Israeli Plans – An Instrument to Force Palestinians out of Jerusalem

Posted By Khalil Al-Tafakji

Following its occupation of Jerusalem, the Israeli government annexed the City in order to create a new reality, guided by a clear policy to expand the City boundaries and effect a demographic change resembled in a Jewish majority and Arab minority. Since then, it has intensified land confiscation on the pretext of public interest and established settlements without any consideration of international resolutions that consider Jerusalem as part of the occupied territories. Through the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem, the Israeli government started to employ regulation and building laws for the implementation of this policy.

The plan A/M/6 declared the 10 sq. km. area surrounding the Jerusalem wall as green land, thus rendering the western sides of Mount of Olives and the southern side of Masharef Mountain green land where construction is prohibited. A large part of Silwan area and the northern top of Mukabber area were also turned to green lands for the same purpose. Thus, large parts of the Arab Jerusalem have become areas where construction is prohibited according to instructions issued by senior municipal bodies, which started to be implemented by the ex-mayor Teddy Kolik from the Israeli Labor Party – the party that first initiated the policy of Judaizing Jerusalem City. In result of this policy, an apparent increase in the establishment and expansion of settlements has been noticed, such as the French Hill, Ramat Ashkol, and Hebrew University, thus resulting in the distortion of the historical scene in the City. A number of Israeli planners have admitted later that these settlements were constructed for political reasons.

In 1980, the Israeli occupying authorities announced new Israeli plans violating the resolutions of the international legitimacy by continuing land confiscation, imposing constraints on types and heights of buildings, while giving absolute freedom to Jewish expansion. The resolution taken in 1973 by the Israeli Ministerial Committee for Jerusalem Affairs has played a major role in imposing such restrictions. This resolution considered that 22% is the utmost proportion allowed for Arab population growth, meaning that the Israeli planning is always employed to achieve the goal of limiting the Arab population growth in Jerusalem.

In 1985, the ex-mayor Teddy Kolik promised to build 20,000 housing units for Arabs and Jews on equal basis. Later, 20,000 housing units were built for Jews in the northern area of the City – Pisgat Zeev and none has been built for Arabs. Thus, the policy of planning has resulted in Palestinian migration out of the municipal boundaries, where permits are easy to obtain and costs are affordable. This in turn has lead to the spread of a phenomenon of suburbs, which was followed by systematic Israeli campaigns aiming at the withdrawal of Jerusalem IDs from those who became to reside outside the area known as the municipal boundaries.

Scheme 2020:

The announcement of the Israeli structural scheme for Jerusalem City 2020

was made at a time when the proportion of Arab population in the City was

35% of the total population in spite of the multifaceted policy of evacuation

and Judaization adopted by the successive Israeli governments regardless of

their political orientation. Studies issued by Israeli research centers expect

that the proportion of Arab Palestinians in Jerusalem will become about 40%

of the total population in 2020, thus intentionally turning on a red light for Israeli decision-makers to motivate them to take the appropriate steps. On this basis, an Israeli steering team was created with the membership of 40 Israeli planners from the different fields, in addition to 31 representatives from Jerusalem municipality and chaired by the mayor himself. The team was assigned the task of developing a structural map "in order to develop the City, promote its status as the Capital of the Jewish state and a center for the Jewish people, to render it as the economic and social center of the Jewish state, to promote the role of national and international institutions, and to regain the momentum for Jewish population in the City in view of the increased Jewish migration from the City in the recent years." To implement these aims, the Israelis started to provide the reserved lands to be used in building for Jews, thus limiting the Palestinian demographic threat.

The plan 2020 with all its political and structural dimensions has one publicly declared goal: to reduce the Arab Palestinian presence in the City by offering housing units to the Jews and employing development activities to attract the largest number of Jews to the City and prevent their migration to other areas.

In terms of what the structural scheme presents to Palestinians by allocating 2500 dunums for building 26,000 housing units, caution should be taken not to fall in the trap of good will from the Israeli side. The proposed offering is impossible to implement in reality for several reasons, mainly land ownership, the issue of common lands, and the lack of adequate infrastructure, in addition to financial constraints facing the Palestinians assuming that a solution may be found for the aforementioned problems.

* Director of mapping department, the Arab Studies Society- Jerusalem.