A recent development agreement signed by the state and the West Bank’s Mateh Binyamin Regional Council will, once given final approval, see the establishment of a new settlement that would in practice constitute the first expansion of Jerusalem since 1967.

The proposed settlement announced earlier this month would technically be a westward expansion of the Adam settlement, which lies very close to Jerusalem’s northeast boundary. It includes plans for the construction of some 2,780 housing units in a new “neighborhood” for Adam.

But the land on which the new settlement would be built is physically separated from Adam, first by Route 437, a major traffic artery, and second by the security barrier.

The proposed settlement would therefore have much greater territorial contiguity with the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Neve Yaakov, which is inside Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries, than with Adam.

It would not be a formal part of Jerusalem, and would officially be a neighborhood of Adam, although officials from the Peace Now organization claim that the new settlement would likely obtain at least some municipal services from Jerusalem.

The settlement would be built on 500 dunams of land between the Palestinian towns of Hizma and Al-Ram, and would involve an investment by the government of some NIS 120 million ($39 million) in order to construct the necessary infrastructure, public spaces and community institutions for the new development.

The plan has yet to be deposited with the Civil Administration’s Higher Planning Committee, meaning that full authorization could still take as long as two years.

Nevertheless, 500 housing units have already been marketed for the first phase of development, the Housing Ministry said.

“The agreement constitutes a significant step in continuing the development of the settlement and strengthening the settlement continuity in the area, while providing a response to the demand for housing in and around Jerusalem, and integrating a phased and balanced planning of new neighborhoods alongside the existing fabric,” the Housing and Construction Ministry said in a statement on February 3 announcing the development.

The Peace Now organization, which campaigns against the settlements, said that the new plans constituted a further form of annexation by the government and an unprecedented expansion of Jerusalem.

Following Israel’s conquest of East Jerusalem and the West Bank in the 1967 Six Day War, Knesset legislation and ministerial directives formally expanded the capital’s boundaries to their current position, taking in what had been Jordanian-controlled East Jerusalem. All neighborhoods built by Israel in East Jerusalem since that time, considered settlements by most of the international community, have been constructed inside those boundaries.

“This is the first time since 1967 that Jerusalem has been expanded into the West Bank,” asserted Peace Now.

“Under the pretext of a new settlement, the government is carrying out a backdoor annexation here. The new settlement will function for all intents and purposes as a neighborhood of the city of Jerusalem, and its planning as a ‘neighborhood’ of the Adam settlement is just an excuse and an attempt to conceal the move, the implication of which is the application of Israeli sovereignty to territories in the West Bank,” it said.

Democrats MK Gilad Kariv also condemned the move, describing it as “another unprecedented act of annexation that draws us closer to an explosion in the West Bank.”

Kariv said that he had written to Housing and Construction Minister Haim Katz about “the plan to expand Jerusalem over the Green Line and to de facto annex territory,” adding, “Annexation will bring about a security catastrophe.”

Mateh Binyamin Regional Council head Israel Ganz lauded the new development, describing it as “the realization of the settlement vision” for his region.

“The new plan will allow us to build thousands of housing units, while at the same time dramatically upgrading the quality of life of the residents,” said Ganz, adding that his council is “already working on additional agreements” that will “herald dramatic change on the ground.”

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