‘A hole in my heart’ Dismay at fast-track for settlers’ homesin East Jerusalem

Israel’s government has accelerated the construction of settlements across East Jerusalem, with more than 20 projects totalling thousands of housing units having been approved or advanced since the start of the war in Gaza six months ago, planning documents show.

- Jason Burke

Ministries and offices within the government are behind all the largest and most contentious of the projects, sometimes in association with right wing nationalist groups with a history of trying to evict Palestinians from their homes in parts of the city.

The rapid approval or construction of settlements that are illegal under international law is likely to further damage Israel’s relationship with the Biden administration .

The war was triggered by surprise Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

“The fast-tracking of these plans has been unparalleled in the last six months,” said Sari Kronish from the Israeli human rights organisation Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights . “While many government bodies were shuttered or had limited operation following 7 October, the planning authorities continued to plough forward, advancing these plans at unprecedented speed.”

The new settlements will off er homes for Israel’s majority Jewish population in parts of Jerusalem that were unilaterally annexed in 1980, and are likely to be an obstacle to any attempt to create a viable Palestinian state with the east of the city as its capital.

The Gaza war has put a renewed focus on a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as foreseen by the Oslo accords in the early 1990s. The US, EU and UK have recently imposed sanctions on individual settlers in the West Bank amid surging violence.