The Jerusalem District Committee has announced that it will be meeting tomorrow, December 10, at which time it will announce its decision whether or not to advance plans for Givat Hamatos, Ramat Shlomo and the “Peace Forest” located north of UN Headquarters.  Tomorrow’s meeting will consider parcels B, C and D of the Givat Hamatos plan.  As reported last week, due to specific re-parcelization procedures, parcel A of the Givat Hamatos plan will be discussed separately by the Local Committee on December 18.  Please recall that in this rare case, the Local Committee has been granted the authority to make the final decision on the plan.

• Plan includes 813 new housing units
  
• Land is primarily state owned though Palestinian residents claim they bought some of the land from the Jordanian government in the 1960s; before the land could be registered, the 1967 war broke out, after which Israel claimed the land.  Residents are demanding that Israel open an investigation with the Jordanian government to determine the legal status of the disputed land.  
  
• Because this parcel is so close to Beit Safafa, it is expected to be very disruptive to the village, i.e. imposing buildings and an access road through the village will disrupt daily life.
  
• A discussion of objections scheduled for last December was cancelled two days before the scheduled date.  Since then, there have been no new developments.

• Comprised of private Palestinian land
  
• Permits would be allocated for 549 units for Palestinians; however, 240 have already been built.  Owners of those 240 units would receive permits for additional vertical building.  Construction already built without permitting would be recognized as legal.
  
• It was intended that this parcel would be discussed with parcel C back in December (meeting cancelled).
  
• For political reasons, the authorities appear to be making the outcome of parcel B contingent on the outcome of C; thus we have reason to believe that B will not be promoted without C being accepted.  

 Givat Hamatos D (TPS 5834D)

Ramat Shlomo (TPS 11085)

As announced last week, the District Committee will move forward with hearing of objections on 1,600 units in Ramat Shlomo on December 17.  At tomorrow’s meeting, the plan is expected to receive the same treatment as the above listed plans, i.e. a formal announcement of the committee’s intentions regarding advancement of the plan.

Ya’ar Hashalom (Peace Forest), TPS 10188

The Local Committee will also discuss TPS 10188 regarding Ya’ar Hashalom (Peace Forest).  The parcel in question—transferred from the Jewish National Fund (JNF) to the Israel Lands Auhority (ILA)— is located north of the UN headquarters (please see attached map) and regularly used by the Elad settler organization for tours and sports activities.  Under a contract between Elad and JNF, the settler organization is permitted to rent a building on the land.  During the past several years, Elad illegally fenced off an area and added trailers serving as offices, storage spaces and group lecture rooms.  JNF is now advancing the plan in order to legalize the fence and trailers by designating the Elad controlled area as a tourism center.  Ya'ar Hashalom is one of a chain of national parks designed to solidify Israeli control over the Old City Basin.

Earlier objections raised by Ir Amim and others brought the legal process to a halt.  Objections focused on multiple irregularities in documents intended to disguise the presence of illegal buildings and the objective of legalizing them.  After hearing objections in June 2011, the District Committee ordered the documents to be resubmitted with accurate information.  Several weeks ago a discussion to authorize building permits legalizing the trailers appeared on the agenda of the Local Committee.  The item was stricken from the agenda after Local Committee member Pepe Alalu submitted a letter stating that permits cannot be issued for a plan that has not yet been approved.  

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Eastern Ring Road (TPS 4585F)

On December 11, the District Committee will hear updates from the investigator assigned to address objections to plan 4585F, the central portion of the six part Eastern Ring Road plan which will run from Abu Dis to Sur Bahar.  When objections to the plan were discussed on March 25, 2012, the District Committee requested additional information and plan modifications before making final approval.  Absent any additional unexpected appeals, the December 11 hearing may be the final step in plan approval. 

The Eastern Ring Road is located just meters from the separation barrier, thereby cutting off parts of East Jerusalem and more than 250,000 of its Palestinian residents from the West Bank. Similarly, traffic between the northern and southern parts of the West Bank are currently being routed to a separate road system as part of an Israeli experiment to expand the borders of East Jerusalem de facto via “The Ma’aleh Adumim Bubble”, an area comprised of Ma’aleh Adumim as well as the greater surrounding area, including E-1.

Waste Dump Facility (TPS 13900)

As reported on November 14, a plan for a 517 dunam construction waste facility (TPS 13900) in East Jerusalem was submitted for public objections by the District Planning and Building Committee on November 2.   The proposed facility would be located north of Isawiyya, on the land separating Isawiyya from Shuafat and Anata, and south of the separation barrier encircling Shuafat.  The site lies east of Road 1 to Ma’ale Adumim and adjacent to the E1 area.  Once built, it would convert land directly adjacent to a Palestinian neighborhood into a dumpsite for construction waste.   Please link here for new maps of the area designated for construction.  As can be seen from the map, the waste dump will consume all the open area left to the northeast of road 1, between the road and the separation barrier.

Together with the Mt. Scopus Slopes National Park plan, this plan will seize land that could have served the building needs of Isawiyya.   Given these geographic considerations, the plan indicates an Israeli strategy to control the area, block Palestinian building and reserve the area as a land link between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim.  Thirty families (Bedouin and Palestinian) living in the area will have their homes/shacks demolished.

The waste dump facility takes on added significance in light of authorities’ recent announcement to advance building in the E-1 area.

Please address all inquiries to:

Betty Herschman
Director of International Relations & Advocacy
Ir Amim (“City of Nations”)
27 King George St. POB 2239
Jerusalem, Israel 94581
Work: 972-2-6222-858 x106
Cell: 054-308-5096
betty@ir-amim.org.il
www.ir-amim.org.il