Transferring 660 Dunums into a “Jewish National Park” in Al ‘Isawiya town

Violation: expropriating of 660 dunums of Al ‘Isawiya lands.

Location: Al ‘Isawiya, the Occupied City of Jerusalem.

 

 

Date: January, 2010.

Violators: the Construction and Organization Committee in the Jewish Municipality in the Occupied City of Jerusalem.

Victims: Al ‘Isawiya residents.

 

The Jewish Municipality in the Occupied City of Jerusalem attempts to seize every square centimeter of land in the Occupied City by using different justifications by giving various descriptions to the lands (including, Green lands, open and plain fields, military zones, closeness to the segregation wall, etc.).

 

The Occupied City of Jerusalem has always been the heart of the Israeli Occupation seizure plans. The Palestinians are prohibited of building or renovating structures. In addition, the City is surrounded by a segregation wall that isolates the city from its Palestinian surrounding.

 

All of these actions and many other similar acts are part of the Israeli plan named (2000-2020) that intends to reduce the number of Palestinian residents in the city to less than 12% of the total population.

 

Now, under the excuse of building a ‘Jewish National Park’, the Construction and Organization Committee has approved an organizational plan that tends to turn 660 dunums of Al ‘Isawiya lands into a waste land without paying any attention to the residents of Al ‘Isawiya or their affairs or rights, a type of order described by the Israelis as ‘suing the rock and neglecting the people’.

 

The Construction and Organization Committee has approved the new plan and decided to recommend it to the Israeli Occupation Ministry of Interior for revision. The new plan paid no attention whatsoever to the basic needs of the Palestinians living in the area who spent five years in hard work trying to bring development and different types of advancements to their life style and living conditions. However, residents of Al ‘Isawiya formed a committee of their own to object to the Municipality’s plan.

 

An effort done in cooperation with an Israeli Organization called (pimcom) resulted in creating an organizational plan that provides Al ‘Isawiya with extra residential area which, in turn, will solve most of the residential problems.

According to the plan represented by the locals, all the ‘illegal’ structures will be included and the housing crisis will be solved. Moreover, the plan included a sufficient area for building the ‘Jewish National Park’. Nevertheless, the plan was never approved and the Municipality stuck with its plan.

 

The Israeli Occupation has taken over huge areas of the aforementioned town lands for the sake of colonization and the Occupation organizations.

 

* note: 1 dunum = 1000 m².

 

 

Al ‘Isawiya is suffering from an extreme housing crisis that is synchronous with rapid natural growth. At the same time, many Palestinian residents are haunted by demolition threats if racist plans were carried out, plans like the so called (E1), the construction of the segregation wall, and placing a military base in the area.

 

Al ‘Isawiya is suffering from rapid increase in population, not only of natural growth, but also because of the increasing number of people moving into town. It is believed that this is because of the relatively cheap lease costs.

 

The demand on housing is hastily increasing in the town whereas the supply is decreasing due to the unbelievably high costs of construction permits which drive people to construct outside the areas designated for construction and without permits, multiplying the number of threatened houses.

 

Al ‘Isawiya is located 5 km away from the Occupied City of Jerusalem. Its total area is 36272 dunums including 637 dunums of built-up area inhabited by around 12000 people. The Israeli Occupation has taken over massive areas of the total area of the town, 310 dunums for by-pass roads and 6126 dunums for colonies.

 

In addition, Maale Adummim by-pass road separated a total area of 10000 dunums from the town.

 

The segregation wall, if completed, will be having catastrophic effects on the town. The wall, when constructed will permanently isolate around 34000 dunums of the town’s total area!! However, the segregation wall is still under construction, a 205 meters long cement wall was built and took over around 20.5 dunums.