The Israeli municipality in occupied Jerusalem is trying to give the character of development to a large scheme in the center of East Jerusalem, but the Palestinians say it aims to systematically destroy the city and prevent the establishment of the capital of their hoped state.
Residents learned about the scheme - which the Israel District Planning and Building Committee called "City Center" - through banners placed on lampposts and walls in the city.
The plan covers an area of about 700 dunams (one dunam, one thousand square metres), including the vital area surrounding the Old City in East Jerusalem.
The Israeli District Committee announced the project at the end of 2020, and since then Palestinian specialists and experts have been studying it until they came to the conclusion that it should be rejected.
Early this year, the Israeli committee set a deadline to object to it, and then the date was extended until the end of last July.
However, the acceptance by the Supreme Court - the highest judicial body in Israel - of a petition against defects in translation from Hebrew into Arabic that accompanied the publication of the plan and the method of informing those affected by it led to the postponement of the date of the objection indefinitely.
The plan includes the area extending from Bab al-Amoud, one of the most famous gates of old Jerusalem, through the streets of Sultan Suleiman, Salah al-Din, al-Zahraa and al-Masoudi, to the neighborhoods of Wadi al-Joz and Sheikh Jarrah.
The plan does not include the construction of any settlement buildings, but it restricts Palestinian construction in the area for many years to come.
Director of the Map Department at the Arab Studies Association, Khalil Al-Tafkaji, says that the scheme for the so-called city center is like a systematic process of destruction of East Jerusalem, noting that the Israeli authorities developed the scheme without consulting the residents, despite their claims that it targets their well-being.
A study prepared by experts of the Civil Coalition for the Defense of Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem indicated that the scheme significantly limits the potential for housing development in the area.
Palestinian officials, human rights organizations, and official and popular events called on Palestinians who own real estate in the area of the plan to file objections against it, and it is not clear whether the Israeli authorities will accept their objections.