NEWS
About Us

Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine
UK architects, planners and other construction industry professionals campaigning for a just peace in Israel/Palestine.

DATABASE & REPORTS
Main
Monday
Dec062021

Who will stop Israel's craziest settlement plan ever?

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-who-will-stop-israel-s-craziest-settlement-plan-ever-1.10440698

A new mega-settlement would be the death sentence for a viable future Palestinian state. But with the shameful silence of the 'pro-peace,' two state supporters in Israel's coalition government, the only hope for halting the plan rests with Biden and Blinken

by Hagit Ofran         5 December 2021      Haaretz

Israel's controversial separation wall and construction machinery working on the tarmac of the former Atarot airport near Qalandiya, between the West Bank city of Ramallah and annexed east Jerusalem Credit: AHMAD GHARABLI - AFP

The story of this new Israeli settlement is almost too wild and fantastical to be believed.

What is planned for the Palestinian neighborhood of Qalandiya ("Atarot" in official Israelispeak), north of Jerusalem, is a new settlement the size of an entire city. It would be an enclave surrounded by a dense Palestinian urban continuum and detached from any existing Israeli settlement. Perhaps its most delusional attribute is that it could soon be established by an Israeli government basing its decision on maintaining what it calls the "status quo" for the settlement project.

In recent years, Israel’s housing ministry has prepared a plan for 9,000 housing units in the area of the old Atarot airport, but according to reports, Netanyahu’s government didn’t push it forward due to American pressure. The plan is considered lethal for the prospect of a two-state peace agreement because it interrupts the Palestinian continuum in the central metropolis of the future Palestinian state, between Ramallah and East Jerusalem. Even according to the the Trump Plan, itself far from a model for two states, the Atarot area was supposed to be part of the Palestinian entity.

This Monday, the District Planning and Construction Committee, under central government jurisdiction, is expected to discuss the first step of the planning process, known as depositing. The planning procedure is a bit like a snowball. Once you start promoting the plan, it has a life of its own, the bureaucracy gets into gear, economic and legal expectations are created, and it becomes increasingly difficult to stop it.

 

 

Reader Comments

There are no comments for this journal entry. To create a new comment, use the form below.

PostPost a New Comment

Enter your information below to add a new comment.

My response is on my own website »
Author Email (optional):
Author URL (optional):
Post:
 
All HTML will be escaped. Hyperlinks will be created for URLs automatically.