The plan for the construction of 2,200 new housing units in Jerusalem’s Jabil Mukhaber neighborhood despite strong opposition from right-wing Jerusalem Councilman Aryeh King. The plan will also result in the retroactive approval of hundreds of housing units that were built illegally.

The plan allocates an area of some 1,500 dunams of land between Jabil Mukhaber and Abu Dis for the construction of housing units. The master plan for the new neighborhood includes schools, parks, public buildings and a road. Simultaneously, the plan to build an additional 1,500 housing units in Jewish Har Choma has been frozen without any explanation given. Councilman King points out the irony, that while Prime Minister Netanyahu gives the Arabs a stronger foothold in the capital, he implements the US construction freeze in Jewish areas of Yerushalayim. King warns the new Jabil Mukhaber neighborhood will result in contiguity from that area to Abu Dis and in actuality, the prime minister is dividing Yerushalayim.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)