Jib, Qalandia in the north, Al-Azariyya, Abu Diss, Hizma and
Anata in the east, and the villages of Al-Walaja, Al-Khass, and Al-Numan in the
south. It is a geographical fragmentation of the occupied land and a geographical
division of its inhabitants in these areas.
The Israeli authorities continue to say that the project is in a state of legal
and political debate, where in fact it has been implemented by imposing reality
and facts on the ground regarding what is happening in and around Jerusalem.
Perhaps the most prominent of these policies is the closure of Jerusalem and its
isolation from other areas of the West Bank after expanding its municipal borders
in all directions and building huge settlement belts around it. And all the policies
followed in the city and its surroundings.
The Greater Jerusalem project and all that is taking place in it, including
annexation, isolation, house demolitions, displacement, building settlements,
confiscation of land...etc are illegal according to international law and human
rights laws. It is a great violation of these covenants, East Jerusalem and its
surroundings are occupied lands. The occupation authorities are prohibited from
building settlements and bringing settlers there, and it is prohibited to annex
them to be under the sovereignty of the occupation. The decisions made by the
Knesset (the Israeli Parliament) less than a month after the occupation of the
West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967, the decisions to apply Israeli law to
Jerusalem, to expand the municipal boundaries, to guarantee and integrate new
areas of Jerusalem in all directions, and to dissolve the Arab Municipal Council in
it are illegal decisions that were rejected by the United Nations. Dozens of
resolutions have been issued by the United Nations General Assembly stressing
that East Jerusalem is an occupied territory, and its legal status remains in place
despite all illegal Israeli measures and policies in accordance with international
law.
Perhaps the UN Security Council Resolution 298 issued in 1971 is the
strongest among dozens of international resolutions. “The Security Council
expresses its dissatisfaction with Israel's failure to respect previous resolutions
adopted by the United Nations regarding measures taken by Israel aimed at
changing the status of the city of Jerusalem. All legislative and administrative
measures taken by Israel to change the status of the city of Jerusalem, including
the confiscation of land and property, the transfer of residents, and legislation
aimed at annexing the occupied sector, are completely null and cannot change
the situation."
Ahmad Jaradat –Alternative Information Center - Palestine