JERUSALEM, Sunday, January 7, 2024 (WAFA) – The Israeli-only municipality of occupied Jerusalem announced this evening its approval of the controversial settlement plan known as Silicon Valley, aimed at destroying the industrial area in the Wadi al-Jouz neighborhood of Jerusalem. The approval also includes the establishment of a waste dump northeast of the occupied city.
The so-called Silicon Valley project will extend along the Wadi al-Jouz road and the Othman bin Affan Street. Buildings ranging from 8 to 14 stories will be constructed on the ruins of Palestinian-owned commercial and industrial establishments in the industrial area of Wadi al-Jouz.
Attorney Muhannad Jabara, who filed a petition against the project on behalf of affected Jerusalem residents, stated that the Silicon Valley plan is disastrous for the people of Jerusalem. According to him, it infringes upon the owners of businesses in the industrial area, seizing their properties despite their need for housing and an industrial zone.
He emphasized that this settlement project aims to remove an entire industrial zone established by the Jerusalem residents prior to the Israeli occupation.
Jabara added that the Israeli municipality is speaking of a new neighborhood in the city, ignoring the presence of an Arab neighborhood in that location. The classification of this plan as “hi-tech” restricts residential projects in the Palestinian land, as Palestinians in Jerusalem are allowed to build on only 10% of their land.
In addition to the colonial plan, the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem approved the establishment of a waste dump on a 109-dunum area in a valley near the neighborhoods of Al-Isawiya, Anata, and Ras Shehada, east of occupied Jerusalem. This area is home to tens of thousands of Palestinians.
The plan was initiated in 2012 when the municipality aimed to establish the dump on a 520-dunum area in the same location. However, Palestinians in Jerusalem legally resisted the establishment of this dump over the course of a decade.
The dump will cover an area of 350,000 cubic meters, causing environmental damage to the private lands of the local Palestinian population. The occupation authorities have already demolished 70 residential and commercial structures to implement this plan.
All of Israel’s colonies in the occupied West Bank, including those in and around occupied East Jerusalem, are illegal under International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention in addition to various United Nations and Security Council resolutions. They also constitute war crimes under International Law.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory”.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the International Criminal Court Rome Statute prohibit settlement activity. According to Article 8(2) of the Rome Statute, ‘the transfer, directly or indirectly, by an occupying power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies, or the deportation or transfer of all or parts of the population of the occupied territory within or outside this territory’ are unlawful.
