Tag: Jerusalem

To view original article, published in Haaretz on the 30th May 2008, click here

Days before Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s departure for Washington, Housing Minister Ze’ev Boim announced Friday that his ministry will issue a tender on Sunday for the construction of hundreds of housing units in two controversial East Jerusalem neighborhoods: 120 units in Har Homa and 700 units in Pisgat Ze’ev.

Both Har Homa and Pisgat Ze’ev are under the jurisdiction of the Jerusalem municipality, but are situated beyond the green line. Tens of thousands of people currently reside in each of them.

In an interview with “Kol Hai” radio Friday, Boim said that he was waiting for the authorization of the defense minister before issuing an additional tender for the construction of 600 apartments in the settlement of Beitar Ilit, south of East Jerusalem, which is not under the jurisdiction of the Jerusalem municipality. Boim said that “the decision to issue tenders was meant as a gift to the city on the 41st anniversary of its emancipation.”

The prime minister has frozen construction plans in both Har Homa and Pisgat Ze’ev, largely at the request of the United States over concerns that construction in these disputed areas could derail peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Last year, a tender was issued by Israel for the construction of 300 housing units in Har Homa, sparking harsh international criticism. Consequently, Olmert instructed that all future construction plans beyond the green line must be personally approved by him. He wrote at the time “construction, new building, expansion, preparation of plans, publication of residency tenders and confiscation of land stemming from other settlement activities in the (West Bank) area will not go forward and will not be implemented without requesting and receiving in advance approval by the defense minister and the prime minister.”

Earlier Friday, Palestinian sources confirmed that Olmert will hold a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas before he leaves for Washington Monday. The meeting will be closed, according to reports, without the negotiation teams headed by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qureia. The two leaders will reportedly discuss the issues that Olmert will later bring up before U.S. President George W. Bush and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Palestinian negotiator and Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said Friday that the meeting between the two leaders would include all final-status issues as well as Egyptian efforts to broker an unofficial truce between Israel and militants in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

By Etgar Lefkovits, published in the Jerusalem Post on 20th May 2008. To view original article click here

A new police station has quietly opened in E1, an area between Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim that has been a subject of continuing controversy.

The station, which will serve as the new Israel Police headquarters in the West Bank, is already being used, and 99 percent of the police units have already moved in, Judea and Samaria police spokesman Danny Poleg said Monday.

The heavily-guarded station, which is located up a winding barren hilltop on the outskirts of Ma’ale Adumim, appeared to be fully operative on Monday.

A journalist who came to the site was not allowed to enter the station’s gated compound. Israel Police: Judea and Samaria District read a huge sign at the entrance to the site.

The official inauguration of the site was abruptly postponed in March, and an opening ceremony has still not been set, officials said Monday.

At the time, the Internal Security Ministry had cited “technical and bureaucratic reasons” for the postponement, which coincided with a visit by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Jerusalem and the West Bank.

The US has strongly opposed any Israeli construction plans in the area.

Ma’ale Adumim Municipality spokesman Hezky Zissman said Monday that all municipal permits were now in order, and that the site has been operational for the last two weeks.

The station, whose construction was approved by the government in 2005, will replace the dilapidated station in east Jerusalem which has served as the headquarters for the West Bank police for decades.

Three years ago, the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon promised the Americans to freeze a contested major residential construction project in E1, but continued to build the police station.

The long-planned construction of 3,500 housing units is part of a decade-old government plan for E1, which would link the major suburban Jerusalem settlement to the capital.

The proposal had been subject to fierce Palestinian opposition because it would complete a circle of Jewish settlement around east Jerusalem, cutting it off from the West Bank.

Amid Palestinian protest and international opposition, the Americans also voiced their opposition to the construction plan in meetings with Israeli officials.

In 2005, when final approval of the plan seemed imminent, Israel agreed to American demands for a building freeze.

Despite international criticism, Israel has pledged to continue building in east Jerusalem as well as in the major settlement blocs in the West Bank, even as a construction freeze continues elsewhere in the territories.

Olmert has said that building in Jerusalem and the West Bank population centers are “not in the same status” as construction elsewhere in the West Bank.

Israel plans to keep several major settlement blocs – including Ma’ale Adumim – as part of any final peace treaty with the Palestinians.

The road map calls on Israel to halt settlement activity in the West Bank, while requiring the Palestinians to dismantle terror groups.

Meanwhile, the soon-to-be-vacated former site of the police station in east Jerusalem, which is located on privately-owned Jewish land, is expected to be handed over to a right-wing Jewish group, which plans to settle Jewish residents in the area, officials said.

By Akiva Eldar

To view original article, published in Haaretz, click here

The Jerusalem municipality has begun the process of approving a plan for a new housing complex, including a synagogue, in the heart of the Arab neighborhood of Silwan south of the Old City.

The plan, submitted by the right-wing Elad association, includes 10 apartments, kindergarten classrooms, a library and underground parking for 100 cars.

Documents show the land the complex is to be built on belongs to the Israel Lands Administration (ILA); however, the ILA said it was unaware of the plan.

The municipal spokesman said Elad had leased the land, and therefore the plan does not require ILA approval. A municipal document dated January 21, 2008 notes that all necessary recommendations had been received in the planning file.

The area slated for the new project is located 200 meters from the Old City walls, in an area considered one of the most sensitive in the present negotiations with the Palestinians over the final-status agreement.

In a letter yesterday to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, attorney Daniel Seideman, representing the Ir Amim association and a city council member, Pepe Alalo (Meretz), asked whether Mazuz thought it proper that a synagogue be established in the heart of an Arab neighborhood.

The Ir Amim association addresses issues impacting Israeli-Palestinian relations in Jerusalem.

Seideman reminded Mazuz of repeated pledges by the State Prosecutor’s Office to the High Court of Justice to ensure there were no recurrences of the government allowing right-wing associations to take over public lands in Silwan and the Old City. He attached the photocopy of a 1991 deed of sale by the Jewish National Fund of the lands of Silwan to the ILA. The ILA then transfered the land to Elad in a process that was not made public.

“In the heart of Jerusalem, for all intents and purposes, an independent Elad kingdom has been created, in which hegemony, above and below the ground, has been given to a body with a clear ideological bent,” Seideman wrote Mazuz.

He also said the “kingdom” was being established through actions designed to push out thousands of Arab residents from the area.

Seideman demanded that Mazuz instruct the ILA to withdraw the plan and the city to shelve it, and to investigate how the decision was made that led to the proposal for the construction project.

A 1992 government investigation headed by then Justice Ministry director general Haim Klugman found that associations managing properties in East Jerusalem, including Elad, had took them over by continuously submitting false affidavits, misusing the law governing absentee property and illegally transfering tens of millions of shekels public money to the associations, among other allegations.

In November, Haaretz reported that the registrar of non-profit associations was considering demanding that Elad be disbanded as a non-profit association, after it refused to report the sources of contributions of more than $7 million that it had received in 2005.

The Justice Ministry said in response that Elad had given the registrar the names of its donors, but asked that the names remain confidential in its financial report, as the law allows. The request was granted, and there is no intention of disbanding the association, the Justice Ministry added.