ICAHD and other Israeli Peace Groups call for the cancellation of a planned Muslim Quarter new settlement
Another illegal act in East Jerusalem undertaken by the Israeli Government and the Municipality of Jerusalem has recently been uncovered: a plan to build a new Jewish settlement in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City near Herod’s Gate.
Recently the Sub-committee of the Local Committee for Planning and Construction in Jerusalem has confirmed a plan to erect a Jewish neighbourhood in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. According to the plan, 30 housing units and a synagogue will be built to accommodate some 150 people. Professionals (Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights) warn of the implications of this plan: [MORE]
Settlements go down, settlements go up
New Settlement Puts Pressure on Jerusalem Palestinians
by Jon Elmer
Jabel Mukhaber, West Bank, Aug 16 – Situated on a hill overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem, the new Israeli housing development looks like it could be an upscale planned community in suburban North America: a billboard solicits buyers for “phase one” housing units; another shows the blueprint of the future community, complete with a daycare, a shopping center, a school, parks, a country club and, eventually, a hotel.
But Nof Zion, due to open in 2007, is not your average suburb. Built amid 10,000 Palestinian residents of the East Jerusalem village Jabel Mukhaber, the 395 new housing units of Nof Zion will comprise a Jewish settlement in the heart of the area that every internationally recognized peace plan considers the future capital of a Palestinian state.
Backed by discriminatory housing laws and demographic-manipulation policies that favor new Jewish residents over Palestinians with centuries of direct heritage there, Nof Zion’s developers and future residents will be the beneficiaries of the Israeli push to lay permanent claim to as much of the West Bank as possible.
Unlike Palestinians, who have to prove that they primarily reside in Jerusalem in order to maintain the right to be there at all, a realtor selling Nof Zion units in the US said they are going mostly to Americans who do not yet live in Israel, including many who may never make Jerusalem their primary place of residence. Nof Zion’s first 30 sales have been primarily to Americans, according to Yaakov Simkovitz, who works for Anglo-Saxon realty, the agency in charge of securing buyers for the housing units.