Israel plans to construct 1000’s of settlement houses close to Jerusalem, in impact increasing metropolis’s borders and taking Palestinian land in West Financial institution, activists say.
Printed On 16 Feb 2026
Palestine’s Jerusalem governorate has denounced an Israeli plan to illegally construct 1000’s of settlement houses, warning it could primarily redraw the town’s boundaries and covertly annex components of the occupied West Financial institution.
The event plan, unveiled by the Israeli state this month, requires the development of two,570 housing models formally tied to Israel’s Geva Binyamin (Adam) settlement, situated northeast of Jerusalem within the occupied West Financial institution.
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However the designated land sits other than Geva Binyamin, which is separated from it by a freeway and a safety wall. Israeli media stories mentioned the brand new building would as an alternative lie nearer and extra related to the Israeli settlement of Neve Yaakov in occupied East Jerusalem.
Because of this, it could in impact mark the primary enlargement of Jerusalem’s boundaries since 1967, Israel’s Ynet Information web site reported.
The Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem governorate slammed the hassle as “a blatant try to hide the annexation course of behind deceptive planning titles”, in line with the authority’s official Wafa information company.
The Israeli rights organisation Peace Now mentioned it was a backhanded method of making an attempt to annex the West Financial institution.
“The brand new settlement will perform in each method as a neighbourhood of Jerusalem, and its designation as a ‘neighbourhood’ of the Adam settlement is merely a pretext supposed to hide a transfer that successfully applies Israeli sovereignty to areas of the West Financial institution,” Peace Now mentioned.
The housing undertaking, designated for Israel’s ultra-Orthodox neighborhood, nonetheless wants last approval from the Greater Planning Committee of Israel’s Civil Administration and is anticipated to maneuver ahead in a number of years, in line with Ynet.
Displacement of Palestinian folks
Israeli authorities in recent times have sought to extra aggressively seize management of Palestinian land within the West Financial institution. On February 8, Israel’s safety cupboard authorised new measures increasing its safety management over Palestinian-controlled components of the West Financial institution and making it simpler for Israeli settlers to purchase land there.
That transfer was roundly condemned by eight Muslim nations that accused Israel of making an attempt to impose “a brand new authorized and administrative actuality” to speed up the “unlawful annexation and the displacement of the Palestinian folks”.
The Palestinian Authority presidency additionally decried the “open Israeli try to legalise settlement enlargement” and land confiscation.
Greater than 700,000 Israelis dwell in settlements and outposts within the West Financial institution, that are unlawful below worldwide legislation, whereas about 3.3 million Palestinians dwell within the territory.
Israeli forces frequently perform violent raids, conduct arrests and impose restrictions on motion within the West Financial institution, the place assaults by Israeli settlers in opposition to Palestinians have additionally intensified, typically below the safety of Israeli troopers.
In January alone, a minimum of 694 Palestinians have been pushed from their houses within the West Financial institution due to Israeli settler violence and harassment, the very best quantity since Israel’s genocidal warfare in opposition to Palestinians in Gaza erupted in October 2023, in line with the United Nations.