The plan aims to expand what is known as the Gilo settlement south-eastward, on lands and olive groves owned by residents of the Palestinian city of Beit Jala, the report said.
The Planning and Building Committee in the Israeli-controlled Jerusalem municipality intends to discuss a new plan for the expansion of illegal settlements in occupied East Jerusalem on Wednesday as a first step toward approving the project, according to the Middle East Monitor (MEMO).
Israel to use Absentee Property Law to approve 1,900 settlement units in Jerusalemhttps://t.co/NUJGg5K7BO
— Middle East Monitor (@MiddleEastMnt) April 22, 2025
The plan aims to expand what is known as the Gilo settlement south-eastward, on lands and olive groves owned by residents of the Palestinian city of Beit Jala, the report said.
It includes the construction of 1,900 new settlement units on 176 dunams (about 43.5 acres) of open land located between the Tunnels Road and the settlement.
Law Allows Confiscation
Data indicates that 29 percent of the land included in the plan is classified as private property, 12 percent is owned by the Israeli municipality and the state, 15 per cent is under the management of the Custodian of Absentee Properties Department, and 44 per cent is not officially registered, the report added.
הוועדה המקומית לתכנון ובניה בעיריית ירושלים, תדון מחר (רביעי) בקידום תוכנית חדשה להרחבת השכונה/התנחלות גילה לכיוון מזרח – עד לכביש המנהרות. התוכנית כוללת תוספת של 1,900 יחידות דיור חדשות שיתפרסו על שטח של 176 דונמים – על חשבון קרקעות ומטעי זיתים עתיקים השייכים לתושבי העיירה… pic.twitter.com/f3z0z900Df
— עיר עמים (@IrAmim) April 22, 2025
Israeli authorities seized a large portion of this land through the implementation of the Absentee Property Law, which allows the confiscation of the property of Palestinians who were displaced in or after 1948, according to Ir Amim, a left-wing Israeli organisation specialising in occupied Jerusalem affairs, MEMO reported.
Seized Land
Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher with Ir Amim, said: “The only reason Israel classifies the owners of these lands as ‘absentees’ is because it annexed their orchards within its borders, but kept the owners outside these borders as residents of the West Bank without rights.”
“The extensive use of the Absentee Property Law to build settlements in East Jerusalem is one of the most prominent manifestations of the discrimination practiced by Israel in the occupied city,” Tatarsky added.
Annexation at Work: Israel is Quietly Taking Over the West Bank
The organization said in a post on X on Tuesday that, “Even in the current case of the Gilo construction plan – the Palestinian owners of the land and orchards are not really ‘absentee.’”
“They live in Beit Jala exactly in the same place where they have always lived. But when Israel occupied the territory in 1967, it annexed these lands to Jerusalem but without their owners – who were defined as residents of the West Bank,” the organization explained.
Israel Set to Approve over 1,000 Settlement Units in East Jerusalem
It added that due “to the same decision to annex the land without the people, Israel can decide that the owners of the orchards are ‘absentee,’ thus paving the way to take control of their properties ‘legally.’”
Changing Policy
Ir Amim said that “for years,” legal and especially international bodies “have blocked the wholesale use” of the law in East Jerusalem.
However, in recent years, “the policy has been changing.”
A whole village facing expulsion!
In 1967, Israel extended the jurisdiction of the Jerusalem Municipality over thousands of hectares of illegally annexed land. The residents of Khallet a-Nu’man were unaware their village was included, and Israel did not issue them East Jerusalem… pic.twitter.com/sWNZz7gbEV
— B’Tselem בצלם بتسيلم (@btselem) April 22, 2025
Settlement construction has accelerated significantly since Israel’s right-wing government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, came to power in December 2022.
The international community, including the UN, considers these settlements illegal under international law. The UN has repeatedly warned that continued settlement expansion threatens the viability of a two-state solution.
In July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a ruling that declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian territories “illegal” and called for the immediate evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
(MEMO, PC, Anadolu)
