Three nonprofit organizations petitioned the Jerusalem District Court to overturn the approval of a plan to build a yeshiva and dormitory for foreign students on public land in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of east Jerusalem.
Ir Amim, the Sheikh Jarrah Welfare Association, and the Umm Lison Women’s Association filed the petition against the Jerusalem district and local planning committees, senior planning officials, and the Ohr Somayach institutions, which initiated the plan.
The petitioners also asked the court, sitting as an Administrative Affairs Court, to freeze the plan while it considers their challenge. They specifically asked that the plan not be formally published as approved or otherwise advanced until the court issues a ruling.
At the center of the dispute is a 4.3-dunam site on Pierre van Paassen Street in the Nahalat Shimon section of Sheikh Jarrah, according to official planning records.
The records list the land as state-owned and show that an earlier plan designated it for public use. The petitioners said the site had originally been privately owned Palestinian land and was expropriated by the state for a public building intended to serve neighborhood residents.
They argued that the district planning committee’s decision would instead divert one of the limited sites available for east Jerusalem public services toward a yeshiva and dormitory intended primarily for students from abroad.
East Jerusalem faces public building shortage, according to petition
According to the petition, east Jerusalem faces a severe shortage of public buildings, including a shortage of approximately 2,000 classrooms, based on Jerusalem Municipality figures.
The petitioners said a professional assessment prepared at the district committee’s request also identified a significant shortage of public buildings in Sheikh Jarrah itself. They further said the state has previously identified the lack of available public land as one of the main obstacles to addressing those shortages.
Ohr Somayach received authorization from the Israel Land Authority to plan the project, but the land has not yet been formally allocated to the institution, according to the court filing.
During the approval process, the plan’s wording was changed to replace explicit references to a yeshiva, study hall, and dormitory with broader permitted uses, including religion, culture, and education, the petitioners said.
They argued that the changes were largely cosmetic because Ohr Somayach remained the plan’s developer and the project continued to be intended for the same purpose. They also said the decision to designate 40% of the plot as public open space did not address their objections to the planned building.
The petition challenges three decisions connected to the project: an extension granted to complete the planning process, the district committee’s approval of the plan, and the district committee chairman’s refusal to allow an appeal against that approval.
Official planning records show that the plan was submitted in 2013. The petitioners said it was approved only this year after remaining dormant for several years and argued that officials did not adequately explain why the planning process was extended.
They further argued that the planning authorities did not provide sufficient justification for departing from the land’s previously designated purpose and that the decision was therefore unlawful.
In their request for a temporary freeze, the petitioners acknowledged that construction was not imminent because the land must still be allocated and the project must go through the building-permit process.
However, they said allowing the plan to take effect could make it more difficult for the court to cancel the approval later.
The petitioners said they would withdraw the request for a freeze if the respondents agreed that publishing or advancing the plan would not affect the court’s consideration of the case or be used to argue that the project had progressed too far to reverse.
Sheikh Jarrah, a focal point of Israeli-Palestinian disputes
Sheikh Jarrah has long been a focal point of Israeli-Palestinian disputes over land and housing. Attempts to evict Palestinian families from contested properties in the neighborhood prompted protests and clashes in 2021 and became a flashpoint in the lead-up to 11 days of fighting between Israel and Hamas.
“The yeshiva project is part of the wider series of moves threatening Sheikh Jarrah residents,” Ir Amim researcher Aviv Tatarsky said, accusing the state of coordinating with settler organizations to transfer Palestinian property in the neighborhood.
The case has not yet been assigned to a judge, and no decision has been issued on the request to freeze the plan.