Moshe Kahlon and Yifat Sassa Biton visit a
construction site in Jerusalem on January 28, 2019. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

The final day for submitting proposals is January 18, 2021, three days before Joe Biden is slated to be sworn into office.

By TPS

The Ministry of Housing and the Israel Land Authority on Sunday opened the tender, a bidding process, for the construction of 1,257 housing units to be built in Givat HaMatos, in Jerusalem.

Ethiopian and Russian immigrants have been living in Givat Hamatos since 1991, which is situated on a main route used by thousands of Israeli motorists daily in Jerusalem, near Har Homah, Talpiot, and Gilo.

Sunday’s announcement is the latest development in the plans for the area since February 2020, when the tender was published for 1,077 units out of the 2,610 units for Givat HaMatos. Another 180 units were now added to the tender.

The announcement means that contractors can submit their proposals to build the units in Givat Hamatos. The final day for submitting the proposals is January 18, 2021, three days before Joe Biden is slated to be sworn into office.

The Obama administration has opposed Israeli construction in the area, as well as left-wing organizations that seek to establish Arab territorial continuity in the area.

The left-wing Peace Now organization, which opposes Israel’s presence in this part of Jerusalem, stated that “construction in Givat Hamatos will severely hamper the prospect of a two-state solution because it will ultimately block the possibility of territorial contiguity between East Jerusalem and Bethlehem–the main Palestinian metropolitan area–and will prevent Palestinian Beit Safafa from connecting with a future Palestinian state.”