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Israel Advances New Settlement Plan in Jerusalem

Palestinian buildings are seen at right, behind a section of the West Bank Jewish settlement of Efrat, foreground, Thursday, June 9, 2022. (AP)
Palestinian buildings are seen at right, behind a section of the West Bank Jewish settlement of Efrat, foreground, Thursday, June 9, 2022. (AP)
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Israel Advances New Settlement Plan in Jerusalem

Palestinian buildings are seen at right, behind a section of the West Bank Jewish settlement of Efrat, foreground, Thursday, June 9, 2022. (AP)
Palestinian buildings are seen at right, behind a section of the West Bank Jewish settlement of Efrat, foreground, Thursday, June 9, 2022. (AP)

Israel has advanced a new statement plan in Jerusalem after postponing it for several weeks due to US President Joe Biden’s recent visit to the region.
Israel’s Jerusalem Municipality issued a tender to establish 434 settlement units on lands belonging to the Palestinian town of Sur Baher, southeast of Jerusalem.

The “Grand Project” is estimated to cost about 1.07 billion shekels. Once implemented, it will reach the 1967 borders, which the Palestinians demand to be the borders of their future state.

The Israel-based Azorim Investment Development and Construction Company is set to implement the project, which has a total area of ​​about 7.3 dunums, extending to Ramat Rachel settlement, overlooking Bethlehem.

The new projects sparked anger among Palestinians who considered it an integral part of the campaigns to Judaize Jerusalem and distort its cultural Palestinian, Christian, Islamic identity.

Palestine’s Foreign Ministry denounced the tender, stressing that it is part of a racist colonial expansionist scheme that aims to isolate Jerusalem from its vicinity and an extension of the crimes of the occupation and its settlers on the ground.

“It (project) seeks to deepen settlement and the theft of more land in a way that undermines efforts to launch a real and feasible peace process and negotiations between Palestine and Israel,” the ministry explained.

It held the Israeli government fully and directly responsible for the ongoing settlement crimes and considered the settlement-deepening attempts a systematic provocation of conflicts.

The Ministry called on the international community and the US administration to take immediate action to protect the two-state solution and translate the anti-settlement stance into practical measures and steps that would force the occupying power to stop it immediately.

Hamas Movement also condemned Israel’s new plan and considered it a further Judaization attempt to target the city’s identity.

“It is a desperate attempt that will not succeed in obliterating the landmarks of the holy city and changing historical facts,” it stressed in a statement.

A Hamas spokesman said this “Zionist crime will be confronted with the unity and struggle of our people by all means.”

Hamas urged Palestinians to have more patience and stand still in the face of the occupation’s violations and Judaization schemes.

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Sudanese Stakeholders Hold Roundtable Talks in Geneva

A previous meeting of the coordination of Tagadum with the officials of the African Mechanism in Addis Ababa. (Tagadum on Facebook)
A previous meeting of the coordination of Tagadum with the officials of the African Mechanism in Addis Ababa. (Tagadum on Facebook)
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Sudanese Stakeholders Hold Roundtable Talks in Geneva

A previous meeting of the coordination of Tagadum with the officials of the African Mechanism in Addis Ababa. (Tagadum on Facebook)
A previous meeting of the coordination of Tagadum with the officials of the African Mechanism in Addis Ababa. (Tagadum on Facebook)

Geneva has hosted a third “roundtable” of meetings involving Sudanese political and civil groups aimed at bridging the gap between the country’s warring parties. These talks, coordinated by the French organization Promediation, follow similar meetings held previously in Cairo and Geneva. The primary goals are to negotiate a ceasefire and facilitate humanitarian aid to civilians.

The two-day meetings, which began on Monday, include representatives from the Coordination of Democratic Civil Forces (Tagadum), the pro-army Democratic Bloc coalition, and armed movements aligned with the bloc. However, some groups have announced their boycott of the meetings.

The Democratic Bloc has shown conflicting stances on attending the Geneva talks. Mohammed Zakaria, spokesperson for the bloc and a member of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), announced his group’s decision not to participate.

Omar Khalafallah, a leader in the Democratic Unionist Party and another bloc spokesperson, refuted Zakaria’s statement, insisting that the bloc would attend the meetings to promote a national vision.

A source within the Democratic Bloc told Asharq Al-Awsat that the meetings revealed significant internal divisions in the coalition. The JEM, led by current Finance Minister Jibril Ibrahim, appears to be charting its own course, which the source described as a form of defection.

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, Sharif Mohammed Osman, a leader in Tagadum and the political secretary of the Sudanese Congress Party, explained that the meetings seek to achieve consensus on ending the war through negotiated solutions, starting with a humanitarian truce to ensure aid delivery and the opening of safe corridors.

These measures are considered preliminary steps toward a ceasefire and a peaceful resolution to the conflict, he underlined.

A wide array of civilian leaders are participating in the talks, including key figures from Tagadum, such as Sudanese Congress Party leader Omar Al-Dukair, Federal Gathering Party leader Babiker Faisal, and head of the Sudan Liberation Movement – Transitional Council Al-Hadi Idris.

Osman expressed optimism that the participants would issue a unified final statement addressing the peaceful resolution of the war and agreeing on a humanitarian truce to facilitate aid delivery.

In October, Cairo hosted a similar meeting, which resulted in a final statement signed by the participating groups, except for the Sudan Liberation Movement – Minni Minnawi faction and the JEM – Jibril Ibrahim faction, which refused to endorse the Cairo declaration despite attending the discussions.

Promediation, a French organization supported by the French and Swiss foreign ministries, has played a consistent role in Sudanese affairs. Since June 2022, it has organized roundtable discussions, initially focusing on negotiations between Darfuri armed movements before expanding its scope to include Sudanese political and civil forces in the wake of the war.