According to Israeli media, the Jerusalem municipality is planning to resume implementation of demolition orders against Palestinian houses in the city, after a hiatus of six months.
Haaretz and Ynetnews reported a recent meeting between the municipality and the police to coordinate a new spate of house demolitions.
Meir Margalit, City Council member of the left-leaning Meretz party, said demolitions could start as early as Wednesday.
Dozens of Palestinian homes in Silwan and other neighbourhoods have been served demolition orders that have not yet been implemented.
According to the municipality the reason for the hiatus in demolitions was a delay in the approval of a budget for them. This has now been resolved, but sources within the municipality said that recent pressure from the United States against changes in the city may also have played a role.
House demolitions resumed today in other parts of the West Bank as well: in the village of Hares in the Salfit district, in Al-Khader near Bethlehem and in the town of Beit Sahour. Residents said they were the first demolitions in months.
At the same time, according to the Israeli daily Maariv, the Local Planning and Building Committee of the Jerusalem municipality will meet tomorrow (Thursday) to discuss permits for construction of new community buildings in Gilo, a Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem.
At its meeting, the committee will authorise transfer of expropriated lands from the Israel Lands Administration to the municipality in order to build 200 new housing units, a school and a synagogue in Gilo’s Area 5.
Municipal officials claim that plans for this construction programme had been approved in principle in 1995, and that the new procedures are meant to put these plans into practice.
In November, the US administration criticized the approval of the building of 850 housing units west of Gilo.
Overall, plans are in various stages of approval for the expansion of Gilo by about 4,000 housing units.
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