Khaleej Times, United Arab Emirates
July 26 2005
Jerusalem city planners approve construction of Jewish neighbourhood
in Muslim Quarter
JERUSALEM – Jerusalem planners have approved the construction of a
new Jewish neighbourhood in the city’s Muslim Quarter, officials said
on Tuesday, confirming a decision that could further inflame tensions
between Israelis and Palestinians in the city claimed by both as a
capital.
The plan to build 21 apartments for Jews in the walled Old City’s
Muslim Quarter was approved 5-2 by a local planning board late on
Monday, said Yosef Alalu, a dovish city council member who is on the
committee. The plan has to go through several more bureaucratic
stages before final approval.
The plan was presented to the planning board by the Housing Ministry,
a city spokesman said.
Palestinian officials accused Israel of creating facts on the ground
ahead of a peace deal that would determine the fate of Jerusalem. `It
will be like adding fuel to the fire, and we urge US intervention to
block this decision,’ said Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian
negotiator.
Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed it
into its capital, a decision not recognized internationally.
Palestinians want the east Jerusalem, including the walled Old City,
as the capital of a future state.
Israeli moves to settle Arab neighbourhoods of the city have sparked
violence in the past.
The current plan could be even more incendiary because it does not
involve private property transactions, but is backed by the
government. Alalu said the municipality would have to rezone a
`green’ area to build the apartments. `It is clear that when the
first tractor puts down the first stone it will lead to the next
uprising and could have international impact,’ Alalu said.
The Old City consists of four quarters Muslim, Christian, Jewish and
Armenian. Today, just a handful of Jewish families live in the Muslim
Quarter, in fortified complexes.
About a dozen properties are owned by Jews, including Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon, who bought an apartment there in 1987. For several
years, Sharon used the apartment to hold political meetings, but
today rarely visits the heavily guarded compound.
The plan approved on Monday which has been in the works for several
years would violate a city ban on building within 10 meters of the
Old City wall, Alalu said.
The city engineer, Uri Shetrit, initially opposed the plan, which
called for the construction of 30 housing units, Alalu said. Due to
the engineer’s concerns, the committee approved a smaller plan for 21
homes, but recommended that the regional planning board the next stop
in the authorization process approve the larger plan, Alalu said.
The municipality said Shetrit is not permitted to speak to reporters.
It will take years for the plan to move from paper to actual
construction, Alalu said, because several more approval stages
remain. In the past, the Housing Ministry and other government
agencies have halted the project in the planning stages, he said.
Israeli human rights activist Danny Seidemann said Sharon’s goal is
to strengthen the hold on Jerusalem while the world’s attention is
focused on his upcoming Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
Earlier this month, the Sharon government decided on the route of its
separation barrier intended as a defense against suicide bombers that
will cut off six Arab neighbourhoods of Jerusalem from the city.
Palestinian officials have accused Israel of drawing the barrier to
reduce the Palestinian population of the city.
The approval of the Jewish neighbourhood in the Muslim Quarter `is
yet another example that Mr. Sharon is using the withdrawal from Gaza
to consolidate an Israeli stranglehold over east Jerusalem in a way
that no government, including his own, has ever, ever dared to do in
the past,’ said Seidemann, an attorney who heads Ir Amim, a Jerusalem
settlement watchdog group.