Left-wing NGO contends east Jerusalem settlements block contiguous Palestinian state
“Israel has a long-term policy – that goes back to 1967 – of consolidating its control of east Jerusalem,” Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher at the left-wing NGO Ir Amim, said during a Wednesday morning press tour of Jerusalem neighborhoods.
Beginning at the periphery of southern Jerusalem, with clear vistas of Har Homa and Gilo, Tatarsky pointed to them as key examples of strategically built neighborhoods intended to block a contiguous Palestinian state from Ramallah to east Jerusalem.
“We can see how settlement construction actually creates borders and boundaries and brings together areas and separates areas,” he said. “And as far as Israeli right-wing policy- makers are concerned, this guarantees Israeli control of Jerusalem.”
If a Palestinian state is created, he said, “these facts on the ground are detrimental.”
“For east Jerusalem to be a capital of Palestine, you need to have contiguity between it and the rest of the West Bank, and you have a very simple connection between Bethlehem and east Jerusalem, but building Har Homa right between the two blocks the connection,” he said.