On February 3, 2026, Israel approved additional funding to build a “new neighborhood” for the illegal settlement of Geva Binyamin Adam in the occupied West Bank. This settlement is located outside the Separation Wall on the northeast side of Jerusalem, just above the Palestinian village of Hizma.

But the location of the new “neighborhood” is not adjacent to Geva Binyamin Adam; rather, it is on the Jerusalem side of the wall but outside the city’s municipal boundaries. The new neighborhood will connect to the Israeli settlement of Neve Ya’akov, which was built inside the boundaries in 1970 (see The Three Israeli Settlement Rings in and around East Jerusalem: Supplanting Palestinian Jerusalem and The History of Israeli Settlement Expansion in and around East Jerusalem from 1967 to 1993).1 In other words, despite falling outside Jerusalem’s municipal borders, the new neighborhood will function as a neighborhood of East Jerusalem.

“Adam West” will serve to extend the Israeli municipal boundaries of East Jerusalem further into the West Bank—a move that amounts to annexation. Israel’s Ministry of Construction and Housing has budgeted NIS 120 million ($37 million) for an additional 6,000 housing units in Adam West.2 The settlement is being advanced by the Higher Planning Council, the body responsible for building in Israeli-controlled Area C of the West Bank.3

Adam West will also be inserted smack between the Palestinian villages of al-Ram and Hizma, preventing them from ever merging, while serving as a bridge between the Jewish settlements of Geva Binyamin Adam and Neve Ya’akov, facilitating their future joining.

“The municipal services [for Adam West] will come from Jerusalem, although it’ll not be declared as part of Jerusalem,” Yonatan Mizrachi, codirector of Peace Now’s Settlement Watch project, told Jerusalem Story.4 “[The settlers won’t go] through the checkpoint of Hizma and circle around; they would go straight from their neighborhood to Neve Ya’akov and further to Jerusalem. They will not feel that they are in the West Bank.”

The planned settlement marks the first time Israeli municipal Jerusalem is expanding northwestward since Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank in 1967.5

Adam West is slated to be built on approximately 500 dunams (about 120 acres) of land that Israeli has designated as state land between the Palestinian towns of al-Ram and Hizma in the Palestinian Governorate of Jerusalem.6

The area is privately owned by Palestinians from al-Ram, Hizma, and Jaba‘,7 but, using a skewed interpretation of the 1858 Ottoman Land Code, Israel claims land as state property if it has not been cultivated for several years.8

“This project is not new,” Palestinian cartographer Khalil Toufakji told Jerusalem Story, noting it was introduced in 2005.9 “At that time, there were negotiations between Palestine and Israel, so Israel froze this project.”

More than two decades later, the settlement plan has also found fertile ground in today’s political climate.

“The current Israeli government specifically feels like they are in a race. They want to do as much colonial activity as possible in the shortest time possible,” Munir Nusseibeh, professor of international law and director of the Human Rights Clinic and the Community Action Center at Al-Quds University, told Jerusalem Story. “We can see how quickly they are building different roads, furthering segregation in the West Bank. We can see how colonies are expanding in Jerusalem.”

“This government is trying to do anything that will expand Jewish supremacy in the West Bank,” Alon Cohen-Lifshitz, director of the Area C department at Israeli planning rights group Bimkom, told Jerusalem Story.10 “There is a real demand for the ultra-Orthodox in Neve Ya’akov to expand Neve Ya’akov.”

Neve Ya’akov has a sizable ultra-Orthodox population, and as this population grows, so does its demand for housing.

The planned settlement neighborhood lies just along the Separation Wall, which is intentional, say Bimkom and Israeli rights group B’Tselem. According to a 2005 report by the two groups, the location of the wall in the area was never about security concerns; it was always part of plans to expand Neve Ya’akov with a new Jerusalem neighborhood:

The route of the wall around Neve Ya’akov absorbed 1,800 dunams (445 acres) of West Bank land between the wall and the municipal border into Israeli territory.12 It also seized lands for urban development, grazing, and farming from al-Ram and other Palestinian towns and villages.13

While Road 437 and the Israeli wall separate the planned Adam West settlement from Geva Binyamin Adam, according to the outline plan, Adam West may connect to Geva Binaymin Adam via roundabouts at Road 437, which is currently being widened.14 This means that an underpass might be built under the wall, or the wall will be opened here to allow traffic from Adam West and Geva Binyamin to cross through.15

“They might actually create a physical connection between this settlement to Geva Binyamin settlement,” Cohen-Lifshitz said, noting that Road 437 then connects to Jerusalem.

“This is going to be a connection of Geva Binyamin directly to Neve Ya’akov to Jerusalem,” Cohen-Lifshitz elaborated. “This is the expansion of Jerusalem not just to this new neighborhood but to all the area of Geva Binyamin.”

In this way, the Adam West settlement has a much larger goal in mind.

“This is part of metropolitan Jerusalem, which will be annexed to Israel according to their vision in 2050,” Toufakji said (see New Israeli Bill Seeks to Annex Israeli Settlements and Create “Metropolitan Jerusalem”).

Toufakji is referring to Israel’s “Jerusalem 2050” master plan, which aims to widen the city’s municipal boundaries and increase its Jewish population while reducing its Palestinian population.16 The Jerusalem 2050 vision is a core foundation of Israel’s Greater Jerusalem plan, seeking to create a contiguous Jewish Israeli space within the heart of the West Bank that’s inaccessible to Palestinians (see Israel’s Vision of a Greater [Jewish] Jerusalem). Advancing Adam West is just another step in Israel actualizing that goal.

“Israel wants to take their decision to annex whole blocs surrounding Jerusalem as a final status to make Greater Jerusalem,” Toufakji said.