The so-called Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee announced on Saturday, September 17, the approval of a new settlement project targeted the Palestinian lands north of occupied Jerusalem.

Settlement institutions revealed earlier Saturday that they had obtained a decision signed by the head of the Israeli Planning and Building Committee in Jerusalem, Shira Ptolemy Babai, to establish an urban natural park covering an area of approximately 700 acres.

The newly-approved plan approves the confiscation of about 1,170 dunums of the Palestinian lands of Shuafat, Beit Hanina, and Anata. This decision deprives the residents of the aforementioned areas of the only space available to them for expansion and construction, as they are trapped by settlement expansion.

Settlement companies explained that the plan to build this park on the lands of Shuafat, Beit Hanina, and Hizma was an initiative of the extremist settlers, which received great support from the occupation Government.

The park is considered an expansion of the Pisgav Ze’ev settlement, one of the largest settlements built in the Palestinian-owned lands in Jerusalem. The settlement separates 5 Palestinian towns and neighborhoods from each other.