OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), Israeli rights group Ir Amim revealed on Sunday that the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee has approved the deposit of a plan paving the way for the construction of approximately 450 settlement housing units in the heart of the Palestinian neighborhood of Umm Lison in Occupied Jerusalem.
The proposal was first submitted in 2022 by the company Topodia, but remained frozen for more than two years after the planning committee required the expansion of the road leading to the project site before advancing the plan.
The company was unable to meet that condition because it lacked the legal authority to submit plans for expanding public roads outside its ownership.
According to Ir Amim, the obstacle was removed after the Jerusalem Municipality joined the project as a co-applicant, allowing the road expansion to be incorporated into the master plan and clearing the way for its formal approval process.
Umm Lison lies between the Palestinian towns of Jabal al-Mukabber and Sur Baher and currently contains around 800 housing units, most of them two- or three-story buildings. The new plan proposes adding approximately 450 settlement housing units in buildings reaching up to 10 stories, a move that would dramatically alter the neighborhood’s urban character and demographic composition.
Ir Amim said Topodia is controlled by a company registered in Australia. Its board includes Australian businessman Kevin Burmeister, right-wing activist Ehud Ragonis, and a former spokesperson for the settler organization Elad.
Burmeister and Ragonis have also been involved in promoting other settlement projects in Jerusalem, including the Nof Zion settlement established inside the Palestinian neighborhood of Jabal al-Mukabber.
The company claims it purchased the land from the heirs of Jewish owners who allegedly acquired it in the 1930s and relies on those claims to justify the project.
Ir Amim described the project as unprecedented in scale. The largest existing settlement enclave within a Palestinian neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem is Ma’ale HaZeitim in Ras al-Amud, which contains around 120 housing units.
The proposed Umm Lison project would include approximately 450 settlement housing units, housing an estimated 2,000 Israeli settlers in the middle of an existing Palestinian neighborhood.
Ir Amim said the Jerusalem Municipality’s involvement reflects more than a planning decision, describing it as a clear political choice. Rather than avoiding a project likely to increase tensions and undermine the neighborhood’s stability, the municipality has taken a direct role in advancing one of the largest and most consequential settlement projects in Occupied Jerusalem in recent years.
