JERUSALEM

The Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has advanced six new settlement projects in occupied East Jerusalem since the inauguration of US President Donald Trump last month, an Israeli group said Wednesday.

"The accelerated pace of settlement expansion shows that the Israeli government views Trump’s return to office as a green light to revive and expedite plans that were previously frozen due to international criticism,” the Jerusalem-based NGO Ir Amim said in a statement.

It said the Israeli government revived plans to build the Atarot settlement, locally known as the Qalandia Airport area north of East Jerusalem, which includes 9,000 housing units.

Tel Aviv also planned to carry out the Ohr Somayach Religious Institute project in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem.

Both projects had been frozen for years due to legal and environmental issues, Ir Amim said.

There is also the Umm Haroun settlement project in East Jerusalem, which “threatens to completely uproot the Palestinian community in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, after decades of failed attempts by authorities to displace them under the pretext of urban renewal," the group said.

The move “constitutes a dangerous precedent for forced displacement by exploiting legal loopholes," it warned.

According to Ir Amim, the Israeli government also plans to expand the Nof Zion settlement in the Jabal al-Mukaber area.

Israel also advanced plans to build 400 new settler homes in the Givat Shaked settlement in the Beit Safafa neighborhood and 659 units in the Novi Rachel settlement in the neighborhood of Sur Baher-Umm Tuba.

“The Israeli government’s increasing disregard for international law could lead to heightened tensions in the region,” it warned.

The international community, including the UN, considers the Israeli settlements illegal under international law. The UN has repeatedly warned that continued settlement expansion threatens the viability of a two-state solution, a framework seen as key to resolving the decades-long Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

In July 2024, the International Court of Justice declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land illegal and demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.