Palestine (Washington Insider) – Palestinian Jerusalem
Governorate warned that Israel plans nearly 9,000 West Bank homes, seizing
2,800 dunams. UN and ICJ deem settlements illegal, raising tensions in
Jerusalem, Ramallah, and the surrounding Palestinian areas.
As Qais Abu Samra and Betul Yilmaz on AA Middle East News
reported, the Jerusalem Governorate on Monday, Dec 13, 2025, warned against an
Israeli plan to build nearly 9,000 homes in the central West Bank.
“The Israeli occupation authorities are seeking to
implement a dangerous settlement plan on the lands of Jerusalem International
Airport and neighbouring areas,”
the governorate said in a statement. It considered the plan
“a direct threat to geographical and demographic
links between Jerusalem and the city of Ramallah.”
What threat does
Israel’s 9,000-home West bank plan pose to peace?
The project focuses on Palestinian areas, including Kafr
Aqab, Qalandia, Al-Ram, Beit Hanina, and Bir Nabala.
“which deepens the policy of separation and
isolation imposed on the city and its surroundings, and undermines any
political horizon based on the two-state solution,”
the statement said.
Officials mentioned that these neighbourhoods are already
populated, and local officials said the plan could disrupt the daily life of
residents. The expansion also risks affecting the social and economic balance
of the communities.
An Israeli planning committee is scheduled to meet on
Wednesday, Dec 17, 2025, to discuss the project. The meeting may include
allocating land for construction, which could speed up the settlement plan.
Tensions grew after the Israeli Finance Ministry requested
16 million shekels, about $5 million, be transferred to the Ministry of
Environmental Protection. The funds are intended to rehabilitate polluted land,
including areas around Jerusalem International Airport.
Palestinian authorities said the move could fast-track the
settlement project. They also raised concerns about the legality and purpose of
the plan. The Jerusalem Governorate urged the international community to
respond.
The Jerusalem Governorate warned that Israel’s settlement
plan
“will lead to the establishment of a settlement enclave
separating northern Jerusalem from its Palestinian surroundings.”
Officials said
the plan could isolate Palestinian neighbourhoods and break the social and
geographic continuity of the area. They added that the project would expand
Israeli control in the occupied West Bank.
The Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission, a
Palestinian body that monitors
settlement activity, reported that Israel seized 2,800 dunams of land last
November. One dunam equals 1,000 square meters.
According to the commission, the land was taken through
squatting, expropriation orders, and changes to state land borders. The
international community has repeatedly said that Israeli settlements in the
occupied Palestinian territories are illegal under international law.
For decades, there have been ongoing controversies regarding
Israeli settlements located in both the occupied territories of the West Bank
and East Jerusalem. These were territories that were taken by Israel during the
Middle Eastern War of 1967.
The construction of settlements in these areas has continued
to be a contentious issue since the signing of the Oslo Peace Accords in 1993,
with Palestinian leaders arguing that these projects will have a detrimental
effect on the establishment of a future sovereign state for the Palestinian
people.
Tensions surrounding the issue of settlement construction
intensified after the establishment of Israel’s present government, which took
power in December 2022 and began increasing its previous commitment to
developing additional new settlements in the vicinity of Jerusalem.
In July 2025, the International Court of Justice released a
historic decision stating that the illegal occupation of Palestine by Israel
must cease, and that all settlements currently existing within the occupied
territories must be dismantled and removed from those areas.
