The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) announced on Monday its approval of a plan to expand several illegal settlements on annexed Palestinian lands in Jerusalem.
According to the Israeli municipality in the occupied holy city the district planning and building committee approved a plan to build hundreds of housing units and public and commercial facilities as part of the “Greater Jerusalem” metropolitan plan.
The settlement plan will be carried out on vast tracts of land annexed from the Palestinian towns or villages of Shuafat Beit Hanina Beit Safafa Walaja Ein Karem and Lifta.
The plan aims to expand the settlements of Gilo Kiryat Menachem Neve Ya’akov Ramot Ramat Shlomo and Pisgat Ze’ev.
This plan will isolate the Palestinian areas of east Jerusalem from their depth in the West Bank encircle them with settler homes and projects and prevent their viability for future growth.
