“Metropolitan Jerusalem” refers to the 1,000 square kilometer region encompassing Jerusalem and its suburbs and hinterlands, including the Ramallah region in the north and the Bethlehem region in the south. Like “Greater Jerusalem,” “Metropolitan Jerusalem” is a planning area where Israel is developing and connecting rural settlements and satellite settlements to the urban core as well as to one another following various Master Plans that utilize the engineering of housing, public space, roads, and more to that end. The envisioned metropolitan region is shown here.
The concept of a Metropolitan Jerusalem is implemented not through annexation, as in the case of “Greater Jerusalem,” since the former includes regions that are populous with Palestinians and are under the authority of the Palestinian Authority; rather, the plan aims at strengthening the urban core of Jerusalem in relation to settlements in the region and the transformation of West Bank areas around Jerusalem into “hinterlands dependent upon an Israeli-controlled urban area.”1