JERUSALEM, October 21, 2026 (WAFA) – The Jerusalem Governorate revealed on Wednesday that Israeli occupation authorities have advanced a plan for the construction of 122 colonial units in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
The Jerusalem Governorate said the colonial project is spearheaded by the private colonist group Amana, the development arm of the Gush Emunim settlement movement, which has been integral to Israeli colonization of many parts of the occupied West Bank, and will cover an area of 5.8 dunums, with buildings rising 12 stories.
The plan, numbered 1602689, is scheduled for its first review session on November 11, 2026, and has not yet received final approval.
The Jerusalem Governorate noted that the Shepherd Hotel historic building complex is located on a 30-dunum compound in Sheikh Jarrah in an area known to Palestinians as Karm Al-Mufti due to its having belonged to Grand Mufti Haj Amin Al-Husseini before it was seized by the Israelis in 1967 (despite the fact that the heirs of the rightful owner were still alive and long-standing legal residents of Jerusalem and the building had functioned as a hotel from 1945). The land was apparently acquired by Jewish millionaire Irving Moskowitz, notorious for his support of Israeli settler-colonialism in East Jerusalem and specifically of the extremist Ateret Cohanim group, from the Israeli Custodian of Absentee Property in 1985.
It added that Ateret Cohanim subsequently built a residential complex comprising dozens of units adjacent to the historic hotel building. The hotel building has remained unoccupied since its construction.
The new plan calls for razing the existing residential buildings to make way for a larger colonial settlement project, while retaining the historic hotel building.
The Jerusalem Governorate stressed that the plan comes amid an escalation of colonial settlement projects targeting the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, seeking to impose a new reality at the expense of the Palestinian presence and forcibly expel the indigenous Palestinian population.
It warned that the expansion of Israeli colonies in the neighborhood threatens to alter its demographic and geographic character and undermine Palestinians’ rights to their land and property, as part of ongoing efforts to Judaize occupied Jerusalem.
K.F.
