❗️Israeli settlement expansion is growing at an unprecedented level and choking off Palestinian neighborhoods – The Cradle

 ❗️Israeli settlement expansion is growing at an unprecedented level and choking off Palestinian neighborhoods

The pace of Israeli settlement expansion in occupied Jerusalem is accelerating at unprecedented levels, according to a report from Safa News. This is a part of a broader Israeli strategy to cement full control over the city and permanently alter its demographic and geographic character in favor of settlers. Since 7 October 2023, Israeli authorities have intensified efforts to isolate Jerusalem from its native Palestinian surroundings by way of confiscating more land, expanding settlements, and choking Palestinian neighborhoods into fragmented enclaves.

Data from the Colonization & Wall Resistance Commission show that this surge is not an exception but the most dangerous stage of a policy in place since 1967.

According to Jerusalem affairs researcher Fakhri Abu Diab, speaking exclusively to Safa News, Israel’s government is racing to redraw the city’s map to ensure a Jewish majority through political, ideological, and demographic engineering. Settlement activity, he explained, now targets the heart of Palestinian neighborhoods. He warned that Israel’s seizure of land and rapid construction of settler housing, industrial zones, and roads form part of a collective punishment policy aimed at displacing Palestinians.

Since the occupation of Jerusalem, Israel has taken control of 87 percent of East Jerusalem’s land and left Palestinians only 13 percent, with much of it already restricted or taken for settlement and security infrastructure.

Abu Diab noted that before 7 October, Israeli authorities had confiscated around 35,000 dunams in the city, a figure that has surged to 51,000 dunams amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza. The recently approved “E1” project alone consumes 12,000 dunams of Palestinian land east of Jerusalem, linking the city to the Ma’ale Adumim settlement and severing the northern and southern parts of the occupied West Bank.

Since October, Israel has approved over 13,700 new housing units in Jerusalem, a move Abu Diab described as a direct threat to Palestinian life and continuity in the city. He warned that the accelerating expansion risks emptying Jerusalem of its indigenous residents, completing Israel’s plan to establish total control in favor of settlers.

READ FULL ARTICLE: This article originally appeared on The Cradle

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