New Construction in East Jerusalem Settlement

The Jerusalem Municipality Planning and Building Committee has approved the construction of 40 new housing units in the East Jerusalem settlement of Pisgat Ze'ev. Approval for these four new buildings, each with 10 apartments, comes less than a month after the municipality approved 32 other units in the settlement.

The newly approved units are only a small part of a project that includes 220 homes to be built east of the Shuafat refugee camp, and west of the Palestinian villages of Hizma and 'Anata.

Kobi Kahlon, deputy mayor of Jerusalem and chairman of the municipality committee, believes Pisgat Ze'ev should be considered the same as any other neighborhood in the city.

"We don't have the authority to deprive any man of the rights he deserves. People don't understand the rules of this system. This respected committee hasn't the option to behave differently. Its considerations are limited, as is its range of action," Kahlon added.

Councilman Meir Turgeman, of the Lma'an Yerushalem party, said, "the municipality's conduct on the issue of Pisgat Ze'ev and the construction in Jerusalem is atrocious".

"Everything is done in the dark, like thieves, and derives from hypocrisy and double standards upheld by the mayor," Turgeman said. "We can't keep lying to the entire world like this."

Pisgat Ze’ev, with a current population of 50,000, is considered a Jerusalem neighbhorhood by Israel, despite the fact it was established on land annexed by Israel after the 1967 War, and is thus an illegal Israeli settlement under international law.

Though settlement construction in the West Bank is currently at a standstill, construction in Jerusalem settlement neighborhoods continues, despite their location beyond the Green Line. The construction is considered a violation of the status-quo and the timing is also being criticized, as it comes just as Israel and the Palestinians are working to hold peace talks, and as the West Bank settlement freeze comes to an end.

Elisha Peleg of the right-wing Zionist Likud party said, “I don’t understand why today it’s such a big deal to build over the Green Line, when in the past it was never even mentioned.”

“Once upon a time we would approve hundreds of apartments in similar areas, and there was no issue. Today, however, I believe that the Americans and the European Union are being led astray by leftist organizations here in Israel, who simply manipulate the facts in order to work against us.”

First construction on the settlement began in 1985, and many of the streets in the center are named for Israeli Defense Force units. Pisgat Ze’ev is also slated to be the start of the Red Line in Jerusalem’s new, controversial light rail system. The project is highly controversial because while the rail winds through a number of Palestinian neighborhoods, using their land for the project, it doesn’t stop in any.

“It’s nonsense,” Peleg said, speaking about the construction controversy. “ Jerusalem shouldn’t even be part of the discussion, and anyone who thinks this area is occupied territory should go and join the PA,” he added.