Givat HaMatos () is a planned

Israeli settlement Israeli settlements, also called Israeli colonies, are the civilian communities built by Israel throughout the Israeli-occupied territories. They are populated by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Israeli Jews, Jewish identity or ethni ...

East Jerusalem East Jerusalem (, ; , ) is the portion of Jerusalem that was Jordanian annexation of the West Bank, held by Jordan after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, as opposed to West Jerusalem, which was held by Israel. Captured and occupied in 1967, th ...

. It encompasses an area of 170 dunams. It is bordered by Talpiot in the north, Gilo in the south, and Beit Safafa in the west. Israel has approved plans to build a new Israeli settlement there. The

international community The international community is a term used in geopolitics and international relations to refer to a broad group of people and governments of the world. Usage Aside from its use as a general descriptor, the term is typically used to imply the ...

regards Israeli settlements in the

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

, including

, as illegal under

international law International law, also known as public international law and the law of nations, is the set of Rule of law, rules, norms, Customary law, legal customs and standards that State (polity), states and other actors feel an obligation to, and generall ...

, although Israel disputes this.

History

According to ARIJ, Israel confiscated 285

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; ; ; ), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area analogous in role (but not equal) to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amo ...

s of land from Sharafat and Beit Safafa in order to construct Givat HaMatos.Beit Safafa & Sharafat Town Profile
ARIJ, p. 14 Givat HaMatos is Hebrew for "Airplane Hill." The site received its name after a small Israel Air Force jet plane (Fouga CM.170 Magister) crashed there on June 6, 1967, the second day of the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

after being hit by Jordanian anti-aircraft artillery. The pilot, Lt. Dan Givon, was killed. The caravans were built on a hill in 1991 to house a large influx of Ethiopian Jews airlifted to Israel. According to a

Hebrew University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. It is the second-ol ...

political scientist, Givat Hamatos was "an empty hillside, cold and windswept in the winter, in the far south of the municipal area. It was close to... Bethlehem and Beit Jallah, and included a minefield left over from a previous war".The forgotten poor of Givat Hamatos
/ref> Amidar, a government housing company, also placed homeless Israeli families in Givat HaMatos until alternate housing could be found.Trouble on the hill?

Jerusalem Post ''The Jerusalem Post'' is an English-language Israeli broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, Israel, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''The Palestine Post''. In 1950, it changed its name to ''The Je ...

In 2005, a 4-stage development project was unveiled for the neighborhood. The plans included a panoramic promenade, hotels, cafes, office buildings and commercial space. In December 2012, the plan was to build 2,610 housing units in Givat Hamatos in the first stage. The full plan included around 800 units for Palestinians in nearby Beit Safafa. Sources in the Jerusalem municipality said that half of the construction in Givat Hamatos was for the Arabs in Beit Safafa. On 2 October 2014, the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

condemned new expansion in Givat HaMatos. United States criticised the housing development too. According to

Akiva Eldar Akiva Eldar (; born 27 November 1945) is an Israeli political analyst, author and journalist. Eldar wrote for the newspaper Haaretz and was chief political columnist, editorial writer and US Bureau Chief for the paper,

, the divide between Betlehem and

will now be completed and "a significant diplomatic arrangement" regarding Sharafat and Beit Safafa, two Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem, will be virtually impossible. On November 15, 2020, the Israel Lands Authority and the Housing Ministry announced the opening of bidding for the construction of 1,257 units in a new settlement. The development was condemned by the UN’s Middle East envoy, Nickolay Mladenov, EU High Representative Josep Borrell and Arab League Assistant Secretary-General for Palestine and the Occupied Arab Territories, Saeed Abu Ali.

References

{{Coord, 31, 44, 20.03, N, 35, 12, 29.9, E, display=title Neighbourhoods of Jerusalem Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem 1991 establishments in Asia Populated places established in 1991