The Local Planning and Building Committee of the Occupation Municipality in Jerusalem approved the deposit of a plan to establish a settlement neighborhood on the lands of Sur Baher. The new plan includes the construction of 450 settlement units, located to the south of the settlement neighborhood, "Arnona Slopes." Which the municipality has embarked on developing since the transfer of the American embassy to it, within a scheme that includes the establishment of 1500 settlement units.
According to the plan, the new settlement neighborhood is located at the western entrance to Sur Baher, adjacent to the street leading to it now, and which the occupation municipality is working to cancel and change its route, to become a secondary street from the "American Street", the Eastern Ring.
The project extends over an area of ​​57 dunums of agricultural land in Sur Baher village, as well as building commercial and public facilities on the site, which will consume more than 120 dunums.
It is reported that Tire Baher confiscated half of the total amount of 9471 dunams, in favor of establishing settlements and building bypass roads, which are surrounded by three settlements, “Armon Tseef” in the north, “Har Homa or Jabal Abu Ghneim” in the south, “Ramat Rachel” in the west, and the Apartheid Wall in the east. And there are huge infrastructure works taking place in the southeast of the village to extend "the American street in preparation to isolate it and confiscate more of its lands, especially in the Al-Jane area, in which the municipality has distributed dozens of demolition orders. On the other hand, the people of Sur Baher live in great population distress, and they suffer like the rest of East Jerusalem. Bureaucracy in the Israeli municipality that obstructs and prevents Jerusalemites from obtaining building permits.
The south of Jerusalem is witnessing a frenzied settlement movement extending to the "Kfar Etzion" area to connect the settlements of southern Jerusalem with the city and the Jordan Valley. Walaja bypass near Bethlehem, in the south of the West Bank, to connect the new bypass road with the "Gush Etzion" settlement bloc in Jerusalem in the south.
According to the plan, it will also be linked to a branch in the settlement neighborhood in Sur Baher, and the new project is located alongside a plan to build 400 housing units for Palestinian citizens, which was approved in 1993, coinciding with the construction of "Har Homa" settlement, claiming that the municipality is building for all residents of the city, a headquarters for years and will be referred Bidding after Throne Day.
According to the Human Rights Center B- "B´Tselem", there are more than 330,000 settlers living east of Jerusalem in violation of international law, which prohibits the occupation authorities from transferring their residents to the lands they occupy.
This project in Sur Baher is distinguished by that it takes advantage of the mountainous nature and the difference in heights to build a multi-storey settlement neighborhood that includes towers up to 21 floors and buildings up to 9 floors, and villas for the rich class of senior settlement movement officials in this area near the US embassy who are planning to house a number of workers In the US embassy in Jerusalem residing there, Kona is located adjacent to the “American embassy,” which the United States announced its transfer to Jerusalem two years ago.
