Mount Scopus Slopes National Park and the harm it causes al-'Esawiyah and a-Tur

16 September 2014, updated 20 July 2015

On 14 November 2013, the District Planning and Construction Committee of the Ministry of the Interior approved the establishment of Mount Scopus Slopes Park, a new national park that would encompass roughly 73 hectares on the eastern side of Mount Scopus. The park had been in planning since 2005 and was approved despite the professional recommendation of Environmental Protection Minister Amir Peretz. The minister, who oversees the Nature and Parks Authority (NPA), recommended that the plan not be advanced, saying he was “not prepared to be party to declarations whose goals have nothing to do with the environment”.

The dispute over the approval of the park is mostly due to its impact on the nearby East Jerusalem neighborhoods of al-'Esawiyah and a-Tur. Both neighborhoods are plagued by a housing shortage, insufficient infrastructure, poor and deficient services and lack of land available for construction. Residents of the two neighborhoods have been trying for years to advance expansion plans with the municipality and the Ministry of Interior planning bodies. The only land reserves available for expansion lie in the area south of al-'Esawiyah and north of a-Tur. They are part of the area approved for the national park, thereby precluding the possibility of improving conditions in the two neighborhoods.

Part of area covered by projected Mount Scopus Slopes National Park. Background: al-'Esawiyah neighborhood. Photo: Keren Manor, Activestills, 15 May 2014.

The residents, Israeli NGOs Ir Amim and Bimkom – Planners for Human Rights and appealed the plan for the park. In September 2014 the appeals sub-committee of the National Planning and Construction Committee okayed the plan to build a park, but also determined that the District Committee had not given careful, detailed consideration to the needs of the neighborhoods whose development will be curtailed once the park is built nor did it address the way in which these needs will then be met. The appeals sub-committee therefore decided that the plan cannot be approved until “these considerations and their implications are investigated in full” and ordered that the plan be returned for further review by the District Committee.

In July 2015, even before the District Committee reached a new decision, the Jerusalem Municipality posted “Landscaping Orders for a Vacant Lot” for the area designated for the park. The law allows municipalities to use vacant areas in their jurisdiction for the benefit of the public by temporarily converting them into parks or parking lots. These orders are usually used for small vacant lots inside urban area. This time, the orders apply to a huge area of more than 70 hectares, in what appears to be an attempt to bypass ordinary planning procedure so as to promote the transformation of the area into a tourist attraction and to block local construction.

One of the orders posted in the area. Photo: Muhammad Abu Hummus, resident of al-‘Esawiyah, July 2015

Al-'Esawiyah planning on collision course with national park

After the occupation of the West Bank in 1967, the built-up area of al-'Esawiyah, a village located near Mount Scopus, was annexed to Jerusalem’s jurisdiction. About one quarter its land (approx. 220 hectares) was likewise annexed. Israeli law was applied to this area and ever since, al-'Esawiyah has been considered a Jerusalem neighborhood. In 1991, the Jerusalem Municipality approved a master plan for the neighborhood covering an area of about 67 hectares. This plan falls far short of meeting the neighborhood’s development and construction needs, with severe ramifications for residents:

In 2012, al-'Esawiyah had a 15,500 residents. They lived in a built-up area encompassing about 80 hectares, with a high population density of up to 20 individuals per 1,000 sqm. In contrast, the nearby Jewish neighborhoods of French Hill and Tzameret Habira have a population density of eight persons per 1,000 sqm. Overall population density in Jerusalem is 6.5 per 1,000 sqm (the figure takes into account the entire area of the neighborhood, including open spaces, roads, commercial zones etc.). Due to restrictions on construction, al-'Esawiyah residents are forced to build without permits and risk demolition of their homes. According to B’Tselem figures, from 2006 through April 2014, the Jerusalem Municipality and the Ministry of Interior demolished 35 residential units and 7 non-residential structures in al-'Esawiyah. Many residents live in spaces not intended for residential use, such as stores and cellars. Some of the neighborhood’s newly-weds are forced to live in their parents’ homes and other couples postpone marriage until they find a suitable residence.

Al-'Esawiyah neighborhood. Photo: Keren Manor, Activestills, 15 May 2014

Basic public services in al-'Esawiyah are also deficient: Only about 2,500 of the 4,200 school-aged children in the neighborhood study in the four municipal schools (elementary and junior high) in the neighborhood; another 500 children study in private elementary and junior high schools that operate inside the neighborhood. The schools operate in structures ill-suited for this purpose. The neighborhood has no high schools at all. Because existing schools are full to capacity and there is no available land suitable for building new schools, some 1,200 students, mostly high school students, are unable to study in the neighborhood. Most high-school aged boys attend school outside the neighborhood, but for tradition-related reasons, few parents allow their daughters to do so. As a result, the vast majority of al-'Esawiyah’s young women find themselves outside the school system before getting a high school education, and the municipality does absolutely nothing to remedy this grim situation.

The neighborhood lacks basic recreational facilities, such as a library, a youth club or a public garden, nor is there a single infant medical care center in the entire neighborhood. The roads are narrow, dilapidated and dangerous. Since the late 1990s, the neighborhood has been experiencing a population boom due to an influx of residents from other parts of the city, brought on by the low housing costs in al-'Esawiyah. People flocked to the neighborhood in ever growing numbers after the construction of the Separation Barrier in the areas near Jerusalem, with many residents who had been living in the West Bank moving into al-'Esawiyah in order to maintain their Jerusalem residency status. This increased crowding has put additional strain on the already poor infrastructure.

In order to improve living conditions in the neighborhood, residents began a planning process for the neighborhood in 2004 in collaboration with Israeli NGO Bimkom. The process includes working with planning bodies in the municipality and the Ministry of Interior. Al-'Esawiyah is hemmed in from nearly all sides by institutions (The Hebrew University Mt. Scopus Campus, Hadassah Hospital and a military base), Israeli neighborhoods (French Hill and Tzameret Habira) and major arteries (e.g. national Route No. 1). Therefore, the proposed master plan suggested expanding the neighborhood mostly southward, the only area not blocked. The 135-hectare plan was designed to meet residents’ needs for housing, public and educational facilities and sports and leisure spaces.

Although planning was carried out in cooperation with the authorities, these self-same authorities began promoting the Mount Scopus Slopes National Park plan in late 2005. The plan encompassed nearly the entire area the residents’ plan had designated for expansion. The national park was planned so that its northern border abuts the neighborhood’s outermost houses. In 2007, after lengthy negotiations between the al-'Esawiyah planners and the municipality and the NPA, a written agreement was drawn up whereby the national park’s border would be moved south, allowing the neighborhood to expand.

Ultimately, the authorities did not uphold this agreement. In 2010, the original plan for the park was scrapped and a new, more extensive plan was submitted in its stead. As it went through the approval process in the Ministry of Interior planning committees, the area for the park was even further expanded. According to the current plan, approved in November 2013 (see above), the park encompasses the entire untaken area, reaching all the way to al-'Esawiyah’s outermost houses. It also includes a strip of land separating the neighborhood from the Hebrew University campus. Only 13.5 hectares – all already built-up – remain of the area designated for expansion in the new, and since shelved, master plan for al-'Esawiyah.

The national park uses the only land reserve available for the neighborhood’s development and expansion. Its approval seals the fate of the residents’ planning initiative, which grew through lengthy negotiations and trust-building with the authorities, sentencing the residents to a future of poverty and overcrowding. In 2015, the municipality began the process of drafting a new master plan for al-‘Esawiyah, inspired by the Jerusalem 2000 Plan, which determined that the master plans of all Jerusalem neighborhoods would be updated. The master plan is still in the drafting stages and it is not yet possible to determine whether it will meet residents’ needs.

Park interferes with plans for a neighborhood in a-Tur

The village of a-Tur, on the Mount of Olives ridge, was annexed to Israel and Jerusalem after the occupation of the West Bank in 1967 and has been considered a Jerusalem neighborhood ever since. Most of a-Tur’s land was expropriated, with some remaining outside Jerusalem’s municipal borders and later, on the other side of the Separation Barrier. Over the years, most options for development in a-Tur were cut off by the Separation Barrier, highways, land owned by religious institutions and other Palestinian neighborhoods.

The master plans for the neighborhood drawn up by the municipality fail to meet the needs of the residents, whose current population is approximately 23,000. The plans allocate much land to open spaces and public facilities, the majority of which serve the entire population of East Jerusalem, and preclude new residential construction. As a result, residents are plagued by overcrowding and are forced to build without permits, risking demolition. According to B’Tselem figures, from 2006 through the end of April 2014, 52 residential units and six non-residential structures were demolished in a-Tur.

The plans hardly designate any land for the specific public needs of neighborhood residents, for commercial activity or for employment. There are only four pre-schools in a-Tur, offering care for just 5% of neighborhood children between the ages of one and five. The neighborhood has seven schools with about 2,800 male students and 2,000 female students. Schools suffer from a shortage of classrooms, open yards and toilets. There is no girls’ high school in the neighborhood. The local schools cannot accommodate all of the neighborhood’s children so about 1,200 boys and 2,000 girls must study outside the neighborhood, resulting in high dropout rates among girls. The neighborhood also lacks sufficient recreational, sports and culture facilities. Road, sewage and drainage infrastructure is deficient, old and decrepit. The construction of the Separation Barrier south of a-Tur has led to an influx of East Jerusalem residents who had been living in nearby Palestinian communities, further exacerbating existing difficulties.

The northern section of a-Tur is known as Khalat al-‘Ein. Existing plans define most of it as an open space where construction is prohibited, and allow only low construction in the rest of the area. Khalat al-‘Ein, is home to about 4,000 residents who live in approximately 700 housing units (some built without permits). The area constitutes the neighborhood’s almost only land reserve due to its relatively sparse construction and open spaces. Residents of a-Tur initiated a process of preparing a local master plan for Khalat al-‘Ein, which suggests doubling the number of housing units and addressing the shortage of public facilities, educational services and open spaces.

In March 2011, representatives of the Jerusalem Municipality provided a-Tur residents a written summary with regard to planning Khalat al-‘Ein, indicating that the municipality would help advance the plan. However, since that time, the Mount Scopus Slopes National Park was approved and it includes the northern section marked in the residents’ plan, where they planned to build public facilities and a community garden. In 2015 the municipality began drafting a master plan for a-Tur. It is still in the drafting stages and it is not yet possible to determine whether it will meet residents’ needs.

Park declared on basis of immaterial considerations

In Israel, the label “national park” (unlike “nature reserve”) is given mostly to archeological sites. Archeologists have given expert opinions to the effect that the findings in most of the area declared as the Mount Scopus Slopes National Park are of little archeological value and do not justify the declaration of a national park and choking development. The park’s explanatory notes focus on the fauna and flora in the area, but, after consulting with relevant ministry experts, Environmental Protection Minister Amir Peretz said that the area is “devoid of particularly sensitive natural elements of value or unique archaeological relics that justify making it a natural park”.

The arguments raised during planning committee hearings in favor of the declaration focused primarily on the need to protect the landscape of the “desert gateway into Jerusalem” in sight of Mount Scopus. However, this landscape has already been disrupted by a military base, the settlement of Maaleh Adumim and major arteries. Construction was not denied or halted on any of these projects on the basis of a need to preserve and protect the landscape. In fact, the landscape will be harmed even further by the establishment of the approved settlement in Area E1.

In nearby areas that likewise lie at the desert’s edge and are home to similar archeological findings, landscape, flora and fauna, extensive construction has been approved for Jewish neighborhoods such as Pisgat Zeev and Ramot Shlomo. Additional land, immediately bordering the park, has not been included in the park’s plan despite being much more suited for it in terms of location and landscape than the neighborhoods’ potential development areas. This area includes land owned by the Hebrew University, the Israel Land Administration and the Church, and contains the Yehudai Observation Post, which overlooks the very landscape the national park is meant to protect.

Even supposing that there were a real need to protect nature and landscape on the slopes of Mount Scopus, this need should have been balanced against al-'Esawiyah’s and a-Tur’s pressing need for planning. This type of balance has been made in similar plans for landscape sites bordering on Jewish neighborhoods and communities in Jerusalem and its environs, such as Gilo, Givat Masuah or the moshav community of Ora. In this instance, the central strip of land in the national park would have sufficed for protecting the landscape and the land on either side could have been surrendered in favor of planning for nearby Palestinian neighborhoods. However, such a balance was not devised and the border of the national park was planned so as to abut the neighborhoods’ built-up areas.

According to Bimkom, when planners for al-'Esawiyah met with the planners for the national park for in coordination meetings, the director of the Jerusalem district at the NPA expressly stated that the purpose of the park was to block Palestinian neighborhoods from expanding into the open space. This argument was not subsequently repeated. Instead, other justifications were given to demonstrate that the park is indispensible. The political involvement in the process that saw the approval of Mount Scopus National Park reinforces the concern that the park was meant to serve the unacceptable objective of limiting Palestinian construction in East Jerusalem.

Sources:

Bimkom, Survey of Palestinian Neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, Planning Problems and Opportunities, Information Cards 2.1 and 2.2.

Bimkom, Mount Scopus Slopes National Parks – the al-'Esawiyah and a-Tur Neighborhoods, al-'Esawiyah Neighborhood.

Bimkom, From Public to National – National Parks in East Jerusalem, 2012, pp. 28-29.

Bimkom, Objection to Plan 11092A, Mount Scopus Slopes National Park.

Bimkom, Notice of Appeal against District Committee Decision to Approve Mount Scopus Slopes National Park Plan.Objection on behalf of the neighborhood of a-Tur/Khalat al-Ein and Ir-Amim, submitted 18 February 2013.

Ir-Amim, The National Park at Mount Scopus, Political Interests instead of the Residents’ Welfare, January 2012.

Prof. Rasem Khamaiseh, Guiding Outline Program for Preparing a Local Master Plan for an Existing Residential Neighborhood, Khalat al-Ein, a-Tur, submitted to Jerusalem Municipality on 27 May 2010.

Emek Shaveh, From Territorial Contiguity to Historical Continuity: Asserting Israeli Control through National Parks in East Jerusalem – Update 2014.

Emek Shaveh, Where Are the Antiquities? National Parks between the Old City of Jerusalem And Area E1, January 2012.

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Residents and police in the neighborhood of Batan al-Hawa. Photo by Hussam ‘Abed, B’Tselem, 29 Nov. 2016

East Jerusalem

Batan al-Hawa neighborhood, Silwan: The next target for "Judaization" of E. J’alem

The Batan al-Hawa neighborhood, in the heart of Silwan, is the setting for the most extensive expulsion in recent years in East Jerusalem. To date, eviction claims have been filed against 81 Palestinian families that have been living in Batan al-Hawa for decades. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, this number reflects a third of all families under threat of dispossession on the basis ethnicity in the city. Ever since Israel annexed East Jerusalem, Israeli authorities have employed discriminatory policies against the city’s Palestinian residents, and have worked in different ways toward decreasing their number while increasing the number of Jewish residents, with a view to achieving demographic and geographic conditions that would obstruct any future attempts to question Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem. As part of these efforts, Israeli authorities have confiscated hundreds of hectares of land from the Palestinian population and built 12 neighborhoods designed exclusively for the Jewish population in the occupied area that was annexed to Israel. In terms of international law, the status of these neighborhoods is no different than that of the settlements elsewhere in the West Bank. In recent years, in addition to the housing shortage, poor or lacking infrastructure, services and government funding that affect all East Jerusalem residents, various government ministries and the Jerusalem Municipality have mobilized to help the settler organization Ateret Cohanim dispossess Palestinian families living in the neighborhood of Batan al-Hawa, and hand over their homes to Jewish settlers. Israel’s courts have given the seal of approval to every aspect of this process, despite its being a legal justification for organized state violence in pursuit of an unlawful end – the forcible transfer of protected persons from their homes in an occupied territory. B’Tselem has undertaken a neighborhood survey, and mapped the processes underway in Batan al-Hawa. According to the survey, the neighborhood is divided into some 50 parcels, nine of which have been handed over to Ateret Cohanim, including five that are already in use by settlers. To date, Ateret Cohanim has filed eviction claims against 81 families, all living in Parcel 96 which covers 0.26 hectares in the center of the neighborhood. Most of the claims were filed over the course of 2015. The municipality has fined two more families, who live in Parcel No. 84, and issued demolition orders for parts of their homes on the grounds that they had encroached on land that belongs to the settler association. Ateret Cohanim already has possession of six buildings in the neighborhood, containing 27 housing units, most of which had been home to Palestinian families. The expulsion of these families from homes they had lived in for decades, purportedly as a measure of law enforcement, as the houses had been Jewish-owned prior to the 1948 War, would make some of the neighborhood’s residents refugees for a second time, after having already been expelled from their homes in that war. Um Naser, a neighborhood resident, by the settlement built adjacent to her home. Photo by Hussam ‘Abed, B’Tselem, 23 Nov. 2016 The government dispossession apparatus in action The Ateret Cohanim association began efforts to seize properties and establish a Jewish settlement in Batan al-Hawa in 2001. It modus operandi rests on manipulating a combination of three laws passed by Israel since 1948, which allow Jews, and Jews only, to demand that the Custodian of Absentee Property hand over ownership rights to property in the annexed area that had been owned by Jews prior to 1948, but ended up beyond the country’s borders after the war. Settlers sometimes purchase ownership rights from the Jewish heirs to the land. In other cases, aided by the state, they are given permission to manage the trusts that owned the property before 1948. They then contact the Custodian of Absentee Property who hands over the property to them. Another avenue pursued by the settlers is to have the Custodian sell them property in the neighborhoods directly. These are usually properties where Palestinians live, and the settlers file actions to have them evicted. In stark contrast to the significant efforts Israel makes to restore property to Jewish ownership, the state does not even allow Palestinians to demand restoration of property they owned in west Jerusalem prior to 1948. In 2001, the Jerusalem District Court sanctioned the decision made by the Custodian of Absentee Property to hand over to Ateret Cohanim the management of the Benvenisti Trust, a Jewish trust that operated in the late nineteenth and early twentieth Centuries. In 2002, the Custodian released to the Trust Parcels 95 and 96, where the families now facing eviction live. In 2005, the Custodian sold the association another 0.3-hectare area (Parcels 73, 75, 84 and 97), where ten more Palestinian families live. The pressure on families who live in a property the settlers want for themselves often puts them in a cruel dilemma – agree to leave in return for significant sums of money, or refuse and still risk losing the property (a very real possibility given the expulsion of other families in the neighborhood), accruing serious debt and suffering harassment. View from the west of Batan al-Hawa. Photo by Amit Gilutz, B’Tselem, 6 Dec. 2016 Tension and violence – an everyday reality The settler presence has changed the neighborhood. In addition to the hardships that come with the settlers – lawsuits, invasion of privacy, economic duress, daily harassment of residents and the resulting clashes between local youths and the settlers, often involving stone throwing – there is now an added presence of the Israel Police, the Border Police and private security guards paid for by the Ministry of Housing. They too use violence against Palestinian residents, threaten them, arrest minors and disrupt life. The stronger the hold settlers have in the neighborhood of Batan al-Hawa, the greater the number of Palestinians directly impacted by the settler security apparatus, even without being expelled from their homes. Security guards escort settler children through the neighborhood. Photo by Sarit Michaeli, B’Tselem, 6 Dec. 2016 The end goal: “Judaization” of Jerusalem The settlement in Batan al-Hawa, advanced by Ateret Cohanim, is part and parcel of the efforts made by the authorities and settler associations to increase and cement Jewish presence in Jerusalem’s Old City Basin: in the Old City’s Muslim Quarter and the Palestinian neighborhoods that surround it. There are currently about 2,800 settlers living in some 140 buildings located in the heart of Palestinian neighborhoods in and around the Old City – an area that is home to about 100,000 Palestinians. According to figures by the NGOs Peace Now and Ir Amim, the number of settlers living in Palestinian neighborhoods in the Old City Basin has seen a 70% spike between 2009 and 2016. An increase of 39% in the number of new construction sites designated for Jews in Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem has also been recorded. During this time, 68 Palestinian families were evicted in Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan and the Muslim Quarter, 55 of them over the last two years. According to UN figures, settler organizations have filed eviction actions against at least 180 Palestinian families throughout East Jerusalem, usually based on claims of ownership over the building and loss of protected tenant status by the Palestinian families. As a result, 818 Palestinians throughout the city, including 372 children, are facing expulsion from their homes.

11 December 2016

East Jerusalem

Al-Bustan Neighborhood – Garden of the King

Silwan’s al-Bustan neighborhood lies in Kidron Valley, between the Wadi Hilwa neighborhood and Jerusalem Walls National park to the west and Silwan’s old quarter (Silwan al-Wasta) to the east. Until 1967 residents of Silwan cultivated fruit trees in the valley. City master plan No. 9, which was to determine the conservation to development ratio in the Old City Basin, defines al-Bustan Valley as an open space where construction is prohibited. The plan allowed only the few buildings in place at the time the plan was approved in 1976. Neighborhood master plans approved over the years for parts of Silwan did not allocate land for expansion or increase building rights. As crowding worsened, Silwan residents had no choice but to build in the valley and there are now more than 90 residential structures there. The buildings, built mostly since the 1980s, were constructed without permits. Approximately 1,000 people live in this neighborhood. The residents face great difficulties because it is not officially recognized and must contend with demolition orders issued against their homes. Residents cannot build additions to their homes or new homes on their land, nor can they lay down proper infrastructure or build public facilities. An area called the Garden of the King is mentioned three times in the Old Testament. Some scholars identify it as Al-Bustan Valley. However, the exact location and nature of the biblical garden are not known and there are no archeological or other findings in al-Bustan to suggest that this is in fact the location. In 1995, the Jerusalem Tourist Development Steering Committee, established in advance of the celebrations of the city’s 3,000th anniversary, published a general plan for an “open archeological museum” in the “Valley of the King”. In November 2004, Jerusalem City Engineer Uri Shitrit issued orders to “remove unlawful construction in the Valley of the King” in order to keep the area “an open public space”, as defined by Plan No. 9 in 1976. In early 2005, the Jerusalem municipality began serving demolition orders to residents of al-Bustan, and later that year demolished the homes of two families. Following international pressure, then Mayor Uri Lupolianski postponed the demolition plans and declared that the residents would be given a chance to try to secure retroactive approval for their homes. The residents hired an Israeli planner, and filed a proposed plan for the neighborhood in 2006. Though the plan was prepared in coordination with planning authorities, it was rejected by the District Planning Committee in 2009, on the grounds that the area must remain an open space due to its important location, “landscape sensitivity” and “cultural and historical values”. Al-Bustan neighborhood. Photo: Keren Manor, Activestills, 15 May 2014 In 2009, the Jerusalem Municipality proposed that residents voluntarily relocate to Beit Hannina, in northern East Jerusalem, but they declined. In early 2010, the municipality filed a new plan which included a tourist park called King’s Valley or King’s Garden in al-Bustan Valley. The park flows directly from Jerusalem Walls National Park and acts as a quasi-extension of it. The brochure marking the launch of the plan describes a vision of “turning the King’s Garden into a flourishing park that will bloom alongside a residential neighborhood with restaurants, artist workshops, souvenir shops, local art and more […]”. The plan called for the demolition of structures in the neighborhood’s western part (at least 22), whereas structures in the eastern part (about 66) would receive retroactive approval along with increased building rights. This increase is meant to allow the residents who will be evacuated from the western side of the neighborhood to build new homes on top of existing ones in the eastern part, or on private nearby land. The plan fails to specify how this is to be implemented in practice. The plan also includes a public complex that would house a school, pre-schools, a sports center and more, as well as road, water, sewage and electrical infrastructure in the neighborhood. The municipal plan was approved by the local committee in June 2010 and awaits approval from the district committee. According to Amnon Berman, legal advisor to the Jerusalem Municipality, in September 2012 there were 35 pending demolition orders against homes in the al-Bustan neighborhood. Thirty-one of these cases were being heard in court and the execution of four other orders has been postponed as a result of a political decision. In April 2010, al-Bustan residents submitted another proposed plan for the neighborhood. In June 2011, it too was rejected on the grounds that it was not possible to advance two plans for the same area. Home in al-Bustan demolished by authorities. Photo: Ofir Feuerstein, B’Tselem 19 March 2009 The plan submitted by the municipality would legalize structures built in the neighborhood without permits. It would allow most residents to continue living in their homes without the threat of demolition and would improve infrastructure and services, thereby possibly improving conditions in the neighborhood. At the same time, the plan to relocate more than twenty families from one part of the neighborhood to another against their will is injurious and baseless given that the city has neither the authority nor the ability to build homes for these individuals on land owned by others or enable them to do so themselves. In practice, families whose homes will be demolished will have to purchase new land, if any is available, and try to meet the municipality’s strict criteria for construction permits in East Jerusalem, including a costly process of land registration. Once they lose their homes, there is no guarantee that these people will be able to find suitable housing inside their neighborhood or, for that matter, elsewhere. Sources for further reading Bimkom, Survey of Palestinian Neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, Planning Problems and Opportunities, Information Card 2.9. Bimkom, From Public to National – National Parks in East Jerusalem, 2012, pp. 26-28. Ir-Amim, The Giant’s Garden - The "King's Garden" Plan in al-Bustan, update, May 2012. Emek Shaveh, From Territorial Contiguity to Historical Continuity: Asserting Israeli Control through National Parks in East Jerusalem – Update 2014

16 September 2014

East Jerusalem

Jerusalem Walls National Park

A national park to include areas of East Jerusalem was first declared in 1974. This would be Jerusalem Walls Park, spanning an area of roughly 110 hectares, more than half of it in East Jerusalem. The park encircles the Old City walls and includes extensive populated areas of the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan. Local master plan no. 6, approved by the Jerusalem Municipality in 1970, designated this land for a national park designed to preserve "the character and nature of the area, by preserving the landscape as well as historical, national, religious, traditional, archeological and architectural values, picturesque ensembles and landscape values […] and also development and cultivation of the area so as to offer the general public the comfort and convenience necessary for conducting tours and spending time in the area". In articulating these goals, the city planners ignored the fact that this was the only national park whose land includes densely populated residential neighborhoods, as well as industrial, commercial and recreational areas. The park encompasses nearly all of the Wadi Hilwa neighborhood in Silwan, south of the Old City walls. Wadi Hilwa is home to approximately 4,000 residents who living in more than 700 residential units in over 250 buildings. The City of David archeological site, which includes the ancient city of Jerusalem, is located in the very heart of the neighborhood. Designating this area as a national park creates a direct conflict between preservation requirements and the population’s need for construction and development, which cannot be met due to the planning limitations entailed by the declaration of the park. In a meeting on this issue held at the Ministry of Environmental Protection in 2003, Architect Uri Shitrit, Jerusalem City Engineer at the time, recognized these difficulties, stating that, “Construction and planning laws are in constant conflict with the National Parks Law inside the national park. There’s a real problem with the management of a national park […] versus the need to ensure continued urban development as well as maintenance of a vibrant and sound city life in the Old City and its environs”. Wadi Hilwa in Silwan, incorporated in national park. Photo: Keren Manor, Activestills, 15 May 2014 Because of the park’s unique location, and unlike its conduct with regard to other national parks located inside the jurisdiction of a municipality, the Nature and Parks Authority has delegated powers to the Jerusalem Municipality that allow it to operate and develop the park. Consequently, this park is jointly run by the two bodies. The City of David site was kept out of this agreement and the Nature and Parks Authority was to retain exclusive authority over its administration. However, , ever since 1997 the City of David site has been run by an Israeli NGO called El-Ad (acronym for “To the City of David” in Hebrew), making it the only national park in Israel to be operated by an organization whose aim is to promote a particular ideology. The decision to entrust the City of David to El-Ad was made contrary to the position of the Israel Antiquities Authority, namely that the site should be operated by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. El-Ad operates the visitor center in the heart of the Wadi Hilwa neighborhood and funds excavations in various locations in Wadi Hilwa. El-Ad has also initiated a plan for the Kedem Center, a tourist compound for the entire national park and the Old City. Construction of the center was approved in April 2014 and El-Ad is slated to run it. El-Ad also engages in acquiring houses and lots in Silwan and installing Jewish inhabitants there. El-Ad does so in pursuit of its goal of “strengthening the Jewish bond to Jerusalem”. Since the 1990s El-Ad and other organizations have arranged for 60 Jewish settler families, totaling some 300 individuals, move into the neighborhood. El-Ad has also submitted a plan for building 200 residential units near the City of David site. The plan was rejected. Wadi Hilwa: No planning coupled with ban on construction Local master plan no. 9, approved by the Jerusalem Municipality in 1976, two years after the national park was declared, zones the entire area of Wadi Hilwa as “special open area”. The plan prohibits any construction of residential or public buildings in the area. Any other activity or use of the area requires special approval from the municipal planning authorities. The plan exempted existing structures, but allowed their expansion only for the purpose of improving sanitation. In contrast, the plan zones the neighborhood of Yemin Mosheh, also located within the national park but inside the Green Line, as a “special residential area”, allowing construction of residential and public buildings, subject to preservation considerations and design of the area. In his book, published in 1973, Arieh Sharon, the head of the planning team that prepared Plan no. 9, described Wadi Hilwa as an “unremarkable neighborhood with many ugly houses”, that sprang up in an area of great archeological importance. Sharon argued that evacuating and then resettling residents of the neighborhood would be too costly. He therefore suggested that the neighborhood be liquidated over time, as part of a long term policy that would not authorize construction of new buildings and would gradually purchase lots and resettling families in other areas. In practice, the Jerusalem Municipality does not evict families from Wadi Hilwa, but neither does it allow lawful construction in the neighborhood. Owing to this policy, almost all construction in the neighborhood, including tourism facilities and the settlers’ dwellings, has been carried out without permits. Residents suffer from a severe shortage of residential and public buildings. The neighborhood has only one girls’ school – it is run by UNRWA and serves as both elementary and junior high school, one private boys’ school (elementary school, two classes) and one private pre-school. The vast majority of the neighborhood’s children are obliged to go to other neighborhoods to attend schools. Wadi Hilwa has no medical clinics, post offices or public parks. Over the years, residents have attempted to promote building plans that would allow construction in the neighborhood, but all were rejected. Since 1967, hundreds of Wadi Hilwa’s residents have been convicted of building unlawfully and ordered to pay fines ranging from thousands to tens of thousands of shekels. According to figures obtained by B’Tselem, since 2006, the Jerusalem Municipality has demolished a total of 15 homes in Silwan, including in Wadi Hilwa. February 2012 saw the first time the Nature and Parks Authority demolished a structure in the neighborhood - a community center and a playground funded by the neighborhood’s residents themselves and built on private land owned by a Silwan resident. The site was used by approximately 300 children for sporting and social activities. Since no other public spaces are available in the neighborhood, it was also the venue for public events. In 2007, the Jerusalem Municipality initiated a master plan for the Wadi Hilwa area and the slopes of Mount Zion. The plan was prepared without involving the Palestinian residents. On the other hand, El-Ad was made party to the planning process and even contributed funds to it. The plan designates 70% of the area for parking lots, parks, and antiquity sites, as well as the preservation of open spaces, in an effort to further develop tourism in accordance with area’s purported objectives. The plan includes the first ever proposal to zone land inside the neighborhood for residential purposes, giving retroactive approval to most of the existing buildings, both Palestinians’ and settlers’. The plan, however, offers no solution for the residents’ other needs, either now or in the future. While the Israel Nature and Parks Authority does admit that, “the current situation, wherein thousands of residents live in hundreds of unregulated structures is intolerable on every level”, it argues that “allocating areas inside a national park for residential use […] may attract new plans for construction inside this and other national parks”. To advance this plan, some areas must re-designated so as to fall outside the national park in a process open to veto by many actors, including the Minister of Interior, the Minister of Environmental Protection and the Knesset Internal Affairs and Environment Committee. However, this was not done and though the plan was approved by the local committee in November 2007, it was not moved forward since and was officially shelved in March 2014. Tourism Development in Wadi Hilwa/The City of David From 2005 to 2013, the Israeli government and the Jerusalem Municipality budgeted a total of more than half a billion shekels for the “restoration, development and maintenance of the Old City and Mount of Olives Mount basin”. In May 2012, the government budgeted an additional 350 million shekels [approx. 100 million USD] for “continued development of public-tourist space in Jerusalem” in 2013-2019. A portion of these funds is used to develop tourism in Silwan, including budgetary funds the Ministry of Tourism transfers to El-Ad. Development of tourism in the neighborhood is harmful to its residents, disrupting their daily lives. Owing to construction of the visitor center and the various excavation sites in the very heart of Wadi Hilwa have resulted in inaccessibility to residents of some 25% of its open spaces. Entry to these areas involves a security check, and in some cases, a fee. Unlike other national parks in close proximity to residential areas, Wadi Hilwa residents do not have free access to the City of David site. The City of David visitor center compound was built in an area that has a number of Palestinian houses. Residents suffer from litter left behind by visitors, the spotlights used at the site at night, and parking problems. Hundreds of tourists arrive at the center every day in buses which cause traffic congestion in the narrow streets of the crowded neighborhood. On occasion, the visitor center also hosts special events, and traffic is not permitted on adjacent streets as part of security measures for the event. The security arrangements instituted for the benefit of the settlers and the tourist sites include the installation of dozens of surveillance cameras in the neighborhood. Additionally, dozens of armed security guards, carrying loud communication devices, were posted there with Ministry of Housing funding. The cameras violate residents’ privacy and the presence of security guards and settlers results in friction and conflict with the Palestinian residents, including children. In 2008, Israeli authorities decided on a 30-million-shekel infrastructure development project in the neighborhood to facilitate visitor access to tourist sites and to make its streets more attractive. The plan included new traffic arrangements, expansion and paving of sidewalks, building parking lots on 13 lots owned by Palestinians in the neighborhood, restoration of house facades, as well as sewage and electrical projects. Because the neighborhood has no master plan, authorities began carrying out the project without building permits and without giving public notice of the plan, as required by law, thereby denying residents the opportunity to review the plan and voice their views on it. Implementation would likely have exacerbated traffic congestion in the neighborhood, and cancelled hundreds of parking spaces along the streets, forcing residents to park in distant parking lots accessible by steep roads, or in lots close to the tourist sites, which are filled with visitors’ vehicles during the day. The decision to convert vacant lots in the neighborhoods into parking lots blatantly disregards the residents’ pressing need for educational facilities and other public buildings, as well as their need for public parks. In July 2011, following a petition to the District Court – filed on behalf of Wadi Hilwa residents by Israeli human rights NGO Bimkom and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel – and a subsequent to an appeal to the Supreme Court regarding the District Court’s ruling, the Supreme Court instructed the state to re-examine traffic arrangements and dismantle the additions that had been built without permits. As of June 2014, the previous situation has not been restored. An appeal filed by residents against the municipality’s decision to build parking lots in open spaces in the neighborhood was dismissed by the Supreme Court in December 2011. Entrance to Pool of Siloam. Photo: Keren Manor, Activestills, 15 May 2014 Archeological excavations in open spaces and under houses El-Ad finances the archeological excavations by the Israel Antiquities Authority in various parts of Wadi Hilwa. The digs take place in the neighborhood’s few remaining open spaces, which are then sealed off to residents in a manner that excludes them and bolsters Israeli presence in the area. A path used by residents of Silwan’s al-Bustan neighborhood to reach the mosque and the pre-school they use in Wadi Hilwa was closed off due to the excavation at the Shiloah Pool, (also known as the Pool of Siloam). The path was incorporated into the tourist site which charges a fee for access. Um a-Daraj/Gihon Spring, located in one of the few open spaces in the neighborhood, had traditionally served as a recreational spot for local residents, but they have been unable to access it since 1995, when an archeological dig (Beit Ha’Ma’ayan) began at the site. In January 2014, El-Ad submitted a plan for a tourist center at there, despite the fact that the area is not part of the City of David compound. The plan includes retroactive approval for a large structure – already in use by El-Ad for tourism – built without a permit on top of the excavation, additions to existing structures and preparing land for tourism in the area. In addition to the excavations in open spaces in the neighborhood, horizontal tunnels are being dug in Silwan, partly running under the homes of Palestinian residents, and without their consent. According to experts, archeologists abandoned the practice of digging horizontal tunnels as long as a century ago. It is considered professionally unethical and actually leads to the destruction of antiquities. Palestinian families living above these excavation sites report damage to their property, including cracks in the walls, floors caving in and sinkholes in the roads. The tunnels are designed to be used by visitors as underground archeological trails leading from the Shiloah Pool, through Givati Parking Lot to the Western Wall compound and from the visitor center to the Givati Parking Lot. These underground tours frame the connection between the City of David and the Old City in terms that create an illusion of an exclusively Jewish space without a trace of the region’s Palestinian residents and their history. It stands to reason that El-Ad presents the findings unearthed in the excavations in a way influenced by its ideology. El-Ad presents a historical account of ancient Jerusalem that highlights the First Temple period and attempts to link the findings to the biblical story of King David. This link, a matter of controversy among archeologists, is framed as proof of the historic right of the Jewish people – and the State of Israel – to the area. El-Ad shapes public consciousness of the site as exclusively Jewish, minimizing the importance of the city to other religions and cultures. It makes little reference to either archeological findings that do not fit its narrative or the Palestinian neighborhood and its residents. In so doing, the national park becomes another tool for promoting El-Ad’s goals. Kedem Center. Photo: Keren Manor, Activestills, 15 May 2014 The Kedem Center – Givati Parking Lot The place known as Givati Parking Lot is an open space located across from the City of David visitor center, near the road that encircles the Old City walls. The Jerusalem Municipality began using the space as a parking lot in the 1970s, following an agreement with its owner. The lot was subsequently officially expropriated. Local residents used the lot for parking, sports activities and events until excavations began there in 2003. Sometime after that, El-Ad purchased the land from its Palestinian owner. Although, formally, the area was appropriated by the Jerusalem Municipality, the municipality ignores it and is uninvolved in what is done on that site. In 2009, El-Ad proposed a plan for a large tourist center at the excavation site. The Nature and Parks Authority then became a party to submitting plan. The plan includes construction of a seven-story building, almost as tall as the Old City walls. This contravenes the planning provisions of the national park, which include the instruction not to build structures that would “compete” with the walls. The proposed building, to be named the Kedem Center, will include an archeological exhibit, a tourist section, a parking lot and underground tunnels leading to the Western Wall and the City of David. El-Ad is to run the center, even though it is not part of the City of David compound which is under the organization’s charge. The Kedem Center is designed to serve as the main tourist route for the entire area, with the aim of significantly increasing the number of visitors. The Jerusalem District Planning Committee of the Ministry of Interior discussed the plan at a meeting in February 2012. Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, who attended the committee’s meeting, said: “The City’s goal is to lay down the infrastructure to accommodate about ten million visitors per year” and “The Kedem Center plays a large and important role in creating this infrastructure, given its convenient location in a central part of the national park and the ancient city and the high quality of the site itself […]”. The committee approved the plan, despite the universal prohibition on construction in the area and despite the great proximity to the Old City walls, which the Jerusalem Walls National Park is designed to protect. In May 2012, the government announced the establishment of a museum and academic center devoted to the Old Testament inside the Kedem Center to be named “The Bible Hall”. The Kedem Center project is a source of controversy among archeologists. It was advanced through a questionable planning process and without any discussion about the needs of the local residents. In October 2013, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the plan to be deposited for objections. His decision to promote the Mount Scopus Slopes National Park - another tourism project designed to strengthen the Jewish foothold in Palestinian areas in Jerusalem – was announced at the same time. These decisions, like other decisions to promote various building plans intended to serve Jewish communities beyond the Green Line, were made public immediately after Israel released Palestinian prisoners, in an effort to appease right wing discontent over the release. Several objections were filed after the plan was deposited, including one by a number of public figures. Nevertheless, the Jerusalem District Planning Committee approved plan was in April 2014, subject to certain conditions, including that the structure not extend above the level of the upper road by the foot of the wall. According to plan, the Kedem Center was to cover an area of 1.6 hectares, an area that could have been used to build the public facilities so desperately needed by Silwan residents. The center will deliberately overshadow the Palestinian neighborhood surrounding it, expand Israeli access to Silwan and Israeli presence in the neighborhood, and will also bolster El-Ad’s standing in the area. Situating the center directly at the northern entrance to Wadi Hilwa may result in even greater traffic congestion and impede residents’ access to their homes. The presence of the compound would boost the image of the neighborhood as an archeological tourist site, while Palestinian presence there is ignored. In June 2014, the NGO Emek Shaveh: Archeology in the Shadow of Conflict appealed the plan’s approval. In June 2015, the sub-committee of the National of the National Planning and Construction Committee responded to the appeal. The sub-committee okayed the plan for a visitor center in the area, but ruled its size should be reduced by half. The sub-committee also made a precedential ruling that the construction permit would be subject to the publication of a conservation plan the Antiquities Authority would prepare once the excavation at the site is completed, so that the public can respond. The sub-committee returned the plan for the Kedem Center to the District Committee. Harm to other neighborhoods Abu Tur: The Jerusalem Municipality uses the Year 2000 Jerusalem Master Plan as a guideline for city planning, despite the fact that it has not yet gone into effect (See also here). Israeli NGO Bimkom has uncovered an earlier version of the plan, which allocates more lands to the Jerusalem Walls National Park than does Plan No. 6. The additional area includes a bloc of 2 hectares bordering the built-up part of the Abu Tur neighborhood. A few years ago, the Nature and Parks Authority built a scenic observation post there, despite the fact that it was not officially part of the national park. In December 2011, the Jerusalem Municipality demolished an agricultural structure on the site and uprooted about ten old olive trees. The director of the Jerusalem District at the Nature and Parks Authority was present at the demolition. Abu Tur, a densely built neighborhood, has no remaining land reserves for development. The site in question is particularly suitable for public use by neighborhood residents, either as a school or as a public park, since the terrain is flat and adjacent to the main road. However, the apparent plan to incorporate this land into the national park may obstruct this possibility. Wadi al-Joz: The Jerusalem Walls National Park covers an area of 5.6 hectares, not immediately adjacent to the Walls, in the south-east part of the Wadi al-Joz neighborhood. Local residents use this area for a market and for parking. There are also a number of residential buildings located three. The fact that the area is defined as a national park precludes further building and development there, despite local residents' pressing need for land to build on. The neighborhood has planned areas with a small percentage of building allocation and unplanned areas that are built densely. Sources: Bimkom, East Jerusalem Survey (updated Hebrew version). Bimkom, From Public to Nations – National Parks in East Jerusalem, 2012, pp. 14-21. Bimkom, Expert Opinion on Planning, in AP 8938/08 Salim Siam v. Jerusalem Municipality, July 2009 [Hebrew]. Emek Shaveh, From Territorial Contiguity to Historical Continuity: Asserting Israeli Control through National Parks in East Jerusalem – Update 2014 (see section on Kidron) Emek Shaveh, Remaking the City: Archaeological Projects of Political Import in Jerusalem’s Old City and in the Village of Silwan [Hebrew original published November 2013]. Emek Shaveh, Another Future for Antiquities, Conservation of Antiquities Sites: Suggestions towards a Partial Solution of Jerusalem’s Political Problems [Hebrew original published November 2013]. Emek Shaveh, From Silwan to the Temple Mount: Archaeological Excavations as a Means of Control in the Village of Silwan and in Jerusalem’s Old City – Developments in 2012 [Hebrew original published February 2013]. Emek Shaveh, “Beit Haliba” and the Givati Parking Lot Archeological Excavations and their Effect on the Status Quo in the Old City of Jerusalem and in Silwan [Hebrew original published February 2013]. Emek Shaveh, Where Are the Antiquities? National Parks between the Old City of Jerusalem And Area E1 [Hebrew original published January 2012]. Emek Shaveh, Archaeology in the shadow of the conflict: The Mound of Ancient Jerusalem (City of David) in Silwan [Hebrew original published 2009]. Emek Shaveh, Elad's Settlement in Silwan [Hebrew original published 2007]. Ir Amim, From Holyland to Kedem – Under the Auspices of the Authorities – El-Ad’s Plans for a Colossal Compound, December 2013 [Hebrew]. Ir Amim, Objection to Plan for Kedem Center, December 2013 [Hebrew]. Ir Amim, Jerusalem 2012: A Snapshot. Developments in East Jerusalem and their political ramifications, June 2013 [Hebrew]. Ir Amim, Shady Dealings in Silwan, May 2009.

16 September 2014