JERUSALEM

The Israeli government is planning to expand the area of occupied East Jerusalem through expanding settlement building in the West Bank, a move that would mean annexing more Palestinian land, an Israeli newspaper said Monday.

The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is promoting a construction plan in the settlement of “Adam” in the central West Bank, Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

“But the real intention is to expand East Jerusalem beyond the 1967 boundaries, for the first time since the Six-Day War (1967), and this means (imposing) actual sovereignty over the lands and expanding Jerusalem,” the daily added.

The settlement of Adam is located north of East Jerusalem, which Palestinians seek as the capital of their hoped-for state, based on international resolutions that do not recognize Israel’s occupation of the city in 1967.

According to the paper, the plan includes “building hundreds of settlement units for religious Israelis.”

It reported that the area designated for construction is far from the Adam settlement but adjacent to the Neve Yaakov settlement, which is built on Palestinian land in East Jerusalem.

“As the access road designated for this plan goes beyond the Neve Yaakov settlement in Jerusalem, in reality this is an expansion of Jerusalem’s borders, which has not happened since 1967,” the newspaper added.

‘Backdoor annexation’

The Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now has denounced the government plan for East Jerusalem.

“For the first time since 1967, and under the pretext of (building) a new settlement, the government is carrying out annexation here from the back door,” the group said.

“The new settlement will effectively be like a ‘neighborhood’ in the city of Jerusalem, and planning it publicly as a settlement (Adam) is an attempt to conceal the step, which means applying Israeli sovereignty (annexation) to lands in the West Bank.”

The newspaper said opposition Knesset member Gilad Kariv from the Democrats party sent an urgent inquiry to Housing Minister Haim Katz.

Kariv asked in his letter “whether there is an intention to annex the area of the plan to Jerusalem, and whether the residents of the neighborhood, which is classified as part of the Adam settlement, will receive services from the Jerusalem Municipality.”

“The planned step will increase friction between Israelis and Palestinians, provoke unnecessary tension, and ultimately harm Jerusalem’s status as Israel’s capital,” he warned.

Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1980, in a move not recognized by the United Nations and the international community.

Kariv added that “the plans contradict Israel’s international commitments, including toward US President Donald Trump, and reflect Netanyahu’s complete surrender to his extremist partners.”

Jerusalem’s population

The newspaper noted that since 1967, Israel has established settlements on Palestinian land in East Jerusalem and on land classified as West Bank territory around the city.

In recent years, various proposals have been raised to annex settlements surrounding the city and increase the proportion of illegal Israeli settlers in the occupied city.

According to Israeli statistics, Jerusalem’s population exceeds 1 million, about 40% of whom are Palestinians, while Israel seeks to ensure that their proportion does not exceed 20%.

Israeli data indicate that more than 240,000 illegal Israeli settlers live in East Jerusalem and more than 700,000 in other parts of the West Bank.

The United Nations and the international community consider the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, occupied territory and regard Israeli settlements there as illegal under international law.

On Sunday, Tel Aviv announced the start of registering land in the occupied West Bank as “state property,” for the first time since Israel occupied the territory in 1067.

Critics say these steps pave the way for Israel to formally annex the West Bank, which would end the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state under UN resolutions based on the two-state solution.

In a landmark opinion in July 2024, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

*Writing by Lina Altawell