Jerusalem municipality approves 450‑unit settlement plan in Umm Lisan, East Jerusalem

The Jerusalem planning and construction committee approved plan 1049873, allowing the construction of about 450 housing units in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Umm Lisan in East Jerusalem. The development, proposed in 2022 by the private firm Topodia (controlled by an Australian‑registered company and overseen by Kevin Bormaster and Ehud Ragoonis), had been stalled for more than two years because the committee required an expansion of the access road. The municipality stepped in as the project’s sponsor, incorporating the road work into the plan and clearing the remaining obstacle.

The new settlement will consist of ten‑storey buildings, potentially housing roughly 2,000 Israeli settlers and significantly altering the demographic and urban character of Umm Lisan, which currently contains around 800 low‑rise Palestinian homes. Critics, including Israeli human‑rights groups such as Ir Amim and the United Nations, describe the project as an unprecedented expansion of settlements in occupied East Jerusalem and a political choice that breaches international law. The plan surpasses the previous largest settlement within a Palestinian neighbourhood, Maʿaleh Hazitom, which has about 120 units.

The approval underscores Israel’s broader policy of expanding settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, a move condemned by the UN and other international bodies as undermining the two‑state solution.