Cabinet Approves Projects for Old City, Historic Basin, & East Jerusalem (Inside the Barrier)
Cabinet Approves Projects for Old City, Historic Basin, & East Jerusalem (Inside the Barrier) In the context of the 50th anniversary of Jerusalem’s “reunification,” the Israeli Cabinet approved a number of projects targeting East Jerusalem. Details of these are as follows: 1. The Cable Car (or, the next step in the Disney-ification of the Old […]
URGENT/BREAKING NEWS: Imminent Tenders for Givat Hamatos
Last week saw press reports, based on sources within Israel’s Ministry of Construction, suggesting that the Netanyahu government intends to announce the construction of 15,000 settlement units in East Jerusalem, on or about May 23/24 – that is, coinciding with Jerusalem Day and a possible visit to Israel by President Trump. According to these reports, which […]
Imminent Announcements: Atarot & Ramat Shlomo
The same press reports that last week raised the specter of devastating tenders for Givat Hamatos also raised the specter – less devastating but still extremely problematic – of 10,000 new units in Atarot, on the site of the Qalandia airport and 3000 units will be in Ramat Shlomo. Atarot: The 10,000 units in the news for Atarot are […]
New Settler “Visitors’ Center: in Ras El Amud
On April 28, the Jerusalem Development Authority – an Israeli governmental organization – deposited a plan for public review (Plan #0470484) towards the goal of taking a 1.3-dunam plot of land in Ras el Amud and turning it into a visitors’ center for the Mount of Olives cemetery. The plan received wide coverage in the Israeli […]
The New UNESCO Resolution & Jerusalem
On May 3, UNESCO adopted a decision relating to the Occupied Territories, including a section on Jerusalem. The official text is here. Ten countries voted against the resolution: the US, the UK, Italy, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Greece, Paraguay, Ukraine, Togo, and Germany. What was Israel’s position vis-a-vis the resolution? Like the UNESCO text of October 2016, […]
Working Toward a New US-Israel Understanding on Settlements
The visit to Israel of President Trump’s special envoy Jason Greenblatt on the week of March 13 was followed by a series of reports describing the Israeli-American consultation process aimed at achieving an understanding on future constructions in the settlements. Some of these reports described a quite advanced stage of discussion, within the framework of which the contours of the understanding […]
Tensions Growing [again] Focused on Temple Mount/Haram al Sharif
The tragic stabbing attack at the Lion’s Gate in Jerusalem on March 13, in which two Israeli policemen were injured and the young Palestinian assailant was shot dead, comes in the context of rising tensions prompted by a series of measures that reinforce the perception among Palestinians living in East Jerusalem that Israel is determined to deny their religious […]
Palestinian Residency Rights: Important Court Ruling
The Israeli High Court of Justice this week issued a precedent-setting verdict regarding Palestinian residency rights in Jerusalem. In that ruling, the Ministry of Interior was ordered to restore the residency rights of Akram Abd al-Haqq, a Palestinian born in Jerusalem before the 1967 war. Abd al-Haqq left Jerusalem with his parents at the age of 9. […]
Limiting Settlement Construction to the “Blocs” – Implications for Jerusalem
Today we are witnessing the re-emergence of an old idea that has popped up periodically over the years: a belief that political processes that will ultimately lead to a two-state outcome can be re-started based on based on the embrace of an approach to settlements that differentiates between areas inside and outside the settlement “blocs*.” […]
To Move, or Not to Move (the Embassy), That Is the Question
There are competing theories about why President Trump has so far opted not to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. In a recent interview in Politico, Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Corker (R-TN) said, “They were ready to move the embassy at 12:01 on Jan. 20, maybe 12 and 30 seconds…That was […]