Settlements and National Parks
Published on Ir Amim (http://www.ir-amim.org.il)
Settlements and National Parks
Vertical Tabs
Introduction
Introduction
Israeli construction in East Jerusalem began as soon as the area was annexed in 1967. Large Jewish
neighborhoods/settlements were built: French Hill, Giloh, East Talpiot, Ramot, Neveh Yaakov, Pisgat
Ze’ev, and Har Homa. The Israeli authorities expropriated about one third of East Jerusalem’s
territory for constructing these neighborhoods. The neighborhoods were built along the municipal
boundaries between Palestinian neighborhoods in order to fortify and establish the new and
expanded boundaries of Jerusalem to maintain a Jewish majority and to create Israeli dominance in
the area. These neighborhoods/settlements currently house some 200,000 Israelis. According to
international law, which never recognized the Israeli annexation of East Jerusalem, these
neighborhoods are settlements in every sense of the word. Yet Israeli discourse and law view them
as ordinary Israeli neighborhoods.
The accepted outline of a political settlement in Jerusalem, in line with the Clinton parameters,
suggests that most of these neighborhoods would remain under Israeli sovereignty under a land
swap framework. Naturally, constructing new neighborhoods, further expanding existing
neighborhoods, and linking neighborhoods together to form one urban continuum would undermine
the realization of such a resolution and consequently the feasibility of a political settlement between
Israel and the Palestinians.
Since the late 1980s, there has been a concerted effort to establish Israeli presence in the area of
the historic basin and inside the Palestinian neighborhoods. Two tools have been used for this
purpose: settlement in the heart of Palestinian neighborhoods and seizure of areas for public projects
such as roads, archaeological excavations, tourism projects, and national parks.
‫עיר עמים ע״ר‬
02-6222858 ‫טלפון‬
02-6233696 ‫פקס‬
[email protected]
Page 1 of 10
Settlements and National Parks
Published on Ir Amim (http://www.ir-amim.org.il)
The establishment of national parks and settlements in Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem is an
expression of a policy that has extensive consequences, both in relation to the feasibility of a
political settlement and to equitable living arrangements in this mixed city.
The Establishment of Israeli Complexes Inside Palestinian Neighborhoods
We define a settlement--as distinguished from a neighborhood/settlement in East Jerusalem--by two
features: a settlement is an Israeli complex inside a Palestinian neighborhood created jointly by the
state and private bodies, and with an ideological purpose. Until the mid-1980s, the authorities
avoided creating Israeli complexes inside Palestinian neighborhoods. They wanted to avoid friction
and also were limited by their own justification of control over East Jerusalem – namely, that only
Israel had the ability to maintain the city’s religious and cultural pluralism. For those reasons, the
late former mayor Teddy Kollek, who supported construction of large Israeli neighborhoods in East
Jerusalem, was against creating Israeli complexes inside Palestinian neighborhoods.
Since the mid-1980s, and even more so since the 1990s, the policy has changed. Ariel Sharon, as
Minister of Housing and Construction, encouraged Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem. Sharon
himself bought a house in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City, and under his stewardship, the Ministry
of Housing and Construction transferred dozens of properties in the Old City and East Jerusalem to
settler organizations. The organizations that received these properties maintain a nationalistreligious worldview, openly oppose a political settlement, and believe that Jews have exclusive rights
to Jerusalem, its properties, and its resources. Most of the settlements are concentrated within the
historic basin of the Old City and its surroundings, and have over the last two decades created a ring
of guarded Jewish complexes in the middle of Palestinian neighborhoods in and around the Old City.
The ring of settlements extends from clusters of houses in the Christian and Muslim quarters to
outside of the walls of the Old City in the areas of Damascus Gate and Sheikh Jarrah in the north,
through Ras al-Amud and a-Tur in the east, all the way down to Silwan and Jabel Mukabbar in the
south. In 2009, the settler population in the Old City and its surroundings reached 2000. Plans to
expand existing settlements and build new ones are being advanced by the settlers and supported
by the municipality and government ministries.
Settlements on Behalf of the State: The Players and the Mechanisms
The settlement enterprises in the middle of Palestinian neighborhoods over the last 30 years were
seemingly carried out by private bodies, but were in fact rooted in government policy and enabled
by it. To bypass domestic and foreign criticism of these actions, the government usually avoided
direct involvement in them. Instead, the state has used its mechanisms to allow private right-wing
organizations to realize their plans to create Jewish outposts in the Palestinian neighborhoods of the
Old City and its environs, to serve as barriers between Palestinian clusters, to change their
character, and to prevent the possibility of a political settlement in Jerusalem.
Elad and Ateret Cohanim are among the organizations that have received properties from state
authorities. These private bodies are actually executive arms of Israel's governments who carry out
their policy in East Jerusalem while utilizing official government apparatuses for the purchase,
population, and security of the settlements. Since the 1980s, the state has transferred and facilitated
the transfer of properties inhabited or owned by Palestinians to right-wing societies through the
Custodian of Absentee Property, the Custodian General, the Jewish National Fund, and other bodies.
Silwan/City of David epitomizes the use of these state mechanisms, where all of the aforementioned
practices have been used. The transfer of property from the state has often been carried out through
a manipulative use of the law or even its circumvention. These measures were described and
strongly criticized by the Klugman Committee, appointed by Justice Minister David Libai, which was
formed as a result of public pressure and submitted its conclusions in September 1992.
The Use of Absentee Property Law
Many of Israel’s attorneys general instructed the government not to use the Absentee Property Law
in East Jerusalem due to its problematic nature. The original 1950 law, contentious in itself, referred
to the property of Arabs who were considered absentees at the end of the 1948 War of
‫עיר עמים ע״ר‬
02-6222858 ‫טלפון‬
02-6233696 ‫פקס‬
[email protected]
Page 2 of 10
Settlements and National Parks
Published on Ir Amim (http://www.ir-amim.org.il)
Independence. The State of Israel, through this law, appointed itself guardian of their absentee
property. If this law had been applied verbatim after 1967, it would have categorized residents of the
West Bank, who live outside the Jerusalem municipal border but own property inside Jerusalem, as
absentees. These people’s absenteeism would have been purely technical because they continued to
live in their own homes on their own land in a territory under Israeli control (but separated from
parts of their land by the Jerusalem municipal border). The evident difficulties of this hypothetical
situation led the attorneys general to state the Absentee Property Law should not be applied to East
Jerusalem. However, the authorities, at times, have applied this law. In the case of the Abbasi house
in Wadi Hilweh in Silwan, for example, the Jerusalem District Court even ruled that declaration of the
house as absentee property was based on a false affidavit without factual or legal basis, and that the
entire procedure was tainted by “an extreme lack of good faith." Nonetheless, Elad people live in
that house to this very day.
Illegal Purchases and Illegal Construction
The Klugman Committee Report’s severe criticism of the transfer of properties by the state to private
bodies through the aforementioned channels forced the state to stop those practices for some time.
But recently, the takeover of properties in East Jerusalem has commenced through private sales
transactions. The authorities look the other way while shady deals are made through straw
companies and individuals, and while various pressures are exerted on the Palestinian owners.
The Maale David settlement in the neighborhood of Ras al-Amud near Mount of Olives illustrates the
way various state authorities mobilize to build and support a supposedly private project that in fact
carries political significance. Until April 2008, the 11,000 square meter complex served as the Judea
and Samaria district police headquarters. Right-wing parties endorsed the construction of a new
police headquarters in a settlement in the politically controversial E1 area. In exchange, the state
transferred the old headquarters building to the Bukharan Community Committee, which owned the
area before 1948. In the next stage of this circular deal, the Bukharan Community Committee
transferred the building to the settlers. Even though in its outline plan, this area is designated for
public buildings, it is presently being converted into apartments. Future plans for additional housing
units, a country club, a swimming pool, and educational institutions have also been put in place.
While the conversion process into private housing units has been undertaken without building
permits, the planning and approval processes are being applied to it retroactively. Maale David is
supposed to be connected by bridge to a settlement on the other side of the street: Maale Zeitim, a
guarded and fenced residential complex with 119 housing units.
Thus, while the Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem are subjected to severe building
restrictions, the settlements in the middle of Palestinian neighborhoods receive preferential terms.
For example, in the plan for the settlement of Nof Zion in Jabel Mukabbar, building rights are 130% in
the main areas, compared to 25% to 37.5% permitted for construction in the approved plans for the
Palestinian neighborhood in which the settlement is located. The discriminatory planning in favor of
the settlements is an indication that the settlement enterprise in East Jerusalem is not part of a
private process, but part of government policy. Another indication is that the government funds the
security surrounding the settlements in the Palestinian neighborhoods. Thus, in 2011, the state
allocated more than NIS 70 million from the Housing Ministry's budget for private security services
through guards who are employed as contract workers. This is the only case where the state
provides private security services for residents whose official status is mere private citizens, creating
tensions and friction with the local Palestinian residents.
Settlements on Land that was Owned by Jews Before 1948
Construction of settlements in Palestinian neighborhoods has also been based on Jewish claims of
ownership over land from before 1948. This is the case for some of the houses in Silwan, the Nissan
Beck houses near Damascus gate, and the Ras al-Amud case above. One prominent case where use
of such a claim of ownership was made is the Sheikh Jarrah settlement.
Before 1948, the land on which the Palestinian houses were built was part of the Shimon Hatzadik
neighborhood, whose land was owned by the Sephardic Community Committee and the Knesset
Israel Committee. The Jordanian government (through the Jordanian Custodian of Enemy Property)
‫עיר עמים ע״ר‬
02-6222858 ‫טלפון‬
02-6233696 ‫פקס‬
[email protected]
Page 3 of 10
Settlements and National Parks
Published on Ir Amim (http://www.ir-amim.org.il)
did not change the registered ownership, but nonetheless settled refugee families on site, some of
which had lived in West Jerusalem until 1948 and owned property there. Under Israeli law, Jews can
claim property they owned before 1948, but Palestinians are denied that option. This asymmetry,
rooted in law, paved the way for the entry of settlers into the neighborhood and the loss of homes
for Palestinian families, all of this following a legal battle.
Jewish settlers have been entering homes in Sheikh Jarrah at the expense of Palestinian families
since the beginning of 2009. This is presented as a legal question of ownership, rather than a
political question of cooperation between government and private organizations as part of a broader
policy. But actually, the legal recognition of the right of Jews to properties they owned before 1948,
and the eviction of Palestinian families from homes they lived in for decades in the name of that
right, is not just a question of real estate ownership but expresses a principal position. According to
this position, Jewish properties and houses in East Jerusalem are connected to the reality of
Jerusalem before 1948, but there is no such connection in the case of Palestinians whose houses are
presently in Jewish neighborhoods in West Jerusalem. This discriminatory policy is inconsistent with
the values of justice and democracy.
Recognition of the right of Jews to properties they owned before 1948 is also a precedent that may
have far-reaching political consequences. Although Israeli law does not recognize the right of
Palestinians to claim their pre-1948 properties within the Green Line in a similar manner, a collective
claim of that sort – even if it is only symbolic – could put Israel in a most complex situation both
locally and internationally. Such a claim serves those who wish to divert the discussion of a solution
for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a conversation surrounding 1967 to a conversation about
1948, and in the context of Jerusalem from a conversation about property rights and sovereignty
over East Jerusalem to that over West Jerusalem.
Settlements and National Parks
The settlements in the Palestinian neighborhoods are often anchored in archaeological sites,
historical sites, and national parks, which in themselves are powerful political tools.
According to law, a national park is "an area designated for public use for leisure in nature or to
commemorate values of historic, archaeological, architectural, natural or landscaping importance or
the likes…" The definition is flexible and broad enough to justify the conversion of different kinds of
areas into national parks. The first national park in East Jerusalem, Walls of Jerusalem National Park,
was declared in 1976 and included the strip surrounding the walls of the Old City, extending into
Silwan/City of David. Since the 1990s, additional areas of East Jerusalem have been turned into
national parks, some of them as additions to Walls of Jerusalem, and some, like the Tzurim Valley
National Park, as an extension of it deep into the Palestinian neighborhoods, without claiming the
site has any archaeological, historical, or landscaping importance. Additional national parks are in
planning and approval stages, including the Mount Scopus Slopes, planned to be on the land of the
neighborhoods of a-Tur and Issawiya, and at the expense of plans to expand these neighborhoods,
which are in approval stages. Added to that are municipal plans such as The King’s Garden, which is
supposed to be an expansion of the City of David National Park and will involve the demolition of
most of the al-Bustan neighborhood of Silwan.
The Map of National Parks
Similar to cases of settlements in the heart of Palestinian neighborhoods, national parks are also an
arena in which state authorities have joined hands with private bodies, with the state transferring
administration and development powers for public, touristic, archaeological and educational projects
into the hands of right wing private organizations. Frequently, representatives of the organizations
participate in the planning of the projects and even initiate them, and people who previously worked
for them serve in senior positions in public bodies that are responsible for those projects, such as
Israel Nature and Parks Authority. For example, the Elad organization, the biggest and most
prominent of the right wing organizations, operates the City of David National Park, an educational
project in the Tzurim Valley National Park, a project in the Peace Forest and the information center in
the Mount of Olives cemetery, while also endorsing archaeological excavations in the entire area of
Silwan.
‫עיר עמים ע״ר‬
02-6222858 ‫טלפון‬
02-6233696 ‫פקס‬
[email protected]
Page 4 of 10
Settlements and National Parks
Published on Ir Amim (http://www.ir-amim.org.il)
Archaeological excavations and tourism development are frequently undertaken and/or underwritten
by the right-wing organizations, which in turn use them to justify their activity and disseminate and
impose their historic narrative of Jerusalem through extensive educational activity. The narrative in
question derives pronounced political and nationalist conclusions from historic Jewish presence,
while covering up the diversity and wealth of cultures that existed in Jerusalem through its
thousands of years of history. By-and-by, this awareness delegitimizes any non-Jewish presence in
the city. The Education Ministry, the Defense Ministry, the Jewish Agency, and other bodies send
hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren, soldiers, officers and college students from Israel and
abroad to participate in educational projects operated by right-wing organizations in East Jerusalem,
who in turn provide visitors with a story that binds history, heritage and politics in one. A visit to
these tourist sites provides a comfortable setting for establishment of Israeli presence in East
Jerusalem and at the heart of Palestinian neighborhoods, while ignoring its political implications.
The national parks serve not only as tools for shaping the national landscape and awareness, but
also as administrative tools. An area declared as a national park is transferred from the responsibility
of the municipality, which is formally committed to the welfare of its residents, to the responsibility
of the Nature and Parks Authority (NPA), a government agency in charge of the protection of nature,
landscape, and heritage. The NPA has enforcement powers in the territory of the park but has no
obligation towards the people who live in it. Private land located in national parks is not expropriated
and compensation is not provided for it. However, it is impossible to realize ownership of such land in
any significant way when it is swallowed into the area of a national park. The declaration of a
national park does not only violate private ownership but also hurts the population of East Jerusalem
as a whole. With almost no public spaces in Palestinian Jerusalem, establishing fenced national parks
in open areas in the Palestinian neighborhoods comes at the expense of developing spaces in favor
of public institutions such as schools, community centers, public parks and so on.
While it is not a necessary tool for the protection of nature and heritage, it does complete and
connect settlements in the middle of Palestinian neighborhoods, limit Palestinian use of land, and
provide nationalist organizations, into whose hands the parks were privatized, with a firm grasp on
the land. Therefore, national parks are useful tools in the political-strategic settlement enterprise,
whose inviting appearance, institutional status, and mythology of heritage obscure the fact that they
are political tools of the highest order and thwart public discussion that should have taken place
around them.
Summary
Israeli settlements and national projects in Palestinian neighborhoods in and around the Old City
create an impervious religious-ethnic net that affects the character and development prospects of
the neighborhoods.
As Israeli control over parts of East Jerusalem inside and next to the Palestinian neighborhoods
strengthens, Palestinian control over East Jerusalem weakens, and their physical and symbolic
connection to the historic basin is gradually waning. This process is being supported, on the public
level, by a nationalist narrative that utilizes historic and religious arguments while erasing the
political dimension of the process and its dangers. This policy is part of a comprehensive policy
toward Greater Jerusalem. Along with the giant neighborhoods/settlements in the eastern ring of
Jerusalem and the clusters of settlements to its north, east, and south that comprise Greater
Jerusalem, the settlements and National Parks in the Palestinian neighborhoods create a geographicstrategic contiguity in and around the Old City. It leans on Mount Scopus and Maale Adumim and
joins a highway system ending at the outskirts of Jericho, thus severely impeding the possibility of an
equitable living arrangement in Jerusalem, and the chance of reaching a political settlement that
respects the private and collective rights of the members of the two peoples who share this city.
- See more at: http://www.ir-amim.org.il/en/issue/settlements-and-national-parks#sthash...
Reports
‫עיר עמים ע״ר‬
02-6222858 ‫טלפון‬
02-6233696 ‫פקס‬
[email protected]
Page 5 of 10
Settlements and National Parks
Published on Ir Amim (http://www.ir-amim.org.il)
Absentees Against Their Will – Property Expropriation in East Jerusalem
under the Absentee Property Law
01/07/2010
The State of Israel, in its early days, enacted the Absentee Property Law in order to regulate transfer
of Palestinian refugee property into the hands of the state. Subjugating East Jerusalem to Israeli law
since 1967 has had the potential to render the majority of houses in East Jerusalem “absentee
property.” This report reviews the Israeli judicial system’s inconsistent application of the Absentee
Property Law in East Jerusalem, and illustrates the risks involved in changing the government policy
towards East Jerusalem as adopted in 1967.
Absentees against their Will
Print
PDF version
‫חזרה למרכז מידע‬
Evictions and Settlement Plans in Sheikh Jarrah: The Case of Shimon
HaTzadik
01/05/2009
This report aims to clarify the historical-legal background of evictions of Palestinian families from
their homes in Sheikh Jarrah. It places the recent controversy in the context of an ongoing set of
development plans that threaten to spark a dangerous escalation of the conflict in the city and to
preclude an agreed-upon political resolution in Jerusalem. It includes Ir Amim's recommendations
that current eviction proceedings and settlement plans must be frozen.
SheikhJarrahEngnew.pdf
Print
PDF version
‫חזרה למרכז מידע‬
Israeli Settlement in Palestinian Communities in East Jerusalem
31/08/2009
This
document
provides a snapshot
of Israeli
one ofsettlement
the major threats
to a negotiated
resolution
Jerusalem:
the accelerated
process of
in Palestinian
communities
in EastinJerusalem
(as of August 2009).
‫עיר עמים ע״ר‬
02-6222858 ‫טלפון‬
02-6233696 ‫פקס‬
[email protected]
Page 6 of 10
Settlements and National Parks
Published on Ir Amim (http://www.ir-amim.org.il)
Israeli Settlement in East Jerusalem
Print
PDF version
‫חזרה למרכז מידע‬
Making Bricks Without Straw: The Jerusalem Municipality’s New
Planning Policy for East Jerusalem
01/01/2010
This
reportthat
issued
Ir Amim
and at
Bimkom
examines
the municipality’s
new
policy
andevery
concludes
theby
current
planning
realities
inof
East
Jerusalem
to thwart,
nearly
Palestinian
building
plan
whether
the stage
approving
theserve
plan itself
or planning
at de
thefacto,
stage
of issuing
the building permit.
New Planning Policy
Print
PDF version
‫חזרה למרכז מידע‬
Severe Threat to Al Bustan-Silwan Neighborhood
01/02/2009
The Israeli authorities’ actions in the past months bear a renewed danger to the existence of Al
Bustan neighborhood of Silwan. The demolition of almost 90 homes in this sensitive and disputed
area is incendiary and could hold grave consequences for the stability of the city.
AlBustanCoalitionSummaryEng.doc
Print
PDF version
‫חזרה למרכז מידע‬
‫עיר עמים ע״ר‬
02-6222858 ‫טלפון‬
02-6233696 ‫פקס‬
[email protected]
Page 7 of 10
Settlements and National Parks
Published on Ir Amim (http://www.ir-amim.org.il)
Shady Dealings in Silwan
01/05/2009
This
is a comprehensive
survey
of
Israel’s
accelerated
takeover,
through
extreme
right
wing
organizations,
of large
parts
of
Silwan
village
located
at the
heart
Jerusalem's
historical
basin.
The
report
strives
to expose
thethe
state’s
problematic
conduct
in one
ofof
the
most delicate
regions
of
Jerusalem, and uncover the dangers of uninhibited continuous application of current policies.
Shady Dealings in Silwan
Print
PDF version
‫חזרה למרכז מידע‬
The Giant’s Garden
01/10/2012
In
June 2010
Local
Planning
and
Building
Subcommittee
recommended
the District
Jerusalem
Municipality’s
plan
for
"The
King's
Garden"
inof
the
heart
ofhouses
the
Al-Bustan
neighborhood
of
Silwan
for
deposit
to
thethe
District
Presently,
the
Municipality
is
pressuring
the
Planning
Building
Committee
toCommittee.
expedite
of
the
plan. of
Meanwhile,
continues
toand
pursue
court
proceedings
for
thediscussion
demolition
dozens
in the
the Municipality
neighborhood.
The
City ofto
David
site finds
in thethat
center
ofnumber
Silwan—managed
by
the
Elad
settler
organization—and
additional
settlements
throughout
the
neighborhood
have
tension
with local
residents.
This
athe
much
larger
number
buildings
in
the
al-Bustan
neighborhood
expected
be report
demolished
than
originally
declared
byintensified
the
Municipality.
Furthermore,
the solution
offered
by located
the Municipality—a
kind
of evacuation-construction
plan
according
to which
new
houses
will
be constructed
before
the
old
ones
areof
demolished—is
not
feasible;
moreover,
theare
Municipality is simultaneously working to cancel the plan.
al-Bustan ENG.pdf
Print
PDF version
‫חזרה למרכז מידע‬
The Old City and the Historic Basin: Issues of Concern and Recent
Developments
01/03/2007
Jerusalem’s Old City and its adjacent areas, also referred to as the “Holy Basin” or “Historic Basin”,
stand at the center of a bitter struggle between two national narratives (Israeli and Palestinian) and
three religious narratives (Jewish, Muslim, and Christian). While this struggle is not new, recent
developments threaten to upset the delicate status quo that has long existed between the
narratives. Together, these developments are reducing the conflict to its volatile core -- the battle
over the physical embodiments of each side’s narrative.
‫עיר עמים ע״ר‬
02-6222858 ‫טלפון‬
02-6233696 ‫פקס‬
[email protected]
Page 8 of 10
Settlements and National Parks
Published on Ir Amim (http://www.ir-amim.org.il)
TheOldCityMarch2007Eng(1).doc
Print
PDF version
‫חזרה למרכז מידע‬
Toward a Point of No Return: Lifting the Political Restraints in East
Jerusalem
01/02/2011
This
reportpolicy
outlines
Israel’s
policy instability
shift
in late
2011
towards
East
Jerusalem,
following in
the
expiration
of
the fields,
2010
settlement
freeze.
This
turn
for the
worse,
which
occurred
simultaneously
numerous
increased
in2010-early
the city
and
severely
harmed
any potential
commencement of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
Toward a Point of No Return
Print
PDF version
‫חזרה למרכז מידע‬
Un-Neighborly Neighbors: The Maale Zeitim Settlement's War of
Attrition against the Hamdallah Family
01/03/2011
This paper outlines the war of attrition Dr. Irving Moskowitz, patron of the East Jerusalem settlers, is
conducting against the Hamdallah family of Ras al-Amud. The Hamdallah household lies adjacent to
the settler compound in Ras al-Amud containing its wanton expansion. Accordingly, the settlers and
their supporters spare no expense, utilizing the Israeli judicial system in their crusade to evacuate
the Hamdallah family out of their home of decades.
Maale Zeitim against Hamdallah Family
Print
PDF version
‫חזרה למרכז מידע‬
‫עיר עמים ע״ר‬
02-6222858 ‫טלפון‬
02-6233696 ‫פקס‬
[email protected]
Page 9 of 10
Settlements and National Parks
Published on Ir Amim (http://www.ir-amim.org.il)
‫חזרה למרכז מידע‬
Source URL: http://www.ir-amim.org.il/en/issue/settlements-and-national-parks
‫עיר עמים ע״ר‬
02-6222858 ‫טלפון‬
02-6233696 ‫פקס‬
[email protected]
Page 10 of 10