On April, 4, 2011, the “District Planning and Building Committee” in the Israeli Ministry of Interior approved a plan to turn 662 dunums of lands from the Palestinian Jerusalemite towns of Al-Issawieyyeh and At-Tur into a national park according to an unproven claims that the area contains “Jewish Valuables” belong to the “Second Temple”.
The project would cover an area of 661,000square meters in a historic lands located between Al-Issawieyyeh and Tur neighborhoods, known as Karm al-Rumi, Ras al-Salm, Zaafarana, Maraj, Rabie, Dya and Khulla al-Jawz. The western end of which would be adjacent to the Hebrew University, and the eastern end would run along Highway # 1, which leads to the Ma’ale Adumim settlement. It would also reach Al- Tur neighborhood to the south, Al- Issawieyyeh town and the Hebrew University to the north.
Also, the project includes building three public buildings for the tourists and visitors of the park and to be administrated by “Il’ad” which is an extremist right-wing settlement organization, seeks to increase Jewish settlements and presence in the occupied Eastern part of Jerusalem city.
Behind these religious allegations, there are a colonial and expansionist intentions where this project will interrupt the geographical contiguity between Al-Issawieyyeh and At- Tur towns in the eastern parts of the city of Jerusalem. Moreover, the project will find a contagious Israeli Territory between the city and the planned neighborhood E1 Area [1] with Ma’aleh Adumim settlement bloc, thus cutting East Jerusalem off from the rest of the West Bank.
The project is prepared by what is so-called “the Israeli Nature and Parks Authority” and “the Jerusalem Development Authority” as a part of a greater plan to surround the Walls of the Old city of Jerusalem with a series of public parks in an attempt to blur the features and Identity of the occupied city.
Systematic Strangulation
In the year 2004 the Palestinian residents of Al-Issawieyyeh had submitted a proposed master plan for their town holding # (11500) to the Israeli Municipality of Jerusalem, while their request had been formally rejected in the last year by the Israeli Interior Minister “Eli Yeshai”, along with other plans for other towns and communities in East Jerusalem. Accordingly, the resident of Al-Issawieyyeh will be deprived from their right to build on their own lands and their future natural growth will be blocked.
Moreover and on December 29, 2010, the Israeli Municipality of Jerusalem and the “Israeli Nature and Parks Authority” demolished 15 residential structures and uprooted more than 200 trees in At-Tur neighborhood, under the pretext of lacking building permits and according to its location on the lands allocated for building the “National Park”.
To Conclude
The Israeli plans to take control over sensitive and significant parts of the city of Jerusalem is a part of a political maneuver to reinforce an Israeli hold of the occupied city, and to eliminate any chance for East Jerusalem to be the capital of the future Palestinian State, and accordingly to put an end to the peace efforts for a “two state solution”, while Jerusalem to be the unified” , ‘eternal, undivided capital of the State of Israel’ and have total sovereignty over the Palestinian people and land.
The Israeli unilateral actions conducted by the Israeli government in the eastern part of the city of Jerusalem constitute a grave breach for the International law rules and conventions:-
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The spokesman of the UN’s Mideast Envoy, condemned the plans for Israeli Municipality of Jerusalem to build more new housing units and the national park in East Jerusalem: he provided that: Israeli settlement activity anywhere in occupied territory, including in East Jerusalem, is illegal and contrary to the roadmap,referring to the peace plan adopted by the Middle East diplomatic quartet of the UN, the US, the EU and Russia……….., ‘We call on the Israeli government to halt further planning for new settlement units, which undermines efforts to bring about resumed Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and prejudices final status discussions.’ (Mr. Richard Miron the spokesman of the UN’s Mideast Envoy, April, 5, 2011)
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Furthermore the Forth Geneva Convention of 1949 also states in Article 49 that “The occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own population into the territories it occupies.
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Also Articles 53 & 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 provides that ‘any destruction by the Occupying power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons, or to the State, or other public authorities or social or cooperative organizations is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations.’
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Moreover, Article 23 of The Hague Convention, which provides that: ‘it forbidden to destroy or seize the enemy’s property, ‘unless such destruction or seizure be imperatively demanded by the necessities of war’.
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Furthermore, under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of, December 10, 1948, Article 17 reads: ‘No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.’ Which means it bans Israel from destroying or confiscating the property of the Palestinians at any case.
E1 Plan
This plan was originally passed in 1997 but was put on hold over international pressure. It includes plans to build 3900 housing units and other recreational and business facilities on an area of 12,000 dunums. The plan aims at physically connect Ma’aleh Adumim settlement with the eastern side of Israeli defined municipal boundary of Jerusalem and creating a barrier that will prevent the Palestinian development east of the city but more than that it will literally deprive Palestinians from geographical contiguity between the southern and northern parts of the West Bank territory.
Prepared by:
The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem
The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem
