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The Palestinian village of Anata. Behind the village is the Jordan Rift valley with the northern shores of the Dead Sea and the mountains of Jordan in the background.

Independent Jerusalem mayoral candidate, Nir Barkat, who enjoys widespread support amongst the city’s secular and business communities, recently announced his support for the building of a new Jewish settlement in occupied East Jerusalem. 

Sha’ar Mizrahi (Eastern Gate), the name of the proposed settlement, is planned to be located between the Palestinian village of Anata and the foot of the French Hill settlement in East Jerusalem. Sha’ar Mizrahi is to be built on 200 dunam of land, which the Israeli government contends consist of both public lands and private land owned by Israelis.  

Though Sha’ar Mizrachi has been publicized as a new project, the idea of building this settlement was actually proposed already before the year 2000. Sha’ar Mizrahi is part of a bigger settlement project called “The Ma’ale Adumin Bloc.” This bloc is comprised of the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim itself, and the settlements of Giv’at Adumim, Mishor Adumim, Kfar Adumim, Alon and the proposed Sha’ar Mizrahi settlement. This bloc is central to the Israeli government’s settlement project in the West Bank, as it is intended to enable Israel to encircle Jerusalem from the east. In addition, the Ma’ale Adumim settlement bloc, including Sha’ar Mizrahi, prevents any contiguity of Palestinian villages between Ramallah and Bethlehem.  

According to Barkat, the new Jewish neighborhood is a perfect solution for the housing problem of the city, and maintains that it is as an ideal opportunity to house students and young people. And according to the director of the Israel Land Fund, Arieh King, who is also the representative of the Jewish land owners in Sha’ar Mizrahi, it is possible to built approximately 2000 housing units on the settlement lands.  

A former Jerusalem city engineer stated two years ago, however, that the area where Sha’ar Mizrahi is planned to be built is insufficient and located in small plots surrounded by existing Palestinian neighborhoods. According to the engineer, it is not possible to build in this area without the expropriation of Palestinian land to expand the construction site.