In a rare victory for Palestinian residents, a judge has stopped an infrastructure project linked to a settler organisation in occupied east Jerusalem, civic rights groups said on Thursday. The Jerusalem District Court found that the eight million dollar (5.5 million euro) municipal project supported by the Eldad settler group in the Silwan neighbourhood was illegal because it lacked construction permits, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and rights group Bimkom said.
ACRI said the planned construction of sidewalks and facade renovations was designed to make the neighbourhood suitable for tourists who visit the City of David archaeological site, "at the expense of open spaces, green areas, and parking spots for actual residents of the neighbourhood."
Authorities plan to raze 88 Palestinian homes in Silwan they say were built illegally, a controversial decision which critics claim is part of a plan to "Judaise" east Jerusalem. Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan in 1967 and annexed it in a move not recognised by the international community. It considers all of Jerusalem its "eternal and indivisible" capital, but foreign embassies are all located in Tel Aviv. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem to be the capital of their promised state.