Residents of the West Bank town of Bet Sahour in the south of Jerusalem have for years been trying to defend their lands in and around the Abu Ghneim mountain which, according to Israeli plans, will become another large Jewish settlement called “Har Homa neighborhood”. However, legal procedures in Israeli courts, as well as appeals to the PLO in the past have been futile. Now that the bulldozing date approaches, Bet Sahour residents are threatened by what they feel will be “another Kiryat Arba”, twice the size of Bet Sahour and right above their town. 
On May 6, a public meeting attended by hundreds of local residents delegated the Emergency Committee for the Defense of Abu Ghneim Mountain to formulate a plan of action for the defense of their lands. Speakers at this meeting were Bet Sahour mayor Hanna Al Atrash, Michael Warshawski, AIC director, analyzing the political background of Israeli settlement projects in Jerusalem, Awad Mansour, a settlement expert from the PHRIC, Ghassan Andoni, head of the Bet Sahour Rapprochement Center, and many Bet Sahour residents, victims of land confiscations. 
“The battle for Abu Ghneim mountain is a decisive battle for Arab Jerusalem. If we lose it, Jerusalem will be lost. We will continue to pressure the Palestinian delegation to condition the implementation of the Gaza-Jericho agreement with a halt to the Har Homa project. However, our experience shows that Jerusalem cannot be protected in the closed rooms of the negotiators. We will take our cause out to the streets, look for public support from abroad, and organize a human chain in order to protect the mountain with our bodies if necessary.”