Tuesday, March 22

8:45 AM- 1:00 PM

National Planning Council

Bayit VeGan Guest House, 8 Hapisgah Street, Jerusalem

The plan for the massive settler promoted visitor center on the edge of Silwan, directly across from the Old City walls, returns for discussion at the full committee after the committee nullified a previous Appeals Committee decision in January of this year.  The director general of the Justice Ministry requested a new discussion some six months after the Appeals Committee – on which a member of the Justice Ministry sits – issued a decision to limit the scope of the settler promoted visitor center in Silwan.  The full committee voted to hold a new discussion on the project, thereby voiding the Appeals Committee’s June 2015 decision.      

The January action was one in a series of steps taken to reverse the Appeals Committee’s judgement, which reduced the overall area permitted for construction and restricted the range of activities permitted on site. After the June decision, Elad, the nationalist settler group promoting the Kedem Compound, brought the subject to the Interior Committee of the Knesset to exert political pressure.  It also submitted a petition to the Administrative Court, which denied it.  

The Kedem Compound is a prime example of "touristic settlement" – a trend by which settlers, with the support of local and government officials, are able to expand their control of key Palestinian neighborhoods around the Historic Basin through management of tourist attractions like the City of David, just across the street from the Kedem site.

Background

On April 3, 2014, the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee approved the Kedem Compound plan (Plan no. 13542) – a  plan, promoted by the Elad settler organization, to construct a five-story structure (more than 16,000 sq. m.) in the Givati Parking Lot in the neighborhood of Silwan, about 20 meters from the walls of the Old City.  The plan was drawn up by architect Arieh Rachamimov and garnered enthusiastic support from the authorities: it was advanced at record speed from the Local Planning and Building Committee to the District Committee, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority joined the plan as an additional submitter, and Mayor Nir Barkat took the trouble of attending the District Committee plan deposit hearing to voice his support for the plan’s approval. Although the District Committee ordered the building to be lowered by one story, it rejected substantive objections to the plan.

Multiple appeals against the plan’s approval were subsequently submitted to the Appeals Committee of the National Planning and Building Council, including those by residents of Silwan; Ir Amim; Emek Shaveh; and a group of 35 planners, conservation experts and intellectuals, represented before the Appeals Subcommittee by Prof. Alona Nitzan-Shiftan.  An appeal was also submitted by Elad and the INPA against the District Committee’s reduction of the structure’s approved height by one story.

Most of the appeals against the plan’s approval were founded on the argument that the plan serves as a pretext for Israel to promote another settlement in the heart of Silwan, in grave violation of conservation principles regarding the Old City and its surroundings. As stated in the appeals, the plan will significantly alter the Old City environs, deviating from rules of conservation and planning practiced for decades, and all without the level of deep and open public debate required for decisions of this magnitude.

The National Planning Council’s Appeals Subcommittee held three hearings. The first commenced on March 12 but was canceled due to an apparent conflict of interests, namely discovery that the representative of the Ministry of Environmental Protection was the son of the plan’s listed conservation adviser.  Two full appeal hearings were held on May 27 and 28.

On June 7, 2015, the Appeals Subcommittee of the National Planning Council approved the plan for the Kedem Compound in Silwan, albeit with significant amendments.  By a simple majority, the subcommittee partially accepted claims raised in appeals against the District Committee’s approval of the plan, including an appeal submitted on behalf of Ir Amim by Atty. Ishay Shneydor.  Link here for a full review of the Committee’s decision.

Please address all inquiries to:

Betty Herschman

Director of International Relations & Advocacy

Ir Amim (City of Nations/City of Peoples)

betty@ir-amim.org.il

054-308-5096

@IrAmimAlerts