New settlement to ‘expand Jerusalem’ for first time since 1967

The finance and housing ministries and the West Bank Benjamin Regional Council signed an agreement in recent days for the establishment of a new settlement that will in effect be the first expansion of Jerusalem since 1967, officials and a settlement watchdog say.

The proposed new settlement would technically be a westward expansion of the Adam settlement, which lies very close to Jerusalem’s north-east boundary, and the plans provide for the construction of some 2,780 housing units in a new “neighborhood” for Adam.

But the land on which the new settlement would be built is physically separated from Adam, both by Route 437, a major traffic artery, and by the security barrier.

While the proposed settlement would officially be a neighborhood of Adam, it would have much greater territorial contiguity with the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Neve Yaakov, which is inside Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries, than with Adam.

The settlement would be built on 500 dunams of land lying between the Palestinian towns of Hizma and Al-Ram.

“This is the first time since 1967 that Jerusalem has been expanded into the West Bank,” asserts the Peace Now organization, explaining that all current East Jerusalem settlements were built inside boundaries set by the Israeli government shortly after the Six-Day War.

“Under the pretext of a new settlement, the government is carrying out a backdoor annexation here. The new settlement will function for all intents and purposes as a neighborhood of the city of Jerusalem, and its planning as a ‘neighborhood’ of the Adam settlement is just an excuse and an attempt to hide the move, the implication of which is the application of Israeli sovereignty to territories in the West Bank.”

But head of the Benjamin Regional Council, Israel Ganz, lauds the new development, describing it as “the realization of the settlement vision” for the Benjamin region.

“The new plan will allow us to build thousands of housing units, while at the same time dramatically upgrading the quality of life of the residents,” he says, adding that his council is “already working on additional agreements” which will “herald dramatic change on the ground.”