JERUSALEM, December 14, 2025 (WAFA) – The Jerusalem Governorate warned that the Israeli occupation government continues to allocate tens of millions of shekels to colonization projects in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, stressing that this constitutes a grave violation of international law and directly undermines the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination, the end of the occupation, and the establishment of their independent, sovereign state on the June 4, 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
In a statement issued Sunday, the Governorate stressed that the occupation has no sovereignty over Jerusalem or any part of the occupied Palestinian Territory.
It explained that new financial transfers set to be presented this week to the so-called Israeli Knesset Finance Committee as part of the 2025 budget include 89.25 million shekels for what is termed “security” for colonists inside Palestinian neighborhoods in occupied East Jerusalem, as well as for financing the recruitment of foreign labor for the construction sector.
The allocations also include 31.3 million shekels for the so-called “tunnels” of the al-Buraq (the Western Wall) in Jerusalem's Old City. In addition, the committee approved eight million shekels over the past two weeks for the construction of an Israeli occupation police center in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabal al-Mukaber.
The Governorate noted that the Israeli government funds private security for colonists in occupied East Jerusalem at a cost of nearly 3,000 shekels per colonist per month, amounting to approximately 100 million shekels annually, as part of efforts to entrench control and impose Judaization facts on the city.
It further pointed out that the Finance Committee is also set to discuss additional transfers in favor of colonies in the West Bank, including 46.7 million shekels to fortify colonists’ buses, raising the total transportation fortification budget for colonies in 2025 to approximately 70 million shekels. This comes in addition to 5.4 million shekels allocated for the demolition of Palestinian homes in the occupied Palestinian Territory, following an increase of nearly 40 percent in the budget of the so-called inspection unit of the occupation’s Civil Administration in recent years, with a further 20 percent increase expected.
The Jerusalem Governorate said these allocations are part of a broader series of transfers recently approved by the Knesset Finance Committee in support of the colonization project, stressing that they coincide with an escalation in demolitions, persecution and discrimination, and reflect an apartheid system aimed at emptying Jerusalem of its indigenous population and undermining their resilience.
It warned that the allocation of these funds and the expansion of colonization constitute an unlawful unilateral escalation that keeps the region in a constant state of tension, calling on the international community to assume its legal and moral responsibilities and take urgent action to halt these policies and hold the occupation accountable.
The Governorate affirmed that all unilateral Israeli measures will neither alter the reality of the Palestinian presence nor confer any legitimacy on the occupation.
T.R.
