Another Israeli Obstacle to Peace
“Israel will commence the construction of Ma’ale David settlement in Ras Al ‘Amoud Neighborhood “

On March 1, 2011, the “Licensing Committee” at the Israeli Municipality of Jerusalem issued building permits for the construction of 14 Illegal housing units in the former Israeli police headquarter in Ras Al-‘Amoud neighborhood in the Eastern part of Jerusalem city. The new housing units are the first step to build the so called “Maaleh David Illegal settlement” or ‘Ma’alot David’ in Ras Al Amoud neighborhood.

 

The story of the aforementioned settlement goes back to April 2008, when a group of Jewish settlers from ‘Redeeming Jerusalem’ Committee” coercively took residency in the former building of the Police Station in Ras Al ‘Amoud neighborhood after the Israeli police vacated the building and moved into the new Police headquarter in the E1 area in Ma’aleh Adumim settlement bloc. The neighborhood includes the building of 110 housing units over 10 dunums of vacated land in addition to 6 Israeli societies and public organizations. The site of the old police station will be the nucleus of Ma’aleh David settlement where the 14 housing units will be built soon.

 

On the 14^th of March 2006, Israel began the construction of what is known today as the West Bank’s key Israeli police headquarter in the E1 area on 14 dunums land, with a total cost of $10 million. The Israeli daily Newspaper ‘Haaretz’ reported on April 26^th, 2006 the details of the exchange deal between the right-wing association ‘Bukharan Community Committee’ and the Israel Police (represented by the national police commissioner Moshe Karadi) which was signed in July 2005. The agreement stipulated that the Committee will build the new West Bank (Judea and Samaria) District Police building in the E1 corridor between Jerusalem and Ma’aleh Adumim. In return the Committee will receive the current police building, located in the heart of East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras Al-‘Amud. This building was established on a piece of land that was expropriated for public needs. According to another agreement between the Bukharan Committee and the Israel Land Administration, ‘the land shall stop serving the needs of the public’ and will therefore be available for residential use. By doing that, the committee will incorporate the ex-police building to the Israeli Settlement ‘Ma`aleh David’ in Ras al Amud neighborhood and will therefore expand the territorial control of the settlement. See Map 1 & Map 2:

 

 

The master plan of Ma’aleh Adumim settlement shows that the settlement area will reach 53,000 dunums, which is actually larger than Tel Aviv or Beersheba cities. Currently the city covers around 7,000 dunums.  

 

The master of the E1 plan has an area of 12,000 dunums, in the area between Ma’aleh Adumim settlement and the East Jerusalem Palestinian communities of Abu Dis, Al ‘Ezariya, Al ‘Isawiya, ‘Anata, At Tur and Az ‘Ayyem.  The E1 plan aims at physically connecting the Ma’ale Adumim settlement bloc with the Israeli settlements in the eastern part of Jerusalem which was occupied in 1967, thus creating a barrier that will prevent the Palestinian development east of the city.   

 

The E1 plan incorporates the building of 3,500 housing units, a police station, a cemetery, a dumping site, a Tourist Park and public areas. In case of the implementation of the E1 plan, the population in Ma’aleh Adumim is projected to exceed 60,000 settlers (Benny Kashreil the Mayor of Ma`ali Adumim).

 

The Israeli right-wing government headed by Benyamin Netanyahu is moving steadily towards achieving its political and ideological purposes to declare illegally and unilaterally, the city of Jerusalem including its eastern part, as the unified, eternal, undivided capital of the Jewish State of Israel and have total sovereignty over the Palestinian people and their lands.

 

On the ground,  a series of systematic Israeli steps are taking place to undermine the status of the Palestinians in the eastern part of the city, by restraining all forms of development for the Palestinian neighborhoods in the city, splitting  the city from the West Bank mainly through the construction of the Israeli Segregation Wall; In addition to building new Illegal Israeli settlements and neighborhoods and adopting more discrimination rules and policies to push Palestinian Jerusalemites to voluntary leave their city to keep Jewish dominance over the western and eastern part of the city.

 

The building of the Israeli settlements and their outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, is Illegal and constitute a grave breach of the International law rules and conventions.

 

Article XXXI of the 1995 Oslo agreement provides that: Israelis forbidden from building or planning to any project or settlements or any colonial expansion or any plan that lead to change the status of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The article provides “Neither side shall initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip pending the outcome of the permanent status negotiations”.