JERUSALEM (AP) — New official data from The Associated Press shows an increase in the construction of Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem, an area annexed by Israel, since the arrival of Donald Trump at the US presidency in 2017. Moreover, the huge difference between building permits granted to Jewish and Palestinian residents shows decades of systematic discrimination. The expansion of Jewish settlements in eastern Jerusalem, an area that Israel annexed alongside the West Bank and Gaza in the Six-Day War in 1967, threatens to further complicate one of the thorniest aspects of the conflict.
Refusal to grant permits to Palestinian residents has confined them to crowded low-service neighborhoods, and nearly half of the population lives at risk that their home could be torn down. HELP US Click the Google News star and follow usThe data was obtained and analyzed by Peace Now, an Israeli group that monitors settlements, which said it got them after a two-year battle with the municipal authorities. According to the group, the numbers show that Palestinians, who make up more than 60% of East Jerusalem’s population, received only 30% of the building permits issued since 1991.The destination of the city, which houses places sacred to Jews, Muslims and Christians, is at the center of the long-running conflict. The Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of their future state, while Israel regards the entire city as its unified capital. Tensions escalated when Trump recognized Jerusalem as the Israeli capital in 2017 and moved his embassy there, breaking the international consensus that the future of the city must be decided in negotiations. According to Peace Now, in the first two years of Trump’s presidency, the authorities approved 1,861 Israeli outposts in East Jerusalem, 60% more than the 1,162 accepted in the previous two years. At this time, Palestinians were allowed to lift 1,233 housing units, he added. Voicers from the Israeli government and the Jerusalem municipality did not respond to requests for comment.
