On 20 April 2026 the Jerusalem District Planning Committee approved an 11-storey ultra-Orthodox Jewish religious school known as Or Somayach, or the Glassman Yeshiva, in the heart of Sheikh Jarrah. The project will rise on five dunams of land at the southern entrance to the neighbourhood, directly opposite Sheikh Jarrah Mosque. It includes dormitories for hundreds of students and residential units for teaching staff. Palestinian officials immediately condemned the move, saying it deliberately exploits the current regional distractions.

While fragile ceasefires hold in Gaza and Lebanon and attention shifts to Iran, Israel is pressing ahead with its settler-colonial project in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank. This latest step in Sheikh Jarrah is no isolated event. It is part of a systematic drive to displace Palestinians and implant settlers, killing off any realistic two-state solution and breaking international law. Palestinian families are bearing the brunt.

The decision is the latest chapter in a decades-long campaign. Occupation authorities seized the land years ago under the pretext of “public needs” and handed it in 2007 to the US-linked Or Somayach Institutions.

If the complex is built, it will sharply increase the settler population, tighten security controls and change the character of the neighbourhood beyond recognition. Residents already endure daily harassment, restricted movement and the constant threat of eviction.

If the complex is built, it will sharply increase the settler population, tighten security controls and change the character of the neighbourhood beyond recognition. Residents already endure daily harassment, restricted movement and the constant threat of eviction.

Rawhi Fattouh, head of the Palestinian National Council, called the approval part of a calculated colonial strategy. “The approval of the Or Somayach project is part of a systematic colonial project that uses regional turmoil to impose unlawful changes in occupied Jerusalem,” he said. In his view, the timing is no accident. The move takes advantage of the focus on ceasefires elsewhere to push through facts on the ground that would otherwise face stronger resistance.

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This single project is only one piece of a much wider land grab. Last August Israeli authorities finalised the controversial E1 plan, which clears the way for thousands of new housing units linking East Jerusalem to the Ma’ale Adumim settlement bloc. When completed, it will cut East Jerusalem off from the rest of the West Bank and create an unbroken Israeli corridor. In February this year the government restarted formal land registration across large parts of Area C, the first time since 1967. Critics rightly label it de facto annexation, a process that could transfer vast tracts of Palestinian land to the Israeli state.

Buffer zones around settlements keep expanding, new outposts keep appearing and bypass roads keep multiplying. All these measures restrict Palestinian access to their own farmland and homes. Taken together, they make a contiguous Palestinian state geographically impossible and lock in permanent occupation.

The regional ceasefires have handed Israel the political cover it needed. Six months after the Gaza ceasefire began in October 2025, the humanitarian crisis continues, restrictions, disease outbreaks and reconstruction remain stalled.

The regional ceasefires have handed Israel the political cover it needed. Six months after the Gaza ceasefire began in October 2025, the humanitarian crisis continues, restrictions, disease outbreaks and reconstruction remain stalled.

Yet attention has moved on. The Lebanon ceasefire that started in mid-April and the uneasy pauses around Iran have pulled diplomatic and media focus away. Palestinian officials have directly linked the Sheikh Jarrah decision to this distraction.

The Israeli rights group Ir Amim warned that the yeshiva plan will sharply increase pressure on Palestinian residents. If it goes ahead, daily insecurity will rise for families who have lived in Sheikh Jarrah for generations. Children will grow up in neighbourhoods deliberately redesigned to exclude them. Parents will watch their heritage and future prospects disappear under concrete and ideology.

Every one of these steps violates international law. Settlement activity in occupied territory breaks the Fourth Geneva Convention. The E1 plan and the land registration process amount to annexation and forcible transfer, both banned under the convention and repeated UN resolutions. The International Court of Justice has repeatedly declared such actions illegal.

By moving forward Israel undermines the legal protections that should safeguard Palestinian rights in East Jerusalem. It also destroys any realistic chance of the city serving as the capital of a future Palestinian state, a demand rooted in international consensus and Palestinian national aspirations.

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The human cost falls on ordinary Palestinian families. Many already carry the scars of repeated eviction threats and home demolitions.

The new yeshiva will bring hundreds more settlers into their midst and make daily life even harder. These families are not abstract statistics. They are the living proof of the dispossession that international law was meant to prevent.

The new yeshiva will bring hundreds more settlers into their midst and make daily life even harder. These families are not abstract statistics. They are the living proof of the dispossession that international law was meant to prevent.

The message from Sheikh Jarrah and the parallel moves in the West Bank is unmistakable. Ceasefires that leave the occupation untouched do not bring peace. They simply open the door to the next phase of dispossession. While the world watches fragile truces elsewhere, Israel continues to bury the two-state solution and impose a one-state reality of apartheid and inequality.

Real security and stability in the region demand more than temporary pauses in violence. They require genuine accountability, an immediate end to settlement expansion and the full restoration of Palestinian rights, including the right of return and Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine. Only by confronting the occupation’s relentless continuity can the international community uphold international law and advance the equality and justice the Middle East so urgently needs.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

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