IMEMC, Jerusalem –Palestinian researcher revealed new Israeli Jewish settlement plan on occupied Palestinian city of Jerusalem, IMEMC reported on Wednesday.
Researcher in settlement affairs Ahmad Sob Laban has reported that the Israeli settlement organisation ‘Ateret Cohanim,’ based in the Muslim Quarter in occupied Jerusalem, has presented a settlement plan to the Jerusalem City Council.
The plan, Sob Laban said, is part of preparation to build a new illegal Israeli Jewish settlement near Bet Yonatan Settlement in the town of Silwan in the occupied East Jerusalem.
Sob Laban said the new plan aims to construct three outposts, each consists of four floors, in addition to expanding the road between Bet Yonatan and the new outpost, which would also be built on illegally-seized Palestinian property adjacent to Bet Yonatan.
He added that Silwan, especially Batn Al-Hawa neighbourhood, is facing serious threats from Ateret Cohanim, the organisation responsible for the construction of 71 illegal outposts in the Old City, in both the Muslim and Christian Quarters, since 1967.
Batn Al-Hawa became a target for illegal Israeli Jewish settlement in 2004, when Bet Yonatan was illegally established in a building consisting of six floors through false sale documents.
At the same time, Ateret Cohanim established another outpost, known as Beit Al-Asal, in the heart of the neighbourhood.
Last year, Ateret Cohanim managed to seize two Palestinian residential buildings, each consisted of ten apartments, and an area of land in Batn Al-Hawa.
This measure came after the Israel occupation authorities removed the owners –Abu-Nab Family, and Palestinian renters of the apartments, allegedly because “the land it was built on used to contain a synagogue, and was inhabited by Jews, before 1948.”
Sob Laban said Ateret Cohanim enjoys the full support of the settler-led government of Benjamin Netanyahu, and various wealthy Zionist organisations and individuals, especially in the United States.
He also stated that various members of Abu-Nab family have been evicted, and now danger looms for two remaining family members –Abu Jawad and Abdullah abu-Nab.
He added that Ateret Cohanim is still trying to evict dozens of families by taking control of more than 100 properties inhabited by nearly 1,300 Palestinians, and that nine families have already received eviction notices.
Israeli settlement activities in occupied Jerusalem, and the rest of occupied Palestine, come in direct violation of international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention, to which the Israeli occupation is a signatory.
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