Plans to convert Lifta village site into Orthodox settlement

The Israel Lands Administration has drawn up plans to renovate some 55 homes and buildings in Lifta and construct 90 new housing units to convert the area into a new Orthodox settlement. The plan also includes a hotel and other facilities for tourism. The Palestinian village of Lifta had a population of nearly 3,000 in 1948. Village lands amounted to 8,743 dunums of which Palestinians owned 7,780 dunums. Jews owned 756 dunums with the remaining land classified as public. The village was attacked by Zionist forces and depopulated in early January 1948. The refugee population of Lifta at the end of 1998 totaled 18,165 persons of home 14,217 were registered with UNRWA.

[Based on Palestine Report, Jan. 29, 1999, Salman Abu-Sitta, The Palestinian Nakba 1948, London: Palestinian Return Center, 1998; Walid Khalidi, All That Remains, Washington, DC: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1992.]