On Tuesday, 17 November 2025, construction began of a new settlement in East Jerusalem in the Palestinian neighborhood of Tzur Baher. A shipping container was placed on the site, and the area was fenced off. A sign at the location lists an unfamiliar company, Nazem Investments, as the landowner, but municipal sources indicate the land was likely purchased by the settler organization Elad. The plot is located in the heart of a densely populated Palestinian area, at the southeastern edge of Jerusalem’s municipal boundary.
This development highlights a broader structural issue: One of the core obstacles facing Palestinian landowners in East Jerusalem face. The Jordanian land settlement process was halted in 1967 for political and legal reasons, leaving most parcels without formal registration.
In 2018, the Government of Israel decided to resume land settlement and registration procedures. However, according to NGO Bimkom, only 1% of the land registered since 2018 has been recorded under private Palestinian ownership. Most settled areas overlap with plans for new settlement construction or expansion of existing settlements.
The area recently fenced in Tzur Baher is now undergoing settlement procedures, a step that is expected to make it substantially easier for settlers to obtain building permits and eventually populate the new settlement.
Following 1967, the land registration process in East Jerusalem was frozen for political and legal reasons. As a result, more than 70% of land in East Jerusalem remains unregistered or unsettled, making it extremely difficult for Palestinian residents to obtain building permits on their own land. In 2018, the Israeli government adopted Decision 3790, which renewed land-settlement procedures in East Jerusalem under the stated goal of addressing socio-economic gaps. In practice, however, these procedures have frequently been used in ways that facilitate the dispossession of Palestinian residents and support further settlement expansion.
