The Israelis are bringing 100,000 Jewish settlers to Jerusalem every year. The Director of Mapping in Jerusalem's Arab Studies Society said that the Israeli plan to Judaize the city will accommodate 500,000 more settlers by 2010.
Part of that plan is Sharon's blueprint of imposing a settlement inside East Jerusalem's Old City. Before falling ill, Sharon spoke of the settlement project known as E1, which aims to impose an industrial zone , 3,500 housing units, and five hotels on a one kilometer area.
The placement will cut-off East Jerusalem entirely and make establishing the Palestinian capital an impossibility.
The area of “Greater Jerusalem” is 600 km and is becoming possible to access for Israelis-only through a system of streets and tunnels that connect to the settlements. The Wall, home demolitions, land and identification confiscation and settlement expansion are forcing out the original Palestinian population.
The Mapping Director said that the scheme aims to strengthen the presence of Israeli soldiers and settlers outside the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem and decrease the Palestinian population of Jerusalem. After the Palestinians are gone, East Jerusalem and West Jerusalem will be re-linked through a tunnel system.
Israeli planners visualize the city by 2020 to be the capital of Israel and the center of the Jewish people as its economic and social power increases. The Wall will ensure that Palestinians are not present, and therefore through the Israeli “Absentee Property Law,” the Israeli government will be able to confiscate Palestinian land in a manner it deems legal.
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