The Jerusalem Governorate has unveiled a new settlement plan that aims to establish 122 settlement units at the site of the historic Shepherd Hotel in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of occupied Jerusalem.
The governorate stated that the settlement project is backed by the settlement movement Amana, covers an area of 5.8 dunums, and involves 12-storey buildings.
It explained that the plan carries the number (1602689), and that the first session to discuss it is scheduled for 11 November 2026, noting that it has not yet received final approval.
The governorate pointed out that the Shepherd Hotel site originally belonged to the Palestinian al-Husseini family, before the occupation authorities seized it through the so-called Custodian of Absentee Property, and later transferred rights in it to the settlement association Ateret Cohanim, which built a residential complex of dozens of units next to the historic hotel building that has remained empty of residents since its construction.
The new plan provides for the demolition of existing residential buildings to make way for a larger settlement project, while keeping the historic hotel building.
The governorate affirmed that the plan comes within an escalation of settlement projects targeting the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood and seeks to impose a new settlement reality at the expense of the Palestinian presence, while the neighbourhood's residents continue to defend their homes and confront attempts to forcibly evict them.
Settlement expansion in the neighbourhood threatens to change its demographic and geographic character and to undermine the rights of Palestinian residents to their land and property, amid ongoing efforts to Judaize occupied Jerusalem.
