176 Homes Approved in Yerushalayim’s Nof Tziyon

YERUSHALAYIM
Buildings forming part of Nof Tziyon are seen in the foreground as buildings from the Palestinian neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber are seen in the background, Wednesday. (Reuters/Ammar Awad)

The Yerushalayim housing committee approved an additional 176 homes for the Nof Tziyon neighborhood, located next to the Arab neighborhood of Jabel Mukhabar in eastern Yerushalayim, on Wednesday.

Nof Tziyon, which currently has 91 housing units, will grow to 267 homes out of some 480 total planned for the development project.

In 2011, residents protested the planned buyout of the remaining stages of the project by an Arab-American businessman, Bashar Masri, who sought to market homes there to Yerushalayim Arabs.

Residents feared that if the development company which owned the land, Digal Investments and Holdings, sold the rights to the remaining stages of the project, the 91 existing Jewish homes would be cut off geographically from Jewish neighborhoods in the area, and Nof Tziyon would become an isolated enclave.

Ultimately, the deal between Digal and Masri was scrapped, and Israeli supermarket tycoon Rami Levy bought out the rights to the Nof Tziyon project.

The construction was swiftly condemned by the Palestinians as a violation of international law.

Peace Now and other NGOs say the approvals would make Nof Tziyon the largest Jewish “settlement” inside any Palestinian neighborhood of eastern Yerushalayim and possibly also of the “West Bank.”

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