While President Biden talks about a “two-state solution” at the arrival ceremony at Ben Gurion airport, the promotion of two new settlements in occupied East Jerusalem was scheduled to be discussed soon after his departure. According Zo Haderech, after Prime Minister Lapid ordered to cancel the planned discussion of the Jerusalem District Planning Committee that was supposed to take place on July 18, in order to avoid embarrassments during Biden’s visit,
Recall that in March 2010, during Biden’s visit to Israel as Vice President, a plan for 1,600 units in Ramat Shlomo, in occupied East Jerusalem was promoted.
President Biden and PM Lapid meet in Jerusalem, July 20m 2022 (Photo: The White House)
Peace Now said that the Planning Committee will discuss the depositing of two plans for c. 2,000 units that will strike a severe blow at the possibility of a two-state solution and of the development of East Jerusalem as a Palestinian capital. The Plans, Givat Hashaked near Beit Safafa and the Lower Aqueduct plan between Har Homa and Givat Hamatos, will bloc the last remaining corridor to connect between Beit Safafa and Shorafat and the rest of the Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem.
It should be noted that in April 1995, under the Rabin government, the government issued an expropriation notice of about 200 dunams for the purpose of establishing a neighborhood in this area. This announcement, which was the first expropriation in Jerusalem since the Oslo Accords and the peace agreement with Jordan, led to a crisis with the Palestinians and the Jordanians.
Following this, Itzhak Rabin pledged that there would be no more expropriations in East Jerusalem. The Rabin government eventually withdrew from the expropriation, after the Hadash faction submitted a motion of no confidence in the government, and the Likud, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, decided to join them. The government withdrew from the expropriations and the government did not fall.
The full paper published in Hebrew by Zo Haderech:
