Israeli Authorities Approve Or Somayach Yeshiva Plan in Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem

Israeli occupation authorities have approved a plan in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem to establish a large ultra-Orthodox Jewish religious school, with Palestinian sources and the Jerusalem Governorate describing the move as part of a broader effort to expand colonial presence in Palestinian neighborhoods.

“The Jerusalem Governorate said that the Israeli occupation has approved a plan to establish a Haredi Jewish religious school operated by Or Somayach—a religious institution that functions as part of the Israeli colonial presence in occupied Jerusalem—at the center of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, in occupied Jerusalem”

- IMEMC News

The Jerusalem Governorate said that the district planning committee of the occupation municipality approved the establishment of a religious school for Haredi Jews named Or Sumyakh, despite objections raised by rights groups, and said the project reflects “policies aimed at expanding colonial presence in Palestinian neighborhoods.”

- IMEMC News

Al Jazeera Net reported that the plan includes constructing a large 11-story building on an area of about 5 dunams opposite the Sheikh Jarrah Mosque, and that it includes on-site housing for hundreds of Haredi students plus residential units for teaching staff.

WAFA Agency reported that the Israeli municipality’s so-called district planning committee approved on Monday the construction of the yeshiva named Or Somayach, and said the project includes an 11-story building spanning approximately five dunums at the southern entrance of the neighborhood opposite the Sheikh Jarrah Mosque.

Both outlets tied the approval to Israel’s exploitation of regional distraction, with Al Jazeera Net saying it came “in a context of clear exploitation of regional attention to the escalations between the United States and Israel on the one hand, and Iran on the other,” while - IMEMC News said the approval came as the occupation exploits the ongoing escalation between the United States and the Israeli occupation on one side and Iran on the other.

The Jerusalem Governorate also warned that establishing such institutions is not educational as promoted, but political tools to Judaize Arab neighborhoods and pressure Palestinian residents to leave, alongside policies of demolition and deliberate neglect of infrastructure.

Alongside the Sheikh Jarrah school plan, Israeli enforcement actions in Jerusalem’s Silwan neighborhood were described as targeting Palestinian families with eviction notices.

Al Jazeera Net reported that Israeli Enforcement and Execution Directorate crews, accompanied by occupation police, stormed the Batn al-Hawa neighborhood in Silwan south of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and handed the head of the neighborhood committee Zohair Al-Rajabi eviction notices for seven siblings, giving them until May 17 to vacate their homes for the settlement association Ateret Kohanim.

Al-Jazeera Net

Al-Rajabi told Al Jazeera Net that 30 East Jerusalem families have been displaced from their homes in the neighborhood since 2015 in favor of settlers, and that after his eviction and his siblings leaving, only 10 homes owned by the Al-Rajabi family will remain in the neighborhood out of 41 houses.

The Jerusalem Governorate said the development came within a continuing pattern of violations that target Batn al-Hawa, and it cited that on March 24 of the past year the occupation authorities evacuated 11 homes belonging to the Al-Rajabi family, inhabited by about 65 worshippers, together with evacuating the Baspous family of about 20 people after settlers seized their homes.

Al Jazeera Net also said that since 2015 the targeting of Batn al-Hawa and Silwan has intensified, with more than 84 Palestinian families, about 700 people, placed in the eviction danger circle, based on the Israeli Law for Legal and Administrative Matters of 1970.

In the same reporting, the governorate described that law as a discriminatory tool that allows Jews to claim pre-1948 property while Palestinians are deprived of the right to reclaim their property.

The eviction notice timeline and the scale of displacement described by Al Jazeera Net were presented as part of a broader pattern that Palestinian sources linked to settlement expansion and demographic change.

Palestinian reporting also described a wave of condemnation from Arab and Muslim countries over what it characterized as repeated Israeli violations of the historic and legal status of Jerusalem’s holy sites.

“JERUSALEM, April 23, 2026 (WAFA) – Israeli occupation authorities have approved a plan to build a large ultra-Orthodox Jewish religious school (yeshiva) in the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in occupied Jerusalem”

WAFA Agency

Al Jazeera Net said that eight Arab and Muslim countries condemned the repeated Israeli violations, including repeated incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque by settlers and Israeli ministers, and raising the Israeli flag in its courtyards.

It reported that the condemnation appeared in a statement issued by the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Indonesia, Pakistan, Egypt, and Turkey, who said that the provocative actions at Al-Aqsa constitute a “flagrant breach of international law and international humanitarian law, and an unacceptable provocation to Muslims worldwide.”

The ministers also described Israeli actions as a blatant violation of the sanctity of the holy city, stressing their unequivocal rejection of any attempts to change the historical and legal status quo in Jerusalem and its Islamic and Christian holy sites, while acknowledging the Hashemite custodianship’s special role in this regard.

Al Jazeera Net further said that in the same statement the foreign ministers condemned all illegal settlement activities, including decisions to approve the construction of more than 30 new settlements, and the rising violence of settlers in the occupied West Bank, including recent attacks on schools and Palestinian children.

The reporting added that last Wednesday, hundreds of settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the occasion of what is called Independence Day, performing Jewish rituals and dances, while hundreds of Jerusalemites were prevented from entering.

In the framing of Al Jazeera Net, the settlement school approval in Sheikh Jarrah and the eviction notices in Silwan were occurring amid this diplomatic backlash over Al-Aqsa and settlement activity.

In addition to institutional statements, Palestinian political leadership was quoted describing the Sheikh Jarrah school approval as part of a systematic colonial strategy.

- IMEMC News reported that Rawhi Fattouh, head of the Palestinian National Council, said the approval of the Or Somayach project is part of a systematic colonial strategy that uses regional turmoil to impose unlawful changes in occupied Jerusalem.

- IMEMC News

Fattouh said the Israeli District Planning Committee is acting as a political instrument outside international law, using urban planning to advance annexation and force demographic change.

He added that targeting Sheikh Jarrah is deliberate due to its political and historical significance and its role as home to key Palestinian institutions.

In - IMEMC News’s account, Fattouh argued that the dismissal of legal objections reflects ongoing policies aimed at reshaping Jerusalem to serve the occupation’s colonial agenda, taking advantage of international silence.

He concluded that Jerusalem remains Arab and Palestinian, and that attempts to impose new realities by force will not erase its identity.

The same report also embedded legal assertions, stating that all of Israel’s colonies in the occupied West Bank, including those in and around occupied East Jerusalem, are illegal under International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention, and various United Nations and Security Council resolutions, and that they constitute war crimes under International Law.

WAFA Agency’s reporting framed the Sheikh Jarrah yeshiva approval as a move that could “significantly alter the demographic and geographic character of the area,” linking the project to broader settlement policies and threats to evict Palestinian families.

“Palestinian sources revealed that the Israeli occupation authorities have approved a settlement plan in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Jerusalem, at a time when those authorities issued eviction notices for Palestinian homes in Silwan in favor of settlers”

Al-Jazeera Net

WAFA said the Jerusalem Governorate warned that the project could significantly alter the demographic and geographic character of the area, and it described Sheikh Jarrah as one of the most prominent Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem located just outside the walls of the Old City.

Al-Jazeera Net

It also reiterated that Sheikh Jarrah is home to key institutions such as Orient House, the Palestinian National Theatre, and several diplomatic missions, and it said Orient House was formerly the headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organization before it was closed by Israeli authorities in 2003.

WAFA described the move as part of broader settlement policies in the neighborhood, particularly in areas such as Umm Haroun and northern Sheikh Jarrah, alongside increasing threats to evict dozens of Palestinian families in favor of settler organizations.

It added that establishing such institutions in Palestinian neighborhoods is not merely educational but serves political objectives, including increasing pressure on Palestinian residents and contributing to displacement, alongside home demolitions and neglect of infrastructure.

In - IMEMC News, the same governorate framing was echoed through the description of the project as reflecting ongoing efforts to expand illegal colonial presence inside Palestinian neighborhoods and reshape the city’s demographic and political landscape.

Taken together with Al Jazeera Net’s account of eviction notices in Batn al-Hawa and the governorate’s description of a larger eviction danger circle affecting more than 84 Palestinian families and about 700 people, the sources portray the stakes as both immediate and structural.