The Israeli district committee for planning and building approved on Tuesday a plan to build 180 settlement units as an addition to Armona Netseev settlement east of occupied Jerusalem.
Member of the association of field researchers in Jerusalem Ahmed Sablaban said these units will be built on 67 dunums of Palestinian land which Israel confiscated from Palestinian citizens of Sur Baher and Umm Leeson towns on the southeastern outskirts of Jerusalem.
Sablaban added that the expansion will be to the south of Armona Netseev settlement and aimed at expanding the settlement towards Sur Baher and Umm Leeson towns through building nine huge buildings including a building for public use and three buildings for the management of Armona Netseev expansion plans.
He noted that many objections have been filed by the Palestinian natives of Sur Baher and Umm Leeson and their local councils against this plan, but to no avail.
The field researcher added that the most important points of these objections were that the Israeli occupation authority has been annexed since 1967 about 2, 000 dunums of Palestinian land in Sur Baher and Umm Leeson to expand its settlements and has been preventing since then the Palestinian natives from getting construction permits to build homes for themselves as a result of the natural increase in their numbers, while giving itself the right to expand its settlements at the expense of their lands.
