In the coming years, Israelis will be able to commute into Jerusalem and Tel Aviv from settlements deep inside the West Bank via highways, tunnels and overpasses that cut a wide berth around Palestinian towns.

During the meeting of the Israeli Mayor, Moshe Lion, with the Israeli residents of the new settlement outpost "Mordot", he decided to assign the company owned by "Moria" to construct a new road at the beginning of 2021, linking that outpost with "Gilo" settlement south of Jerusalem, at the expense of the confiscated Palestinian lands.

According to a statement by the Israeli municipality, the Mordot settlement, which was added to Gilo settlement with 350 units, is inhabited by about 1,500 new settlers, while it is expected to annes about 550 units next year, which are under approval and bids will be issued for them within 45 days. 

Settlement Unit

Fakhri Abu Diab, a researcher in Jerusalem affairs, told SAFA that the Israeli authorities are working to expand Gilo settlement at the expense of the Palestinian lands, and to construct new settlement roads and streets south of Jerusalem, with the aim of creating a large settlement belt around the city.

He explains that the Israeli government and its municipality are afraid of changing the White House's policies towards settlement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories with the change of the US administration and the election of President John Biden, so it has to impose new facts on the ground for the benefit of the settlers.

Gilo settlement is witnessing a large and unstoppable settlement building movement. Since 2016, 29 expansion operations have been approved in the settlement, whose population exceeds 50, 000 settlers.

The settlement extends from the south side of Gilo settlement, towards Jabal Abu Ghneim settlement in the southeast of the city, and then Ma'ale Adumim settlements to the east and the Bedouin communities, as well as the Atarot and Qalandia Airport to the north.

Israeli Expansion

Palestinians will be allowed to drive on many of the new roads, but the infrastructure will be of limited use to them because they need permits to enter Israel or annexed east Jerusalem.

Israel seized the West Bank and east Jerusalem in the 1967 war and has since built a far-flung network of settlements that house nearly 700,000 Jewish settlers. The Palestinians want both territories for their future state and view the settlements as a violation of international law and an obstacle to peace — a position with wide international support.

Supporters of settlements view the West Bank and Jerusalem as the historical and biblical heart of Israel, seeing the settlements as a way of preventing any partition of the Holy Land.

According to a recent report by the "Ir Amim" human rights organization, there is a plan to build 9,000 settlement units on the lands of Qalandia airport, 1530 units in "Ramat Shlomo" settlement on Shuafat lands, and 570 in "Har Homa" settlement on the lands of Jabal Abu Ghneim.

The organization said that southern Jerusalem is witnessing a massive settlement expansion process, most notably the Israeli Authority Lands issuing a tender for the construction of 1,257 settlement units on Beit Safa lands in "Givat Hamatos", southeast of Jerusalem.