MIFTAH
Thursday, 19 September. 2024
 
Your Key to Palestine
The Palestinian Initiatives for The Promotoion of Global Dialogue and Democracy
 
 
 

In 2000, then-President Bill Clinton suggested that one of the thorniest issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – the division of Jerusalem to create two capitals for two states – should be decided along demographic lines. In other words, Jewish neighborhoods would be incorporated into Israel and Arab neighborhoods would become part of the future Palestinian state.

The past decade has seen a significant expansion of Jewish areas in the Arab neighborhoods closest to the Old City, which could affect how the city is divided – or prevent it from being divided at all. This has raised the ire of Palestinians, the United Nations, and others, because the expansion has taken place in a territory that Israel occupied and then unilaterally annexed – and thus the transfer of civilian populations is considered illegal under international law. Here are five of the most controversial developments:

Sheikh Jarrah

Sheikh Jarrah has become a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian battle for Jerusalem because of Jewish construction projects, recent home evictions and demolitions, and the resultant protests by Palestinians and Israeli and foreign activists. Sheikh Jarrah is north of the Old City, and abuts the road that until 1967 served as a divider between East and West Jerusalem.

Once an affluent Arab neighborhood, it is home to many Western consulates, the International Red Cross, and the UN refugee agency. Right under the nose of the international community, a bitter fight is playing out between the predominantly Palestinian population seeking a capital in East Jerusalem and Jews seeking to gain a greater foothold around the Old City and its holy places.

In the latest conflagration in Sheikh Jarrah, a portion of the Shepherd Hotel owned by American Jewish millionaire Irving Moscowitz was demolished Jan. 9 to make way for housing units for 20 new Jewish homes.

There are several other controversial activities in Sheikh Jarrah, which is also referred to by the Hebrew names for two areas of the neighborhood: Nahalat Shimon and Shimon HaTzadik. Among them are Jewish plans for 200 new housing units where dozens of Palestinian homes now stand; a planned conference center, known as the Glassman Campus; and the ongoing court battle over the eviction of two Palestinian families, the Hanouns and the Ghawis, who were settled in Sheikh Jarrah by the UN refugee agency before Israel captured the area in the 1967 war.

Silwan

Jews have seen Jerusalem as their rightful home for millenniums, and the City of David – believed to be the stomping grounds of the biblical King David – is at the heart of this longing for home. Nestled in the shadow of the Old City walls, the area includes an archaeological tourist site, additional excavation projects under way, a number of heavily guarded Israeli Jewish homes, and 40,000 Palestinians who refer to the larger neighborhood as Silwan.

Silwan is also home to a controversial building occupied by Israeli Jews and known as Beit Yohonatan, or House of Jonathan, a seven-story structure that was built illegally and is slated for demolition.

Under a broader plan to broaden Jerusalem’s appeal to tourists – currently it receives only a tiny fraction of the visitors who go to Paris or New York every year – the city’s mayor has advanced plans to build an archaeological park in Silwan known as King’s Garden. Mayor Nir Barkat has billed the project as a way to increase the prosperity of local Palestinians and improve the neighborhood, where public services such as sewage and roads have long been neglected.

But it has drawn the ire of locals because it involves the demolition of 22 illegally built homes and is seen as driving a wedge between the Old City and the West Bank, complicating plans for a Palestinian capital in Jerusalem and cutting off Palestinians from sites sacred to them as Muslims and Christians.

Al Tur

Beit Orot (which translates to House of Lights) was the first Jewish settlement inside an Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem. Located in the Arab neighborhood of Al Tur on the northern edge of the Mount of Olives, Beit Orot includes a yeshiva that combines religious study with military service and houses several families and several dozen yeshiva students.

The project is carried out by Ateret Cohanim, an organization that has helped hundreds of Jews move into areas of East Jerusalem and the Old City – thanks in part to the financial backing of American millionaire Irving Moscowitz.

Jabel Mukaber

The Arab neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber includes two Jewish developments: Nof Zion, a luxury apartment complex, and Kidmat Zion, a fledgling settlement on the fringes of the neighborhood.

Nof Zion is a luxury apartment complex slated to have about 200 housing units, about half of which are constructed and lived in today. It has been marketed largely as a posh residential development with a view of the Old City and a short commute to West Jerusalem.

The full construction of the Kidmat Zion project – on land purchased by Moscowitz – has been stalled. However, there are already several Jewish families living in two houses on the land, bought from Palestinians in the area.

Ras al Amud

Ras Al Amud, southeast of the Old City, contains two Jewish settlements, Maale HaZeitim and Maale David.

Maale HaZeitim borders the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives and Moscowitz also owns this land. The first buildings were built in 1997 and a few families and single men settled there, but were ordered out by then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Jews were eventually allowed to resettle the area and there are now more than 50 housing units in advanced construction stages in the area.

Maale David is another settlement in Ras Al Amud, not far from Maale HaZeitim. The land formerly housed the Samaria and Judea District Police headquarters, which takes its name from the biblical names for the West Bank. It has since been moved to another part of East Jerusalem to make way for housing projects in Maale David. The current plan is a luxury apartment complex that will be connected to Maale Hazeitim via a bridge.

 
 
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