Israel opens bidding for building in East Jerusalem neighborhood

Bidding opened this morning to construct 1,257 units in a controversial planned neighborhood in East Jerusalem, the Israel Lands Authority announces.

If built, Givat HaMatos would be the first new Jewish neighborhood in East Jerusalem in two decades. The area’s location has raised concerns that it could disrupt the continuity of a future Palestinian state, cutting off East Jerusalem Palestinians from Bethlehem.

While first announced in 2012, the international community has roundly condemned previously Israeli declarations to advance construction in the area, leading the project to be quietly shelved for years.

The Peace Now settlement watchdog calls the new units “a fatal blow to the two-state solution.”

“This catastrophe can still be stopped, and we hope that government officials who still feel a tiny drop of responsibility for our collective future will do whatever they can to drop the bidding,” Peace Now says in a statement.

But right-wing Jerusalem deputy mayor Aryeh King, a longtime activist with the settler organization The Israel Land Fund, praises the decision to build in Givat HaMatos.

“I am very hopeful that this will be the first signs of a thaw in construction in the city’s east, which will lead the rise in housing costs in the city to stop,” says King.

— Aaron Boxerman