New 10,000 unit Israeli settlement will cut off Jerusalem from Palestinian territories

Israeli authorities are planning to build a new settlement project in the West Bank village of Qalandia, which would result in the complete isolation of Jerusalem from its Palestinian surroundings. 

The project will see roughly 10,000 settler units being built which will commence this December, according to the local Palestinian news organisation, WAFA. 

The plan will run ​​between the Palestinian neighbourhoods of Kfar Aqab, Qalandia, and A-Ram south Ramallah, as outlined from Israel’s Ministry of Construction and Housing. 

"This is a very dangerous plan which might bring a dangerous blow to the two-state solution,” the Israeli anti-settler group, Peace Now said.

“The planned neighbourhood is at the heart of the urban territorial Palestinian continuity between Ramallah and East Jerusalem, and thus prevent the possibility of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. The government must remove the plan from the agenda immediately and shelve it.”

The settler project would be the newest project in East Jerusalem since Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu's government built the Har Homa settlement in 1997.

In December 2020, the director of the Jerusalem-based Arab Studies Society, Khalil Tafakji, announced that the Israeli regime was seeking to “build a new settlement on the land of the Jerusalem airport.”

The proposed settlement plan covers the abandoned site of Jerusalem Internation Airport (Atarot Airport) which was first opened in 1924 as the first airport in the British Mandate for Palestine. 

After the six-day war and subsequent Israeli occupation of the West Bank in 1967, Israel took control of the airport with plans of creating an international hub, however, the international aviation authorities wouldn’t allow flights to land there due to safety concerns.