CONFLICT IN CITIES AND THE CONTESTED STATE Everyday life and the possibilities for transformation in Belfast, and other divided cities

www.conflictincities.org

JERUSALEM WEB REVIEW

July-August Feb 2009

1 Jerusalem Web Review July - August 2009

Overview of articles:

1. An Interview with on Jerusalem 2. Jerusalem families waiting for US action / evictions 3. Neglect of wastewater treatment in Jerusalem and the West Bank 4. : Halt illegal construction north of Jerusalem 5. Jerusalem, US debate: Is Ariel a settlement bloc? 6. Haredim bring segregation to Jerusalem streets 7. Ir Amim, Sheikh Jarrah Report 8. ICAHD: House Demolitions Statistics (1967-2009) 9. The Sheikh Jarrah-Shimon HaTzadik Neighborhood (JCPA paper) 10. Resistance Marches in 11. OCHA's latest report on the Barrier "Five Years after the International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion: A Summary of the Humanitarian Impact of the Barrier" (July 2009) 12. A Settlement Freeze . . . Or More of the Same 13. City Front: East J'lem's main drag gets an upgrade 14. Jerusalem riots expose tension between ultra-orthodox Jews and the State 15. Envoy: US favors overall Mideast peace accord 16. Right-wing activists sabotage J'lem master plan 17. uses Hitler picture to sell its settlement expansion 18. PM delays discussion on Temple Mount project/Mughrabi Gate 19. Jerusalem riots / Losing control

2 1. An Interview with Nir Barkat, By Annie Lowrey, Foreign Policy, 14/08/2009 http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/08/14/interview_with_nir_barkat?page=f ull

He's in charge of the most contested 44 square miles on the planet. But Nir Barkat, the controversial , has big plans for Israel's poorest city.

This January, Nir Barkat became mayor of Jerusalem. Barkat, a conservative-leaning Netanyahu confidant who ran as an independent, made two major campaign promises. First, the self-made tech millionaire vowed to revitalize Jerusalem's economy; plagued by a shrinking tax base, the city is now the poorest in Israel. Second, he vowed to keep Jerusalem undivided, its government secular, and its administration fair. But Jerusalem is an unusually difficult city to govern. Its land is holy to Christians, Jews, and Muslims; its affairs an unusually international concern. Barkat answers to a fractured populace that is about a third Arab and a third ultra-Orthodox. No wonder Jerusalem's mayors historically struggle for little better than to preserve the status quo. As Barkat pushes forward with a multi-million dollar revitalization plan -- which involves refurbishing the and building in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem -- he has been hit from all sides. Arab Israelis and have harshly criticized an uptick in home destruction and a series of controversial building decisions in their neighborhoods -- as have American and European authorities and the . This summer, protests by ultra-Orthodox haredim became violent when Barkat pushed to keep a parking lot open on the Sabbath. In the midst of these struggles, Barkat spoke with Foreign Policy about his plans for Jerusalem, the sensitive issue of settlement building, and what it means to govern the most contested 44 square miles on Earth. Excerpts:

Foreign Policy: To an international observer, it seems that preserving the status quo has been difficult in the first six months. Earlier this week, you were actually the subject of physical attacks. What actions are you taking to preserve the status quo? What is the importance of doing so? Nir Barkat: I do think the status quo is important in the city. And the status quo is defined by certain categories. That there is no public transportation, there is no commerce on Shabbat [the Jewish day of rest, observed on Saturday]. But there are open places, restaurants, and places of leisure. Discussing parking and traffic is not part of the status quo, and it never was. Indeed, you have a lot of parking lots open on Shabbat. All the hospitals, all the hotels, and a few public places. From my perspective, there's been no change in the status quo. It's important to maintain the status quo, and it is part of my coalition agreement with my fellows in the municipality, where 30 out of 31 members of the council are part of the coalition. Orthodox and non-Orthodox, we stick together. The people that are now protesting, the protesters are 2 percent of the population. Any decision a mayor may take in the city of Jerusalem, sometimes a few percentages, the people do not like. As long as they demonstrate legally, I have no problem. But, if they break the law and become violent, they become a problem with the police. FP: You're a businessman. A lot of your promise coming in to lead the municipal government was to revitalize the economy in a Jerusalem with a shrinking tax base, among the poorest cities in Israel. What's your plan to revitalize and rebuild?

3 NB: My vision is to exploit the potential of the Old City of Jerusalem. We have a huge, huge potential. I worked with Professor Michael Porter, from Harvard Business School, in developing an economic model. Jerusalem has to play the role it did two or three thousand years ago, as a destination for pilgrims and tourists and people who want to taste the values and the experience and the culture and the religious and the historical competitive advantages we have. We have the best location in the world. The best brand in the world. Amazingly enough, if you compare where we are today to the potential of other cities -- Rome has 40 million tourists a year, New York has 47 million tourists a year, Paris and London have over 40. Jerusalem has 2 million tourists. I set a goal of 10 million tourists [by] the next decade. ... That's our goal. FP: But much of the conflict that has emerged during the time you've been mayor has been over building. It has been with the ultra-Orthodox community and also with the Palestinians. I wonder if you can contextualize the incidents, the car park and the Shepherd Hotel [in which the municipal government approved renovating the building, located in a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem, for Jewish settlers], within the broader goal of economic revitalization? And preserving the city's balance? NB: It's not even rounding errors, relative to what we have on the table. This summer, we broke records in terms of the number of people coming to cultural events in the city of Jerusalem; we had hundreds of thousands of people, more than we had in prior years, enjoying the city of Jerusalem. We had festivals, we had street parties, and new products -- a dramatic increase in the number of people coming to the city of Jerusalem.That's the real news. And I'm very happy with the progress we've been making. FP: Recently Israeli police shut down cultural events that Palestinians were having when Jerusalem was named city of the year for culture by an Arab group. Do you think that was a mistake? NB: It was illegal, and the police didn't allow it to happen. FP: Why was it illegal? NB: Because if somebody wants to do something, they must get the proper licenses. Any event happening in Jerusalem has to get proper licenses from the municipality, the police, to make sure it's appropriate. It's common practice in every city in the world. And people want to take their liberty to do things illegally and independently of the municipality and the government -- every country in the world will not allow that to happen. FP: In the 2003 it says one of Israel's obligations is to build and reopen Palestinian institutions in East Jerusalem. Do you have any plans for that? Is that a concern? NB: What kind of institutions are you referring to? FP: I believe in the road map it refers to a Palestinian chamber of commerce and other closed and shuttered institutions in Israel. NB: Well, when we get to that phase, let's discuss it. But right now in Jerusalem, we're developing our economy, our services to different residents. My charter is first to help my residents and help the tourists and open up Jerusalem to the world. We've got all kinds of embassies in Jerusalem -- not embassies, consulates -- and those we want to bring to Jerusalem that aren't here yet. So we assume that when there's peace, when it comes, we'll be friendly with all our allies. So we'll leave that for the right time and [for] negotiations. Jerusalem will always stay united. And Jerusalem welcomes friends to enjoy Jerusalem.

4 FP: You pushed back against U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's criticism of the demolition of the Palestinian homes. Do you agree with that criticism, and how do you see yourself as a player in Israeli foreign relations? NB: Well, it's not about Hillary! Let's get our facts right! Jerusalem has to be managed as a city. We have to build schools; we have to build roads. We have to make sure people properly get their licenses and that people obey the law. And in many of the cases, when people build illegally, and it's on the account of their neighbors, and it's the account of the vision, they have a problem not with me; they have a problem with the law. And the planning process that we're now expanding. And so, the city doesn't stand still. Especially not Jerusalem. In the last 50 years, the Arab population grew dramatically, even more than the Jewish population, and it's still growing. And that's fine. And my role is to serve them. However, things have to be done under law, and the same way that [New York] Mayor [Michael] Bloomberg would treat illegal buildings in Central Park, I am obliged as mayor to manage the city day to day, with no political agenda. I'm looking at this in the eyes of the law and in the eyes of a mayor who is committed! Committed to serve all my residents honestly and fairly, according to the law. And my point is you can't freeze the world. You have to make sure things are built legally and properly. And the fact of the matter is, we are dramatically improving the planning process and the licenses for and East Jerusalem because I want the city to become successful. And I do not accept any criticism that we're not obliged to work under the law. We have to work under the law. And that's proper law. No politics.

Nir Barkat is mayor of Jerusalem. Annie Lowrey is assistant editor at Foreign Policy. This interview was lightly edited for length and clarity.

2. Jerusalem families waiting for US action Marcey Gayer, The Electronic Intifada, 14/08/2009 http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10709.shtml

In the early morning hours of Sunday, 2 August, a force of hundreds of police and border guards invaded the quiet East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah and systematically evicted the sleeping Hanoun and Gawi families from their homes. The sun dawned upon a new reality: chaos in the streets, children crying and elders in anguish. The police blocked every entrance to the area, preventing friends from coming to the aid of the distressed families or even helping them to remove their belongings from their homes. Revealing prior coordination with the authorities, the homes were quickly occupied by ultra-orthodox Jewish settlers.

The Hanoun and Gawi families, consisting of 16 and 38 members, respectively, lived in their homes for 53 years. Built in 1956 by the UN and the Jordanian government (who had sovereignty over East Jerusalem at the time) as part of a temporary housing complex for refugees of the 1948 war, these were homes for those who already knew eviction and ethnic cleansing. However, this time the dispossession was accomplished "legally."

Since the 1967 conquest of the West Bank and Gaza, Israel has been building

5 settlements along the eastern flank of Jerusalem to prevent expansion of its Arab neighborhoods. Moreover, within the past 20 years, the project has begun encroaching upon the Arab neighborhoods themselves, installing nationalist Jewish families within their perimeters by force. Slowly but relentlessly, Israel is attempting to Judaize these neighborhoods in a manner designed not to attract international scrutiny and criticism.

Thus Maher Hanoun, the head of the Hanoun family, was ordered by Israeli courts to hand over the keys to his home to the Association of Sephardic Jewry on 19 July. Rather than comply with the court order, he held a press conference outside his house accompanied by several top officials, including Nils Eliasson of the Swedish Consulate representing the European Union, Robert Serry representing the UN, and Dr. Rafik Husseini of the Palestinian Authority. They all condemned the proposed eviction, calling it an affront to norms of international justice. In spite of US President 's call to freeze Israeli settlements in the Occupied , no representative from the US was present.

Hanoun, a 51-year-old salesman for the Nestle Corporation whose sales territory includes Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank, and Tel Aviv, is fluent in , Hebrew and English. He is a man of culture and conscience, a believer in peaceful co- existence. He is soft-spoken, dignified and humorous, a devoted husband and the father of three wonderful children. He is the global everyman -- simple, honest, hard- working -- hardly deserving to be evicted from his home. But he and his family were evicted, simply because they are Palestinian.

Where does this all leave us? Maher Hanoun, his two brothers and their wives and children and the Gawis, 54 persons all together, are now sleeping under trees 50 feet from their former homes. Menacing armored vehicles are parked in front of each house and the neighborhood is overrun with police, border guards and stone-throwing settlers.

The dispossession of the Hanoun and Gawi families is a clear act of defiance directed at the Obama administration's call to freeze settlements. If it succeeds, this will be a green light for Israel to continue with its ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in East Jerusalem. Already five additional Sheikh Jarrah families have received court summonses and they are fated to join the Hanouns and the Gawis in the street if this supposedly "legal" land grab isn't stopped. If the new US president is to have any credibility on the international stage, he must keep faith with Maher Hanoun. Outside his home, Hanoun hung a big banner bearing President Obama's picture and the slogan "OBAMA,YES YOU CAN stop housing evictions in Sheikh Jarrah." He and the world are still waiting.

Marcey Gayer is an Israeli-American activist residing in Tel Aviv.

6 3. Foul Play: Neglect of wastewater treatment in Jerusalem and the West Bank

B’Tselem, June 2009, http://www.btselem.org/Download/200906_Foul_Play_eng.pdf

Wastewater in the West Bank – from the settlements, from parts of Jerusalem, and from Palestinian communities – amounts to 91 million cubic meters [mcm] a year. Most of it is not treated, despite the sanitary and environmental danger inherent to wastewater flowing freely. Prolonged neglect of this issue has caused severe hazards in the West Bank and is liable to pollute the Mountain Aquifer, the most important and highest-quality water source for both Israelis and Palestinians.

Wastewater from settlements

During more than 40 years of occupation, Israel has not built advanced regional wastewater treatment plants in the settlements to match those inside Israel.

Video footage: Wastewater from Jerusalem and the Ariel settlement flowing in the West Bank.

It is estimated that the 121 recognized settlements in the West Bank (without East Jerusalem) produce some 17.5 mcm of wastewater a year. Only 81 are currently connected to wastewater treatment facilities, and use methods that are less up-to-date than those used in Israel. More than half of them are small and can treat the wastewater of only a few hundred families, despite the growth of the settler population. Most of the facilities suffer frequent technical breakdowns and at times shut down completely. The rest of the settlements produce some 5.5 mcm wastewater a year, which are not treated and flow as raw wastewater into West Bank streams and valleys.

Israel does not enforce the legal requirement that wastewater treatment be arranged prior to occupancy of buildings in settlements or operation of industrial areas in the West Bank. For example, all the southern sections of the Modi’in Illit settlement, which house more than 17,000 persons, were occupied even though their raw wastewater flowed into Nahal Modi’im.

Although this situation is well known to the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the ministry refrains from enforcing the law on polluting settlements and to date, has taken only minor action against them. From 2000 to September 2008, only 53 enforcement measures were taken against settlements for failure to treat their wastewater. In comparison, in 2006 alone, the ministry initiated 230 enforcement measures against governmental authorities in Israel for similar offenses.

Wastewater from Jerusalem

Jerusalem channels some of its wastewater to the West Bank. This wastewater, which amounts to some 17.5 mcm a year, is produced in neighborhoods in the western part of the city and in areas of the West Bank that Israel has annexed.

Approximately 10.2 mcm flow untreated into the Kidron Basin, in southeast Jerusalem, a nuisance that the Ministry of Environmental Protection defines as “the

7 largest sewage nuisance in Israel.” Some of this wastewater undergoes preliminary treatment, after which the water is used for irrigation of date trees in settlements in the Valley and the remained waste continues to flow freely, seeping into the Mountain Aquifer in an area that is considered sensitive to pollution. The wastewater creates a horrible stench and severe sanitation and environmental nuisances, including pollution of groundwater and of the Dead Sea.

Over the years, the Jerusalem Municipality has proposed several solutions for treating this wastewater, but none has been implemented. Since the Palestinian Authority was established, these plans have required cooperation on its part. However, the PA has refused, claiming that doing so would legitimate Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem. Despite warnings from the Ministry of Environmental Protection to the relevant officials, no action has been taken to advance a solution for treating this wastewater .

The remaining wastewater, 7.3 mcm, is directed to the Og Reservoir facility, which lies north of the Dead Sea, near Nabi Musa. Og Reservoir was built as a temporary facility, and was intended to treat one-third of the amount of wastewater it currently receives. For this reason, the wastewater is only partially treated. In 2008, the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee approved a plan to build an improved facility near the existing Og Reservoir, but construction has not begun.

The lack of proper solutions for treating wastewater of Jerusalem flowing eastward did not prevent occupancy of new neighborhoods, whose residents add to the amount of untreated wastewater. Among these are the Pisgat Ze’ev and Neve Ya’akov settlements .

Wastewater from Palestinian communities

According to estimates, Palestinian communities produce some 56 mcm of wastewater a year, representing 62 percent of all wastewater in the West Bank. 90-95 percent of Palestinian wastewater is not treated at all, and only one Palestinian wastewater treatment plant is currently functioning .

• A few reasons have led to delay in developing infrastructure for treating Palestinian wastewater: • Prolonged and unreasonable Civil Administration delay in approving plans for building treatment facilities, in some cases for more than a decade ; • in a few cases, Israel attempted to force the Palestinians to connect settlements to planned treatment facilities; • Israel seeks to force Palestinians to build advanced facilities that are still not used in Israel, which increase the cost of plant construction and operation and maintenance costs, and are not required according to World Health Organization standards; • Partly due to the many delays in construction of wastewater treatment facilities, the US and Germany have reduced their planned funding for these projects. • Israel exploits Palestinian wastewater that crosses the and treats them in one of four plants inside Israel. The treated water is used for irrigation for agriculture and to rehabilitate streams in Israel. However, Israel charges

8 the Palestinian Authority for building the plants and for the treatment of wastewater in them.

Consequences of neglecting wastewater treatment in the West Bank

Since settlers in the West Bank use Israel’s water-supply system, neglect of wastewater treatment in the area has almost no effect on them. Palestinians, however, and especially residents of small towns and villages, rely on water from natural sources. As a result, pollution of these sources aggravates the chronic drinking-water shortage in the West Bank. Also, use of untreated wastewater for agriculture contaminates crops and harms a major sector of the Palestinian economy. In the long run, the flow of untreated wastewater will also diminish land fertility.

In addition, since most settlements have been established on ridges and hilltops, their untreated wastewater flows to nearby Palestinian communities, which are usually located further down the slope. The report present three cases that illustrate how settlements pollute water sources and farmland in nearby Palestinian communities:

B'Tselem reiterates its position that establishment of the settlements and their continuing existence contravene international humanitarian law and result in extensive prolonged infringement of Palestinians’ human rights. Therefore, the government of Israel must evacuate all the settlements and return the settlers to Israeli territory.

However, in light of the severity of the pollution, and taking into account its immediate effects on water sources serving Palestinians and the long-term implication for the Palestinian-Israeli shared water sources, so long as settlements remain, all their wastewater must be treated in accordance with treatment standards applying inside Israel, and the law must be enforced against polluting settlements. Also, the government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority must act jointly to immediately advance planned Palestinian wastewater treatment projects. These projects should be executed even if they involve treatment of both Palestinian and settlement wastewater, with the understanding that these projects will continue to serve Palestinians after the settlements are evacuated.

4. Peace Now: Halt illegal construction north of Jerusalem by Efrat Weiss, Ynetnews, 12/08/2009 http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L -3760709,00.html

Left-wing organization says Kochav Yaakov settlers building on private Palestinian land without an authorized plan, threaten to petition High Court

The left-wing Peace Now organization claims that construction works are being carried out to expand the settlement of Kochav Yaakov, located north of Jerusalem, eastward.

9 A neighborhood with some 15 caravans has reportedly been established as part of the construction works. According to Peace Now, some of the caravans have already been connected to the water and sewage infrastructures, and a children's playground has been set up in the area.

The left-wing group said in a statement that "according to information we have obtained, originating in the Civil Administration – and we mean aerial photographs – the expansion in the construction is being carried out without an authorized building plan and on private Palestinian land belonging to residents of the village of Akab."

According to Peace Now, the construction works are being conducted at a very fast rate.

Aerial photos pointing to settlement's expansion (Photo: Noa Galili)

After obtaining the information, the organization appealed to the Civil Administration, demanding that it order a halt to the construction works and an evacuation of the illegal buildings.

Peace Now Secretary-General Yariv Oppenheimer told Ynet, "While the Hilltop Youth are building tiny outposts out of spite, the settler leaders continue their extensive illegal activity, for expansion purposes."

Oppenheimer called on Defense Minister Ehud Barak to work to halt the construction, and even threatened to petition the High Court of Justice. "Barak must stop turning a blind eye to the criminal activity of settler leaders, and stop the construction before we are forced to turn to the High Court," he said.

The Civil Administration said after looking into the matter that the establishment of the caravan neighborhood was within the bounds of illegal construction. According to officials, several days ago the Civil Administration issued orders against the construction in the area. The officials added that the issue was being enforced by the Civil Administration.

10 Avi Roeh, head of the Binyamin Regional Council, which Kochav Yaakov is part of, said that "the caravans were placed with permission and authorization within the community," but refused to provide additional details.

A series of senior Coalition members urged the government this week to continue building in settlements, despite the American criticism. Interior Minister Eli Yishai, Speaker Reuven Rivlin and Ma'aleh Adumim Mayor Benny Kasriel toured the area connecting Jerusalem and the city of Ma'aleh Adumim with a clear message: Construction in this area must continue.

"At a certain stage we will have to build, even if we fail to convince the Americans, at least in the settlement blocs," said Minister Yishai.

The mayor spoke strongly against the American demand to halt the construction. "We have human problems which must be solved through the construction," he said. "Our children have grown up, they're getting married, starting a family, and want to live where they were born. These human issues are not been solved due to the American pressure for a complete construction freeze."

5. Jerusalem, US debate: Is Ariel a settlement bloc?

Herb Keinon and Tovah Lazaroff, , 12/08/2009 http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1249418582658&pagename=JPArticle%2 FShowFull

Jerusalem and Washington are currently discussing whether Ariel constitutes one of the settlement blocs where - under a compromise agreement being worked out - construction that has already begun can continue, diplomatic sources told The Jerusalem Post Tuesday.

According to the sources, the two sides are continuing to discuss a compromise solution on settlement construction whereby most of the 2,500 housing units currently under construction in the West Bank would continue to be built, but Israel would declare a temporary moratorium on any new projects.

Most of those 2,500 units are in the large settlement blocs that straddle the Green Line. A question, however, has emerged regarding Ariel, which juts deeper inside the West Bank then the other settlement blocks, such as Ma'aleh Adumim, Givat Ze'ev, Gush Etzion and Betar Illit.

There are currently some 98 units under construction in Ariel.

The sources said the Americans want to take Ariel out of the equation and stop all building there. Israel, on the other hand, defines Ariel as one of the large settlement blocs.

Discussions on the matter are continuing in advance of the planned meeting in about two weeks between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US Mideast envoy George Mitchell in London.

11 Officials in the Prime Minister's Office denied any knowledge of this discussion, saying that nothing was being released about the negotiations, and that only a few people truly knew what was happening in the ongoing meetings on the matter between Israeli and US officials.

Another issue that still needs to be worked out between the US and Israel is an "exit strategy" for a settlement freeze, or what building the US will permit once the freeze ends.

Israel is keen on returning to the understandings that it had with the US under the Bush Administration, whereby settlement construction would be permitted in the large settlement blocks as long as this building took place inside the settlement's current construction lines.

The widespread feeling among diplomatic officials is that when and if Israel and the US reach an agreement on a settlement freeze, it would be just a matter of time before Israeli-Palestinian talks were renewed.

This is based on a sense that even though Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has conditioned talks with Israel on a settlement freeze - something he did not do with former prime minister - nevertheless, once the US and Israel agreed on a formula, the Palestinians would have little choice but to re-start the talks.

There is also an expectation that once the talks begin, some Arab countries such as Morocco, Bahrain and perhaps other Persian Gulf countries, would ante up with some normalization gestures toward Israel. There is little belief, however, that Saudi Arabia would make any such gestures.

Ariel Mayor Ran Nachman, said he knew nothing of any plans to stop existing building projects in his city.

Dani Dayan, who heads the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the , said his understanding was that there was "no legal way to stop the ongoing construction." He dismissed all talk to the contrary as merely "spin."

However, MK David Rotem (Israel Beiteinu), a former legal adviser to the council, told the Post recently that since the settlements were under military administration, the government could order a halt to existing projects, but it would have to compensate the contractors, investors and buyers.

Nachman blamed the American attitude against settlements in part on what he termed the "Jew boys" in the White House, such as Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and senior Obama adviser David Axelrod.

There was no peace before the Six Day war in 1967, and at that time there were no settlements, Nachman said. Similarly, he said, Ariel did not even exist until 1977, but the fact that it did not exist did not facilitate peace. And again, he added, Israel destroyed its settlements in Gaza four years ago, but nothing changed.

The only way to achieve peace, he said, was to come to permanent status solution and deal with the settlements within that context. The issue of settlements, he said, was "purely symbolic."

12 Meanwhile, a number of settlement heads met in Ma'aleh Adumim on Tuesday to protest a de facto settlement freeze already in effect, noting that Netanyahu has not authorized a single new construction project in the West Bank since taking office at the end of March.

The settlement leaders plan to launch a campaign against both the de facto freeze and any freeze that may be agreed upon with the Americans. They plan to hold protest vigils outside Netanyahu's residence and to call on right-wing parties to leave the coalition if the current refusal to authorize new projects continues.

6. Jerusalem: Haredim bring segregation to the street Ari Galahar, Ynetnews, 10/08/2009 http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3759554,00.html

Group of Neturei Karta activists tour capital's ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods on Friday, call on men and women to use separate sidewalks

A group of ultra-Orthodox men took to the streets of the haredi neighborhoods in Jerusalem last Friday and called on the public to adhere to a complete separation between men and women in certain areas of the city.

The activists toured the streets near neighborhood in taxicabs and announced, using megaphones that on some streets men and women should walk on opposite sides of the road during the weekend.

According to a resident of the neighborhood, Avraham Cohen, those responsible for the initiative belong to the extremist Neturei Karta stream. "The leading rabbis of the ultra-Orthodox public do not support this initiative," he said. "This group decided to on their won accord go into the neighborhoods and set new modesty codes."

However, eyewitnesses said that although the segregation had not been sanctioned by prominent spiritual authorities, most passers by heeded the call last Saturday. "During the noon hours when women go out for a stroll and the men go to the synagogue, men and women walked on different sidewalks," one resident said. But the same level of separation was reportedly not observed on the busy Friday, when the streets are regularly packed with crowds.

7. Ir Amim: the eviction of the two families in Sheikh Jarrah – a dangerous move for expanding the Jewish settlement in the neighborhood

Ir Amim, Sheikh Jarrah Report, 25/07/2009

Following the eviction of two Palestinian families, Ghawi and al-Hannoun from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah in the north-east part of Jerusalem, Ir Amim warns against this dangerous process that is designed to permit the expansion of the existing Jewish settlement in the area. The expansion of the existing settlement, next to the Shepherd’s Hotel complex in Sheikh Jarrah, constitutes an additional step in the plan

13 to take control of Jerusalem’s Historic Basin by creating a contiguity of settlements, which will have grave consequences on the stability of the city and on its political future. In contrast to what has been claimed, the families of al-Hannoun and Ghawi, like the other Palestinian families that live in this compound, did not invade these houses, but rather have been living in them since the 1950s, as a result of an official decision of the Jordanian government. The State of Israel needs to reconsider the future consequences of this process, which allows Jews to claim ownership of property that belonged to them before 1948, but prevents the same claims from being realized by Palestinian residents. A general opening of ownership cases – Jews and Palestinians – from before 1948 could place the State of Israel in an impossible predicament in Jerusalem.

For Ir Amim's Sheikh Jarrah report (see attached or http://www.ir-amim.org.il/eng/ )

8. ICAHD - STATISTICS ON HOUSE DEMOLITIONS (1967-2009) http://www.icahd.org/eng/docs/ICAHD%27s%20updated%20House%20demolition% 20statistics.pdf

ICAHD estimates that some 24,145 Palestinian homes have been demolished in the Occupied Territories since 1967, based on information gleaned from the Israeli Ministry of Interior, the Jerusalem Municipality, the Civil Administration, OCHA and other UN sources, Palestinian & Israeli human rights groups, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, our field work and other sources. Last updated on 7 April 2009.

Types of demolitions

A. Punitive demolitions: Houses demolished as punishment for the actions of people associated with the houses. The actions in questions have been everything from political organizing to attacks on Israeli civilians. This policy was suspended by the IDF in February, 2005 after it reached the conclusion that rather than deterring attacks, punitive demolitions only enflame the people and lead to more attacks. The practice was resumed on 19 January 2009. Although this is thought of by most people as the main reason why houses are demolished, in fact punitive demolitions account for only 8.5% of all defined demolitions. Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states, “Art. 33. No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.” Punitive demolitions, by definition, violate this statute.

B. Administrative demolitions: Houses demolished for lack of a building permit. This happens in Area C and in East Jerusalem, under exclusive Israeli authority, though prior to the existence of Areas A, B & C it occurred in other areas as well. It is important to point out that in almost all cases, Palestinians have no choice but to build "illegally" as permits are almost impossible to obtain. It is also the case that in Area B, if a house is in close proximity to a military base or a road used by the military or settlers, it may also face administrative demolition. Israeli officials explain this type of demolition by stating that Palestinians are violating the zoning and planning laws and that the demolitions are merely law enforcement. This type of demolition accounts for approximately 26% of defined demolitions. Article 53 of the Fourth

14 Geneva Convention declares that the destruction of property “is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations.” With these demolitions there is no pretense of military action, and are as such clear violations of international law.

C. Land-clearing operations/Military demolitions: Houses demolished by the IDF in the course of military operations for the purposes of clearing off a piece of land (for whatever reason), achieve a military goal or to kill wanted persons as part of Israel’s policy of extrajudicial executions. Military demolition account for about 65.5% of defined demolitions. Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention applies and the Israeli Defence Force itself found, referring to Operation Cast Lead, the massive destruction of homes “is very difficult to justify from a legal perspective, particularly if such justifications are called for in legal proceedings with international organizations."

D. Undefined demolitions: ICAHD is collecting information and investigating the status of many demolitions carried out between 1967-1982. Preliminary results indicate these will include demolitions from all categories but with the majority being land-clearing operations/military and punitive.

9. The U.S.-Israeli Dispute over Building in Jerusalem: The Sheikh Jarrah- Shimon HaTzadik Neighborhood by Nadav Shragai, Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs, Issue Brief Vol. 9, No. 4, 27 July 2009. http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DRIT=1&DBID=1&LNGID=1 &TMID=111&FID=442&PID=0&IID=3056&TTL=The_U.S.- Israeli_Dispute_over_Building_in_Jerusalem:_The_Sheikh_Jarrah- Shimon_HaTzadik_Neighbo

• The Sheikh Jarrah-Mt. Scopus area - the focus of a dispute between the Obama administration and Israel over building housing units in the Shepherd Hotel compound - has been a mixed Jewish-Arab area for many years. The Jewish population is currently centered in three places: around the tomb of Shimon HaTzadik (a fourth century BCE high priest), the Israeli government compound in Sheikh Jarrah, and Hadassah Hospital-Hebrew University on Mt. Scopus.

• During Israel's War of Independence in 1948, 78 doctors, nurses and other Jews were murdered on their way to Hadassah Hospital when their convoy was attacked by Arabs as it passed through Sheikh Jarrah. Mt. Scopus was cut off from western Jerusalem and remained a demilitarized Israeli enclave under UN aegis until it was returned to Israel in 1967. The area discussed here has for decades been a vital corridor to Mt. Scopus.

• To ensure the continued unity of Jerusalem and to prevent Mt. Scopus from being cut off again, a chain of Israeli neighborhoods were built to link western

15 Jerusalem with Mt. Scopus, and Hebrew University and Hadassah Hospital were repaired and enlarged. Today both institutions serve hundreds of thousands of Jewish and Arab residents of the city.

• Many observers incorrectly assume that Jerusalem is comprised of two ethnically homogenous halves: Jewish western Jerusalem and Arab eastern Jerusalem. Yet in some areas such as Sheikh Jarrah-Shimon HaTzadik, Jerusalem is a mosaic of peoples who are mixed and cannot be separated or divided according to the old 1949 armistice line.

• In the eastern part of Jerusalem, i.e., north, south and east of the city's 1967 borders, there are today some 200,000 Jews and 270,000 Arabs living in intertwined neighborhoods. In short, as certain parts of eastern Jerusalem have become ethnically diverse, it has become impossible to characterize it as a wholly Palestinian area that can easily be split off from the rest of Jerusalem.

• Private Jewish groups are operating in Sheikh Jarrah seeking to regain possession of property once held by Jews, and to purchase new property. Their objective is to facilitate private Jewish residence in the area in addition to the presence of Israeli governmental institutions. The main points of such activity include the Shepherd Hotel compound, the Mufti's Vineyard, the building of the el-Ma'amuniya school, the Shimon HaTzadik compound, and the Nahlat Shimon neighborhood. In the meantime, foreign investors from Arab states, particularly in the Persian Gulf, are actively seeking to purchase Jerusalem properties on behalf of Palestinian interests.

Israel's Right to Build in Its Capital

An Israeli plan to build 20 housing units in the Shepherd Hotel compound in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem has added a new dimension to an already complex dispute between the Obama administration and Israel over continued

16 construction in eastern Jerusalem.1 Washington is insisting that Israel freeze all building in Sheikh Jarrah, as it occasionally has done in the past regarding other areas in the eastern part of the city. Israel, however, refuses to waive the Jewish people's historical and legal right to live in all parts of Jerusalem, the capital of the State of Israel.2 In eastern Jerusalem, i.e., north, south and east of the city's 1967 borders, there are today some 200,000 Jews and 270,000 Arabs living in a mosaic of intertwined neighborhoods.3

Disagreements between the U.S. and Israel over building in eastern Jerusalem are not new. In the 1970s, the U.S. expressed dissatisfaction with the construction of the Pisgat Ze'ev neighborhood, and in the 1990s it opposed the construction of a large neighborhood on and a smaller one in Ma'ale Hazeitim near Ras el-Amud.

This time Prime Minister has made it clear that Israel's right to continue building in its capital is not a matter for negotiation, and is separate from the debate with the U.S. about the extent of building in the West Bank.4 On June 22, 2009, State Department Spokesman Ian Kelly had stated, in answer to a question, that the Obama administration's demand that all settlement activity - including natural growth - come to a halt also applied to Jerusalem neighborhoods over the 1949 armistice line.5

The Tomb and Neighborhood of Shimon HaTzadik6

The mixed Jewish-Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah-Shimon HaTzadik has for decades been a vital corridor to Mt. Scopus, home for 80 years of Hebrew University and Hadassah Hospital. For hundreds of years the Jewish presence in the area centered around the tomb of Shimon HaTzadik (Simon the Righteous), one of the last members of the Great Assembly (HaKnesset HaGedolah), the governing body of the Jewish people during the Second Jewish Commonwealth, after the Babylonian Exile. His full name was Shimon ben Yohanan, the High Priest, who lived during the fourth century BCE, during the time of the Second Temple.7

According to the Babylonian Talmud, he met with Alexander the Great when the Macedonian Army moved through the during its war with the Persian Empire.8 In that account, Shimon HaTzadik successfully persuades Alexander to not destroy the Second Temple and leave it standing. According to tradition, Shimon HaTzadik and his pupils are buried in a cave near the road that goes from Sheikh Jarrah to Mt. Scopus. He appears as the author of one of the famous verses in Pirkei Avot (Sayings of the Fathers) which has been incorporated into the Jewish morning prayers: "Shimon the Righteous was among the last surviving members of the Great Assembly. He would say: ‘The world stands on three things: Torah, the service of G- d, and deeds of kindness.'"9

For years Jews have made pilgrimages to his grave to light candles and pray, as documented in many reports by pilgrims and travelers. While the property was owned by Arabs for many years, in 1876 the cave and the nearby field were purchased by Jews, involving a plot of 18 dunams (about 4.5 acres) that included 80 ancient olive trees.10 The property was purchased for 15,000 francs and was transferred to the owner through the Majlis al-Idara, the seat of the Turkish Pasha and the chief justice. According to the contract, the buyers (the committee of the Sephardic community and

17 the Ashkenazi Assembly of Israel) divided the area between them equally, including the cave on the edge of the plot.

Dozens of Jewish families built homes on the property. On the eve of the Arab Revolt in 1936 there were hundreds of Jews living there. When the disturbances began they fled, but returned a few months later and lived there until 1948. When the Jordanians captured the area, the Jews were evacuated and for nineteen years were barred from visiting either their former homes or the cave of Shimon HaTzadik.

Mt. Scopus11

In 1918 the cornerstone of Hebrew University was laid on Mt. Scopus, north of Sheikh Jarrah, and on April 1, 1925, the opening ceremony was held.12 In 1938 Hadassah Hospital was opened adjacent to the university on Mt. Scopus, with a nursing school and research facilities as well as wards. During the War of Independence, both institutions, which were a source of pride for the Jewish state in the making, were cut off because the access route passed through Sheikh Jarrah. Following the UN partition vote on November 29, 1947, Jewish transportation to Mt. Scopus became a target for attacks by Palestinian Arabs who shot passengers and mined the road.

On April 13, 1948, a convoy of ambulances, armored buses, trucks loaded with food and medical equipment, and 105 doctors, nurses, medical students, Hebrew University personnel, and guards headed for Mt. Scopus. The convoy was ambushed in the middle of Sheikh Jarrah, the lead vehicle hit a mine, and gangs of armed Arabs attacked. Seventy-eight Jews were murdered, among them 20 women and Dr. Haim Yaski, the hospital director. In the following months the hospital and university ceased to function. After the Six-Day War, when the area was returned to Israel, a memorial was built in their honor in Sheikh Jarrah on the road leading to Mt. Scopus.

Nahlat Shimon13

Until 1948, west of the road linking Sheikh Jarrah, the American Colony and Mt. Scopus, was Nahlat Shimon, its name a reminder of its proximity to the cave of Shimon HaTzadik. The neighborhood was founded in 1891 and was home to hundreds of Jewish families. Just before the British Mandate ended in 1948, security in Nahlat Shimon deteriorated drastically and its residents were evacuated to the Israeli side of Jerusalem. The Jordanians took control of the neighborhood and settled there.

Sheikh Jarrah-Shimon HaTzadik and Mt. Scopus, 1948-1967

Until 1948 Sheikh Jarrah was an aristocratic neighborhood for Jerusalem Arabs and members of the two most important Palestinian families: Nashashibi and Husseini. Among its most famous residents before 1948 was the Grand Mufti, Sheikh Haj Amin al-Husseini, and his family, who lived in the eastern part of Sheikh Jarrah, called the Mufti's Vineyard. He began building himself a large house but was deported by the

18 British and left for Lebanon in October 1937. During the Second World War he supported the Nazis and later lived in and Cairo.14 His family rented out the house, which was further enlarged and became the Shepherd Hotel.

After 1948 the neighborhoods of Sheikh Jarrah and Shimon HaTzadik came under Jordanian control and the Jewish-owned land was handed over to the Jordanian Custodian of Enemy Property. In the mid-1950s the Jordanian government settled Arabs there. They took over the homes of the Jews and paid rent to the Jordanian Custodian.

During the nineteen years between the War of Independence and the Six-Day War, Israeli access to Mt. Scopus - which remained an Israeli enclave surrounded by territory under Jordanian control - was governed by a special arrangement which went into effect on July 7, 1948, and by other arrangements made later.15 Once every two weeks a convoy was allowed through from the Israeli side of the with a UN escort, to rotate the Israeli policemen who served on Mt. Scopus. The area was a demilitarized zone containing Hebrew University, Hadassah Hospital, and the village of . However, the arrangement was plagued by friction and arguments, diplomatic incidents and bloody events, and it had to be continually bolstered by various mediators and negotiations.16

After the Six-Day War (June 1967)

Immediately after Israel defeated the Jordanian army in Jerusalem, the Israeli government began to restore those parts of the city which had been wrested from it nineteen years previously. The city's municipal borders were extended and its area grew to 110,000 dunams (about 27,000 acres), and a Knesset decision brought the entire area under Israeli law. The main considerations of the decision-makers were to take control of the largest possible area with the smallest possible Arab population, to make it impossible to divide the city in the future, and to provide for the security of the city.17 Building Jewish neighborhoods in areas annexed to the city was done in stages, beginning with a bloc of northern neighborhoods to close the gap between Mt. Scopus and the western part of the city as far as the neighborhood of Shmuel HaNavi.18

On January 11, 1968, an area of 3,345 dunams, or about 830 acres, was expropriated. It included the no man's land which before the war had separated Israel from Jordan, a strip of land on both sides of the road to Ramallah as far as the houses of Sheikh Jarrah, Hadassah Hospital and Hebrew University on Mt. Scopus, the slopes of Mt. Scopus, and the northern slope of the Mt. of Olives. The territory included 326 plots with 1,500 owners, most of them Arab and a few of them Jews.19 During the following years, Israeli neighborhoods were built in the space between Mt. Scopus and the former border, including , , , and Maalot Dafna. The Hebrew University campus on Mt. Scopus came alive and was considerably enlarged. Hadassah Hospital was rebuilt and enlarged as well. Today, the two institutions serve hundreds of thousands of Jews and Arabs living in Jerusalem, especially in the northern parts of the city.

19 To ensure that Mt. Scopus would never again be separated from the rest of Jerusalem, many Israeli government institutions were built in Sheikh Jarrah, where thousands of Israelis work every day, including the national headquarters of the Israel Police. In addition, the Arab population of Jerusalem is served by a major office of the Israel Ministry of Interior as well as by a large medical clinic at this location.

The Jewish people also returned to the tomb of Shimon HaTzadik, which the Israel Ministry of Religious Affairs officially designated as a site holy to Judaism.20 Prayers are said there every day, and on special occasions (such as Lag B'Omer) great celebrations are held in honor of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. Religious leaders attend, as do tens of thousands of Jews, who come with their rabbis.

Three large hotels have been built along the road leading to Sheikh Jarrah, and to the north there is a Hyatt Hotel, all part of the Israeli presence in the area. Many of the hotel and Hadassah Hospital employees are Palestinian Arabs who live in and around Sheikh Jarrah, and many Palestinian Arab students study at Hebrew University on Mt. Scopus.

Private Jewish Activity in the Sheikh Jarrah-Shimon HaTzadik Area Since the Six-Day War

Although a Jewish institutional presence has been established in the area in the form of Israeli governmental offices and services, Jewish groups have sought to establish a residential presence as well. This is being done through property and land acquisitions, and by judicial means. To date, this activity has achieved a residential presence of no more than ten families who are living in a small part of the Shimon HaTzadik neighborhood from which Jews had been evicted in 1948.

There are dozens of pending court cases and legal proceedings seeking to remove Arab tenants on the grounds that they have not been paying rent to the rightful owners - the Committee of the Sephardic Community and the Ashkenazi Assembly of Israel, who purchased the land in the second part of the nineteenth century. In some of these cases, eviction notices have been issued, although the Israel Police has delayed the actual evictions due to international pressure.21

Private Jewish activity in this area focuses on several points: the el-Ma'amuniya school, which after prolonged discussions eventually became the offices of the Israel Ministry of Interior; the Nahlat Shimon neighborhood, whose Jewish residents were driven out in 1948 and where Jews are now seeking to purchase property from Arab residents; the Mufti's Vineyard (expropriated in 1969), which the Israel Lands Administration has handed over to Jewish custody with authorization for agricultural activity; and the Shimon HaTzadik neighborhood north of the American Colony Hotel.

After 1967, control over Jewish-owned property in the Shimon HaTzadik neighborhood that had been seized by Arabs was transferred from the Jordanian Custodian of Enemy Property to the Israeli Custodian of Absentee Property. In 1972 the Israeli Custodian released the land back to its owners (the Committee of the Sephardic Community and the Ashkenazi Assembly of Israel). In 1988 the Israeli

20 Supreme Court ruled that the 28 Arab families living on the premises enjoy the status of "Protected Residents," but that the ownership of the land belongs to the two Jewish organizations.

Ten years later, in 1998, Jews entered deserted houses in the neighborhood. At the same time, a slow process of evicting Arab families who apparently refused to pay rent to the two Jewish organizations was begun. The Jewish groups involved in the area presented a power of attorney from former Knesset Member Yehezkel Zackay (Labor) and from the heads of the Sephardic Committee permitting them to remain on the site and to rebuild it. Zackay explained that the Arabs there had treated the premises as if it were their own private property, building without authorization, entering houses which were not theirs, and had even tried to destroy the abandoned synagogue located in the middle of the neighborhood. Ehud Olmert, then mayor of Jerusalem, assisted the Jewish activity from behind the scenes. Members of the Sephardic religious political party also sanctioned the Jewish activity. A son of Shas leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef began giving lessons at the small, newly built yeshiva that had begun to operate in the abandoned synagogue.

In the months that followed, several Arab families were evicted from the neighborhood and were replaced by seven Jewish families. Eviction notices have been issued for dozens of other Arab families in the area, but they have not been implemented due to international pressure.

An overall plan for the rehabilitation of the Shimon HaTzadik neighborhood that had been taken over by the Arabs in 1948 has been filed with the Jerusalem Municipality Planning Committee.

The Shepherd Hotel Compound22

The Shepherd Hotel lies just to the east of the British Consulate in eastern Jerusalem, and British diplomats were instrumental in inflaming the controversy between the U.S. and Israel over the future of the property. The building, originally built by the Grand Mufti, Haj Amin al-Husseini, was confiscated by the British Mandatory Government after it deported him in the 1930s and was made into a British military outpost. The Jordanians took possession of the structure after 1948 and expanded it.

After the 1967 Six-Day War, when Israel took over the compound, no one from the Husseini family still lived there, and it had been rented by two Christian brothers. At the beginning of the 1970s, Israel revoked the right of the Husseini family's representative to charge the brothers rent and transfer the money to the family abroad. The brothers received the status of protected tenants and paid rent to the Israeli Executor of Absentee Property. In the mid-1980s, the brothers' widows sold the hotel to a Swiss company backed by Jewish groups.

Two years later, the compound was bought by American businessman , who has worked for years to redeem property in Jerusalem for Jewish settlement. He leased the hotel to the state, and in the 1990s Israeli Border Police units were stationed there. In recent years the building has stood empty and, using the power of attorney of the owners, on July 2, 2009, the Jerusalem Municipality

21 approved a plan to build 20 housing units at the site and at the same time to preserve part of the compound. A more ambitious plan to build 122 units has been prepared but has not yet been approved.

The Growth of Mixed Neighborhoods in Jerusalem

The dispute between the U.S. and Israel over 20 housing units in Sheikh Jarrah has turned the spotlight on the Sheikh Jarrah-Shimon HaTzadik-Mt. Scopus area, which has long been home to a mix of populations and where Jews and Arabs live side by side. However, parallel Arab migration to Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem has received no similar attention.

In Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem such as Armon HaNatziv, , Tzameret HaBira, and Pisgat Zeev, the fringes of the neighborhoods have many Palestinian Arab residents, either through purchase or rental of apartments. In some of the buildings along Rehov HaHavatzelet in the center of the city, a similar change is taking place. Jews and Arabs also live together in the neighborhood of , and there are several streets in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City, such as Rehov HaGai, where a similar situation is gradually developing. In short, as certain parts of eastern Jerusalem have become ethnically diverse, it has become impossible to characterize it as a wholly Palestinian area that can easily be split off from the rest of Jerusalem.

Foreign Investment in Jerusalem: Both Jewish and Arab

Jews from abroad are not the only ones buying property in Jerusalem. Munib al- Masri, a Palestinian millionaire from Nablus who holds American citizenship, is planning to purchase property 900 meters from the Stadium, not far from Jerusalem's shopping mall. His investment company is planning to build 150 housing units next to , according to company chairman Samir Halayla. Until 1967, Beit Safafa was an Arab village south of Jerusalem divided between Israel and Jordan. After the war it became an area where Jews and Arabs lived together, generally as good neighbors.

The Gulf States, the PLO, and Palestinian millionaires such as al-Masri and the late Abd al-Majid Shuman have all invested funds to purchase property and support construction for Palestinian Arabs. The Jerusalem Treasury Fund affiliated with the Jerusalem Committee headed by King Hassan of Morocco is also active. The for Development and Investment was founded in Jordan, and there are several similar funds and foundations in Saudi Arabia.23 Foreign donations from Qatar were also involved in the construction of 58 housing units recently completed in under the auspices of the Arab teachers' association.

On July 19, 2009, Yuval Diskin, head of the Israel Security Agency, reported to the Israeli government on the extensive efforts of the Palestinian Authority and its security apparatuses to prevent Palestinian land from being sold to Jews, especially in eastern Jerusalem.

22 Regardless of these ongoing struggles, the State of Israel does not limit or forbid the purchase or sale of property or land within Jerusalem, which is under Israeli law, whether the individuals involved are Jews or Arabs.

10. March through the streets of East Jerusalem in support of threatened families to become weekly event

Maisa Abu Ghazaleh, Palestinian News Network (PNN) 16/08/2009. http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6550

Hundreds marched in East Jerusalem today under the banners of “steadfast in Jerusalem”, “settlers must leave”, and “Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood is in danger, give up freedom and peace.”

Sheikh Jarrah is one of several East Jerusalem neighborhoods under direct assault by Israeli settlers and the occupying administration. Saturday evening’s march began at the Old City’s Gate, passed through Salah Addin Street, and then moved on to Sheikh Jarrah.

Nonviolent Palestinian demonstrators were joined by dozens of foreign and Israeli supporters who demanded an end to the home demolitions and forced evictions.

Yesterday’s action included a sit-in and balloons in the colors of the Palestinian flag.

Israeli police in the occupied city cordoned off the march at the end of Salah Addin Street, and began to demand identification from participants, recording names and ID numbers. Foreign passport holders were also questioned, as were journalists.

As the crowd circumvented the police blockade, a sit-in began at the solidarity tent in front of one of the homes overtaken by settlers in Sheikh Jarrah.

Speakers addressed the crowds and talked about the cultural expression of the city that will not die even in the face of a great deal of repression, such as that that has been faced by events for “Jerusalem as Capital of Arab Culture, 2009.” Organizers also addressed the issue of the Israeli assault on Muslim and Christian holy places in the city, in addition to its Arab character. Attacks on cemeteries, and churches are part of the Judaization process that is underway in Jerusalem, a situation that has caused outcry from the West to East.

The Saturday action will be a regular thing now, with a Palestinian march in support of the city, organizers say, until Jerusalem is free.

23 11. FIVE YEARS AFTER THE ICJ ADVISORY OPINION ON THE WALL

OCHA's latest report on the Barrier "Five Years after the International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion: A Summary of the Humanitarian Impact of the Barrier" http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_barrier_report_july_2009_english_low_ res.pdf (See attached)

This report provides an overview of the humanitarian impact of the Barrier, highlighting the central role it plays in the system of access and movement restrictions, and continuing fragmentation of the West Bank. It examines the impact on urban areas, on the closed area communities isolated between the Barrier and the Green Line, and on the rural communities which are primarily affected by the permit and gate regime. A chronology, basic facts and figures and the latest Barrier projections are also included. The second part provides a graphic overview of the route and impact on the eight affected West Bank governorates which the Barrier runs through. Accompanying each map is an overview of the impact of the Barrier in the governorate; the number and type of crossings (checkpoints and gates); and information boxes to illustrate concerns caused by the Barrier in the specific governorate.

12. A Settlement Freeze . . . Or More of the Same

Geoffrey Aronson, Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP), Settlement Report | Vol. 19 No. 4 | July-August 2009 http://www.fmep.org/reports/archive/vol.-19/no.-4/a-settlement-freeze-.-.-.-or-more- of-the-same

Never in the forty-two years that Israel has been occupying and settling the West Bank has an Israeli prime minister taken seriously, let alone implemented, U.S. demands for a freeze of settlement expansion. From the administration of Lyndon Johnson, when the United States first noted Israel’s violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibiting the transfer of its civilian population to the occupied territories, to the June 4, 2009, declaration in Cairo by President Barack Obama rejecting “the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements,” Washington’s opposition to settlements has been variously, and always successfully, ignored, outlived, sidelined, or negotiated away.

Israel has built settlements demonstratively, as a “Zionist response” to Palestinian attacks or aggressive American diplomacy. The settlements in fit this category, as do the “Baker settlements,” championed by Secretary of State James Baker’s nemesis Ariel Sharon almost twenty years ago. In one of these, Revava, outside of Nablus, a new neighborhood of 52 “villas” is now under construction.

Israel has built settlements quietly, hoping not to excite strenuous international opposition. Until recently, this has been the case with E-1, the vast area of the West Bank east of Jerusalem where for many years Israel has been constructing elaborate infrastructure for future settlement that would effectively divide the north and south West Bank and seal off East Jerusalem from its Palestinian hinterland. This project

24 continues despite widespread protest, including a recent, unprecedented public ceremony inaugurating a new national police chief in the imposing police headquarters built in the eastern part of E-1.

Prime Ministers Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir trumpeted their settlement achievements. Many others, including Yitzhak Rabin, Ehud Barak, and Ehud Olmert “talked left and built right.” Whatever the method, Israel has never stopped building settlements and related transportation and security infrastructure for settlers.

Israel has built settlements without consideration for international opinion, as did Defense Minister Ehud Barak when in June 2009 he authorized the Civil Administration to submit a plan for the construction of 300 housing units in the unauthorized outpost of Givat Habrecha, near the settlement of Talmon east of the separation barrier. Palestinian opposition to settlements is invariably ignored or dismissed.

Is this central feature of the occupation about to change? President Obama’s insistent call for a comprehensive end to continued settlement activity is unprecedented in its intensity. Despite the fact that until now all that he has asked of Israel is that it abide by the settlement commitments of George W. Bush’s road map, Obama’s demand rings all the louder in comparison to the more forgiving U.S. policies of the Clinton and Bush administrations.

It is not surprising that when faced with Obama’s demand for a freeze, Israel’s leaders are confident that the new president’s efforts will be neutralized. Once again they are offering a menu of policy compromises—a freeze of limited duration and scope, construction within existing settlement perimeters, no new settlements or special government incentives, “natural growth” to accommodate growing settler families and their everyday needs, and expansion only in settlement blocs. These artifices have succeeded for almost five decades, enabling Israel to settle close to half a million of its citizens in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Golan Heights in the face of virtually unanimous international opposition. This is an astonishing achievement that reflects Israel’s determination, the chronic weakness of American and international diplomacy, and the failure of Palestinian protest and opposition.

“[U.S. special envoy George] Mitchell knows the fraud exactly,” says a former top official in Israel’s Defense Ministry. When Israelis argued that restricting the natural growth of settlements is like the Holocaust, as they did at a May 26, 2009 meeting in London, the Americans sitting opposite remained unmoved.

While Israel’s leaders’ discomfort with Obama’s demand is genuine, like the incredulity of a child when a parent finally says “enough!” they hope that something will happen to “change the subject” and draw the American spotlight off settlements, as has happened for decades.

As long as the diplomatic focus remains limited to a settlement freeze, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will remain within his comfort zone. Netanyahu would prefer to discuss and debate ad naseum the finer points of settlement expansion, construction perimeters and the like—a contest Israel has always won—than to address the more fundamental issues of borders, settlement evacuation, security measures, Jerusalem,

25 and refugees, which must be resolved to achieve a two-state solution.

Obama’s goals are much broader than a settlement freeze. The appointment of Mitchell is the clearest signal of his intention to work vigorously to end the occupation and to create a Palestinian state at peace with Israel. Yet there will be a diplomatic “opportunity cost” if the settlement freeze debate is prolonged, and the issues of borders, settlement evacuation, and Palestinian sovereignty are deferred. A continuing impasse risks undermining the momentum and credibility of a U.S. diplomatic initiative aimed at ending occupation and creating a Palestinian state.

Whether or not Israel rejects a freeze, Obama and Mitchell will have to continue a more assertive and convincing diplomacy that addresses the wide range of final status issues—settlement evacuation prominent among them—if it aspires to end Israel’s 42 year occupation and settlement adventure.

13. City Front: East J'lem's main drag gets an upgrade

Gil Zohar , The Jerusalem Post, 6/08/2009 http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1249418539189&pagename=JPArticle%2 FShowFull

While Arab Jerusalem lags far behind the western half of the city, suffering from unequal municipal services and the lack of a zoning plan leading to widespread illegal construction, two new commercial projects along the downtown's main drag Salah a- Din Street suggest that reality is changing.

The first is a nine-story east Jerusalem eyesore that has stood derelict since the 1967 Six Day War and which will now finally receive a building permit allowing the structure to be finished - much to the delight of the hotel project's owner, Muhammad Nuseibeh.

At a recent meeting at Kikar Safra with Shlomo Eshkol, the Jerusalem municipality's chief engineer promised the hotelier that a permit would be issued shortly, pending paperwork, for the unfinished building at the corner of Salah-a-Din and Isfahan streets in downtown east Jerusalem.

"It was a very constructive meeting. The city finally agreed to accept the Jordanian [construction] permit," smiles Nuseibeh, the scion of a prominent Jerusalem clan. His father, Zaki, served as a member of Jerusalem's Mandate-era city council until his death in 1938; his late brother Anwar was the director of the East Jerusalem Electricity Company; and his nephew Sari is the rector of al-Quds University.

Now named the Addar Panorama - Nuseibeh owns the nearby Addar Hotel - the project will include a 20-room boutique hotel on the upper floor, a three-level shopping mall, five floors of offices and a 32-car underground parking garage - the first in east Jerusalem, explains Samer Nuseibeh. The project's general manager and son of its owner studied to become a construction engineer at University College, London.

26 "I had to wait 42 years so my son could help me," jokes Nuseibeh Sr., who studied civil engineering at Britain's Sheffield University.

The Addar Mall is hardly a conventional construction project. The landmark ruin, which one of Nuseibeh's nephews calls "the unfinished symphony," will be completely retrofitted to meet current safety codes. As well, the building's distinctive curved balconies will be replaced by a glass curtain wall with Jerusalem stone masonry. But its McDonald's-esque arch will be preserved as a touch of Sixties style. In the future, the project may apply to the district planning committee for a variance permitting a roof garden, adds Samer.

As the building was nearly completed when the Six Day War broke out, the Nuseibeh family planned to name the hotel The Dome in reference to the striking view of the Old City and Haram ash-Sharif from its upper floors.

"The infrastructure was done. The interior had been partitioned into rooms. The windows were in. The plastering had even been done," Nuseibeh recalls, sitting in his office at the Addar Hotel. "And then the [1967] war started."

After the Israeli conquest of Jerusalem, the Jordanian administration was disbanded and Nuseibeh found himself dealing with a newly amalgamated municipality. He made some efforts to complete the project, but once again warfare got in the way. After the 1973 Yom Kippur War, tourism plunged and Nuseibeh put the project on hold.

"At the urging of [then mayor] Teddy Kollek, we tried to get the zoning of the building changed to a hospital," he relates. The structure would have replaced the facility in the Austrian Hospice in the Old City, which was established as a military hospital in 1948 by King Abdullah's Arab Legion. Later converted to a civilian hospital by the Jordanian government, in 1985 it was closed on sanitation grounds and handed back to its Austrian owners.

"But this [hospital] didn't go through because funding was not forthcoming from Amman and the Arab world," continues Nuseibeh.

During the first intifada in 1987, the building became a sanctuary for stone-throwing youth, who would attack police and then retreat inside. As a result, the Border Police removed all the interior partitions. Later, junkies turned the gutted structure into a different kind of shooting gallery.

Nine years ago Nuseibeh decided to again try to complete the project. Together with architect Dan Izraeli and lawyer Arieh Toussia-Cohen, he entered the bureaucratic labyrinth of trying to obtain a municipal building permit.

"I had a Jordanian building permit, but now I was told that I needed one from the Jerusalem municipality," he says. "However, my application for a new permit was rejected."

"My client was asked to produce his Jordanian permit," states Toussia-Cohen. "Unfortunately, his office burned down, and with it his copy of the permit. The

27 municipality took over the east Jerusalem city archives in 1967 and should have a copy of the permit. But the municipality claims that it can't find the records and keeps asking my client to produce his copy. In addition, the city has said that the area is not zoned. If it is not zoned, then Jordanian law applies. According to Jordanian law, the project is complete the minute the skeleton is finished. So my client should be able to finish it. It would take him less than a year to complete the hotel at a time when the city is crying for hotel rooms," says the lawyer.

The Addar Mall and boutique hotel constitute the first major commercial enterprise in east Jerusalem since its annexation to Israel in 1967. Together with the Alhambra Palace, the two neighboring projects reflect the growing prosperity in Jerusalem's 250,000-person Arab sector.

"Jerusalem needs stability," says Nuseibeh. Reflecting on his four-decade long struggle, he notes, "It can never be hopeless. We love Jerusalem too much to lose hope."

While Muhammad Nuseibeh can blame war, Israel's sclerotic bureaucracy and discriminatory zoning policies for holding up his Addar Panorama hotel project for 42 years, the Alhambra cinema has a more prosaic reason for sitting empty for two decades - changing consumer tastes. But the stories of the Alhambra and the nearby Addar Mall and boutique hotel share an equally happy ending.

Built on Salah a-Din Street in 1952 as the only purpose-built movie theater in Jordanian-ruled east Jerusalem, the Alhambra quickly became a cultural fixture in the divided city, screening both Egyptian and Hollywood films. The building's distinctive two-story atrium lobby and soaring glass façade were the epitome of modernity for their era.

But just as classic cinemas in downtown Jerusalem such as the Chen and the Edison were driven out of business by the mass marketing of videocassette recorders and DVD players, so too the popularity of the Alhambra succumbed to home entertainment.

Boarded up in 1989, the landmark fell into ruin. Restoring the derelict building proved to be an irresistible challenge for Jerusalem entrepreneur Munir Kurt, who remembers going to the Alhambra as a child. After a $2.35 million renovation - all raised from private investors without an agora of government or foundation funding - the abandoned movie theater reopened recently as the Alhambra Palace events hall.

"It will be like what they call in Beirut 'dinner theater,'" says Kurt, who envisions the state-of-the art facility as a 24-hour culture hub, serving both locals and tourists.

The Alhambra's elegant main multi-purpose hall, which can seat up to 420 dinner guests depending on the configuration of the stage, includes an 8x6 meter computer- controlled screen. The stage can be raised 1.4 meters, while theater and special-effects lighting allow for events as varied as a disco, convention or business meeting. A second hall can accommodate 150 people. Both facilities are equipped for video conferencing and simultaneous translation, Kurt notes. Valet parking accommodates 50 cars. A coffee shop is slated to open this weekend.

28 "We've been in a soft opening since June," he adds. Indeed, workmen are still adding the finishing touches to the events hall.

Kurt, who studied chemical engineering at Clemson University in South Carolina and lived in the United States for 15 years, decided to return to his native Jerusalem after the signing of the 1993 Oslo Accords. Arriving the following year, he discovered limited opportunities for a chemical engineer. Instead, he ended up working at Vienna Florists on Salah a-Din Street, a flower shop owned by his family. Kurt remembers that Nina Katzir used to order flowers weekly for the President's Residence in Talbieh from 1973 until 1978, when her husband, Ephraim, was president.

Though decidedly apolitical, Kurt ran afoul of the Israeli government when one of the Alhambra Palace's first events - an exhibition sponsored by the Arab Hotel Association - printed invitations mentioning pro forma the PA's minister of tourism Khuloud Deibes.

"There are enough people talking politics in Jerusalem. We're a legitimate private sector business - and that's all," he says.

14. Jerusalem riots expose tension between ultra-orthodox Jews, state

Ron Bousso (AFP) – 31/07/ 2009 http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gfuV9nI6NEokQV- vs9PGzL9UvDqA

JERUSALEM — "Zionist blood libel!" blare hundreds of posters pasted on walls lining the streets of Jerusalem's reclusive Jewish ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood of .

In Jerusalem, on the front lines of the Middle East conflict, tensions not only run high between Israelis and Palestinians, but also across the deep divide between the authorities and ultra-Orthodox Jews, also known as Haredim.

Few people foresaw how opening a car park on the Sabbath and the arrest of an allegedly abusive ultra-Orthodox mother could spark some of the worst Jewish unrest the Holy City has seen in years.

The ultra-Orthodox community has long been ambiguous towards the Jewish state created in 1948, whose laws may sometimes come second to rabbinical rulings. Its most extreme sects vehemently oppose Israel's existence.

Rioting erupted last month after Jerusalem's secular Mayor Nir Barkat ordered the opening of a parking lot near the tourist-packed Old City on Saturdays, the traditional Jewish day of rest.

Prominent rabbis called for a mass mobilisation in protest at what they consider to be profaning the Sabbath, and for three straight weekends police clashed with thousands

29 of stone- and nappy-throwing Haredim in and around Mea Shearim, bastion of the ultra-Orthodox community.

Just as tensions were seeming to ease after a compromise was reached, the Haredi community was further enraged over the arrest in mid-July of a woman suspected of starving her three-year-old son.

Police and state prosecutors allege that the mother, who they say is mentally ill, had deliberately starved the boy, who was taken for treatment at the Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital weighing a mere seven kilos (15 pounds).

The family, from the radical Toldot Aharon sect, says it had turned to the welfare services for help with the "sick" child, "after which the persecution immediately started", according to family spokesman Dudi Zilbershlag.

A picture of the flesh-and-bones toddler was leaked to the press and sent shockwaves across both the secular and Haredi societies, and the case has dominated Israeli news ever since.

Clashes quickly broke out in and around the narrow, crowded streets of the Haredi neighbourhood. Dustbins were set alight, traffic lights were smashed and black-clad protesters hurled rocks at police and municipal vehicles.

Police are pelted with stones and rubbish almost every time they enter Mea Shearim.

"The Zionist-Hadassah-police axis of evil is in the process of vilifying us. An organised blood libel!" screams one of the hundreds of posters on the walls known as Pashkevils which present rabbinical decisions to the faithful.

"The Hadassah hospital has declared war against the Haredim... dreadful stories of doctors' barbaric treatment of Haredi patients who fall like easy prey in their hands!" charges another.

Mea Shearim and adjacent Haredi neighbourhoods were abuzz with blame for the "Zionists", with Hadassah hospital doctors described as the enemies of Haredi Jews.

Doctors and other Hadassah staff received hundreds of telephone threats and were also verbally abused by irate protesters outside the medical centre on Jerusalem's outskirts.

The "starving mother", as she's been dubbed, has since been released under house arrest and is undergoing psychological treatment, but is still not allowed to see the boy.

Although she is from one of the most radical and closed ultra-Orthodox sects, the case touched a raw nerve within the entire community, which showed a rare unity in battling the authorities.

Zilbershlag says the case "hurt every Haredi in the country".

30 "The Haredi public considers this case a betrayal by the authorities that strengthens the conspiracy theory... I don't remember in the past 20 years such incitement against the ultra-Orthodox public," he says.

"The brunt of the responsibility for bringing up and educating the children in the ultra-Orthodox society lies with the mothers, and this is why the mother became so symbolic in the eyes of the public."

The Orthodox Jewish community makes up about one third of Jerusalem's entire 750,000-strong population.

"The police and the media are using the same methods used by the Nazis to show that the Haredim are violent and evil," according to Yosef, a 26-year-old Haredi who refused to give his full name.

"The Haredim are being persecuted. There is serious doubt whether the allegations are true," he says quietly, standing by a Pashkevil in the heart of Mea Shearim, sporting the traditional black hat and jacket and long sideburns.

Moishe Feldman, a reporter for Hakol Haharedi radio, says the case united the ultra- Orthodox because it touched on one of the few things the community's different and often rival sects agree on -- rejecting state involvement in what are perceived to be internal affairs.

"The Haredi rabbis said at all the rallies that "police will not teach us how to raise our children," says Feldman.

"Usually when there are severe cases of child abuse and other serious crimes, the Haredi community tries to resolve the issue without police involvement.

"This story turned into a general fight between the (Haredi) public and the welfare services, the Hadassah hospital... If we do not fight this case and prove that this is a blood libel, the Haredis say, then we will continue to suffer because of the authorities."

15. Envoy: US favors overall Mideast peace accord

By Josef Federman, – 26/07/ 2009 http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iO7ykFycnRj346lkiXHapfx3 PoHwD99M8BE80

JERUSALEM — President Barack Obama's Mideast envoy on Sunday called on the Arab world to take steps toward normalizing relations with Israel, and Israel's prime minister said he hoped his country's disputes with the U.S. over West Bank settlement construction would soon be resolved.

Envoy George Mitchell, opening a new round of peace efforts in the region, played down the differences with Israel "as discussions among friends." His comments, along with those of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, appeared to be aimed at

31 lowering recent tensions as the U.S. tries to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and work for a broader peace between Israel and the Arab world.

Mitchell arrived in Israel from Syria, where he told his hosts the U.S. is determined to achieve a "truly comprehensive" peace settlement that includes normal relations between Israel and all of its Arab neighbors. "We will welcome the full cooperation of the government of the Syrian Arab Republic in this historic endeavor," he said.

It was Mitchell's second visit to the Syrian capital, reflecting U.S. recognition that Syria would play an important role in any regional peace effort. The Bush administration isolated Syria for years because of its support for violent Palestinian and Lebanese extremist groups.

Mitchell described his talks with President Bashar Assad as "very candid and positive."

Upon arrival in Israel, Mitchell said he has been urging Arab governments "to take meaningful steps toward normalization as gestures of their own to demonstrate that everyone on the region shares the vision of comprehensive peace."

To help restart peace talks, the U.S. has been pressing Israel to halt all construction in settlements built on captured land claimed by the Palestinians. Some 280,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements, in addition to 180,000 residents living in Jewish neighborhoods built in traditionally Arab east Jerusalem.

The Palestinians seek to establish an independent state that includes the West Bank, with east Jerusalem as their capital.

Netanyahu says limited construction must proceed to accommodate "natural growth" in the settler population. Netanyahu also says east Jerusalem, which Israel captured and annexed in 1967, will always remain part of Israel's capital city.

A growing number of Israeli officials have expressed surprise and dissatisfaction over the American pressure. At a meeting with Israel's defense minister, Mitchell tried to soothe the concerns.

"Our governments are friends and allies," he said. "These are discussions among friends."

He praised recent steps taken by Netanyahu to boost the Palestinian economy in the West Bank and said he would urge Palestinians on Monday to respond with their own confidence-building steps, such as taking action against anti-Israel incitement.

The Palestinians, encouraged by Obama's tough stance on the settlements, have said they will not meet with Netanyahu until he halts all settlement activity.

Mitchell is the first of four senior American envoys scheduled to visit Israel this week. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, National Security Adviser James Jones and special envoy Dennis Ross are also expected.

32 Speaking to his Cabinet, Netanyahu said he hoped to work out the policy differences with the Americans.

"Naturally, in the context of friendly relations between allies, there isn't agreement on all points, and on several issues we are trying to reach an understanding, in order to make progress together toward our shared goals — peace, security and prosperity for the whole Middle East," he said.

Mitchell is scheduled to meet with Netanyahu, as well as Palestinian leaders on Monday.

The U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv said Mitchell would make a quick trip to Egypt late Sunday before returning for more talks on Monday. Embassy spokesman Kurt Hoyer said the trip to Cairo came at the request of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

It was not immediately known why Mubarak asked Mitchell to move up his visit, which was originally scheduled for Tuesday.

Egypt's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hossam Zaki, said Mitchell will meet with Mubarak and other officials Monday.

In Damascus, Mitchell said he told President Bashar Assad that Obama is "determined to facilitate a truly comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace."

Assad did not speak to reporters after the meeting, but Syria's official news agency later quoted him as stressing to Mitchell "the Arab right to recover occupied lands through achieving a just and comprehensive peace."

Syria has demanded the return of the Golan Heights, a plateau overlooking northern Israel that Israel captured in the 1967 war. Netanyahu says Israel must retain control of the strategic area.

AP correspondent Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, contributed to this report.

16. Right-wing activists sabotage J'lem master plan

By Nir Hasson, online, 23/07/2009 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1102010.html

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat withdrew his municipal master plan following mounting pressure from right-wing activists and council members, Haaretz has learned. The move comes after Barkat had previously authorized the plans.

City planners had been preparing the master plan for over a decade, the first to be authorized by a mayor since 1959. It includes general guidelines for the development of the capital over the next two decades. When Barkat became mayor earlier this year, he examined the plan and requested that some changes be made. Once those changes

33 were implemented, he signed it and passed it on to the district planning committee at the Interior Ministry, which is supposed to examine any objections made by the public.

At that stage, members of the city council as well as right-wing activists began working to prevent confirmation of the plan. They claimed the plan authorizes far too much construction in East Jerusalem for Palestinian residents, while completely canceling the construction of two proposed Jewish neighborhoods in the same area.

According to council member Yair Gabai, city hall professionals took advantage of the power swap - when Barkat replaced - to tilt the plan to the left. "The new changes violate the demographic balance of the city," said Gabai. Another activist leading the opposition to the plan is Mati Dan of the Ateret Cohanim yeshiva. Interior Minister Eli Yishai was convinced by these arguments and ordered the Jerusalem district supervisor, Ruth Yosef, not to present the master plan to the public. This move prompted protests on the left side of the local political map, with the Bimkom organization for planning rights claiming Yishai's order was illegal.

Following Yishai's instruction, Barkat met with Yosef on Sunday and asked her to release the plan back to the municipality for review. Although he said the changes would be "minor," Gabai stressed they would be "beyond mere technicalities." Right- wing members of the city council are demanding that the two East Jerusalem neighborhoods for Jews be put back on the plan, and that the number of housing units authorized for construction for Palestinian residents be cut back by several thousand.

Pepe Alalo (), a Jerusalem deputy mayor, said yesterday that "everyone had every opportunity to raise objections. The council members and the minister are all politically motivated."

A Jerusalem municipality spokesperson released a statement saying "some comments on the new master plan have been made by members of the council who did not have time to make them in the few months since the last elections. The mayor ordered [one of] his deputies, Koby Kahalon, to gather all the comments and to discuss with the district committee the best way to include this input in the plan."

17. Israel uses Hitler picture to sell its settlement expansion: Foreign minister orders diplomats to circulate photo ahead of discussions with President Obama's envoy

By Donald Macintyre, Independent, 25/07/2009 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-uses-hitler-picture-to- sell-its-settlement-expansion-1760709.html

As the at the outbreak of the Second World War, Mohammad Amin al-Husayni was a powerful Nazi sympathiser - and an assassination target for the Allies.

34 , Israel's foreign minister, has triggered fresh controversy by urging diplomats abroad to use a 1941 photograph of a Palestinian religious leader meeting Hitler to counter protests against a planned Jewish settlement in Arab East Jerusalem.

The hard right Mr Lieberman ordered the circulation to Israeli embassies of copies of the notorious wartime photograph of Hitler meeting the then Mufti of Jerusalem, an overt sympathiser with the Nazis who helped them raise an SS division in Bosnia. The move has alarmed some experienced Israeli diplomats who believe it will be counterproductive. It came after the US State Department expressed its disapproval to , the Israeli ambassador in Washington, over plans to build at least 20 apartments for Jewish settlers at the site of the old Shepherd's Hotel building in the inner East Jerusalem district of Sheikh Jarrah.

The building was once used as a headquarters of the Mufti, a member of the one of the most prominent Palestinian families in Jerusalem. The Palestinian nationalist Faisal al-Husseini, grand nephew of the Mufti, was a frequent interlocutor and strong advocate of peace moves with Israel in his later years until his death in 2001.

The plans for the Shepherd's Hotel site have highlighted a continuing rift between much of the international community and Israel over the latter's continued settlement building in East Jerusalem. The site was bought in the 1980s by a company controlled by Irving Moskowitz, a major benefactor of of right wing settler groups.

While the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is deep in negotiations with US officials over the settlement freeze in the West Bank being demanded by President Obama, he made it clear this week he will not be deterred from sanctioning continued building for Jews in East Jerusalem. Israel's sovereignty over the whole of the city "cannot be challenged", he said.

Israel unilaterally annexed East Jerusalem – unlike the West Bank which it did not seek to annex – after the 1967 Six-Day War and officially regards the city as the undivided capital of Israel. But most Western governments do not recognise the annexation and back the Palestinians' call for East Jerusalem to be the capital of a future Palestinian state.

One Israeli official in Jerusalem said of Mr Lieberman's move: "If the issue here is sovereignty over Jerusalem then passing on a historical photograph like this completely misses the point... It has nothing to do with it."

The Foreign Ministry confined itself to repeating Mr Lieberman's explanation that the photograph had been sent out so that "the facts are known".

George Mitchell, President Obama's Middle East Envoy is due to meet Mr Netanyahu to discuss the settlement freeze issue early next week. One Israeli official has predicted that the Prime Minister would go further than previous governments in ordering a moratorium on West Bank settlement building. The US has demanded a freeze to help kick-start peace negotiations with the moderate Palestinian leadership in Ramallah. The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said he will not accept Mr Netanyhau's invitation to talks without it.

35 But when it comes to East Jerusalem, Mr Netanyahu has made it clear he will follow previous governments – including that of his predecessor Ehud Olmert – by continuing to allow building there. Ahead of tomorrow's Cabinet meeting, he insisted that "residents of Jerusalem may purchase apartments in all parts of the city". He added: "In recent years hundreds of apartments in Jewish neighbourhoods and in the western part of the city have been purchased by – or rented to – Arab residents and we did not interfere... This is the policy of an open city, an undivided city that has no separation according to religion or national affiliation."

Amid protests from other governments, the French foreign ministry summoned Israel's ambassador Daniel Shek this week to re-state its opposition to settlement building, including in east Jerusalem. Some Palestinian Jerusalem residents have rented apartments in some Jewish settlements in outer East Jerusalem. A prominent anti-settlement Israeli lawyer Daniel Seidemann said this week that most land in West Jerusalem was state land which precludes those other than Israeli citizens – a category which includes Arab citizens of Israel – from purchasing property on it. Most Palestinian Jerusalemites are legal residents but not Israeli citizens. While Palestinian ID holders are not precluded from buying property on private land in West Jerusalem, Mr Seidemann did not know of any who had; this was for "social cultural and economic reasons".

The Mufti and the Fuhrer: A meeting of like minds

As the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem at the outbreak of the Second World War, Mohammad Amin al-Husayni was a powerful Nazi sympathiser – and an assassination target for the Allies. The moment that ensured his permanent notoriety came in 1941, when he was pictured with Adolf Hitler in Berlin. Al-Husayni was there to lobby Adolf Hitler for a declaration in favour of Arab nationalism and against a Jewish homeland. Hitler refused the request for tactical reasons, but the Mufti later recollected that he had sworn "the suppression of the Jewish national homeland is part of my battle". Few now dispute that he was an anti-Semite; whether he is still relevant is debatable. After he died, the hotel at the centre of the current dispute was bought by an American-Jewish millionaire.

18. PM delays discussion on Temple Mount project

Roni Sofer, Ynet News, 23/07/2009 http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L -3750984,00.html

Ynet learns Netanyahu canceled at last minute decisive discussion aimed at setting a date for start of construction of new Mugrabi Gate in Jerusalem. Security sources express their fear of violent outbreak on eve of Ramadan fast

On the backdrop of protests from Jordan, the Palestinian Authority and the Muslim , Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently postponed a decisive discussion

36 aimed at setting a date for beginning the construction of the new Mugrabi Gate on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Ynet has learned.

The official explanation given for the delay was a stormy discussion at the Knesset on Wednesday, in which the Coalition was humiliated. However, security sources have expressed their fear that making such a decision on the eve of the Ramadan fast would set Jerusalem on fire and spark another international row, in addition to the dispute over the construction of a hotel in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

The Muslims' fear of the new bridge stems from the possibility of bringing major forces onto the Temple Mount. "You are planning to bring armored personnel carriers to al-Aqsa through this bridge," a senior Muslim official recently told his Israeli colleague during an international conference in Europe.

"No," the Israeli responded. "We want this bridge to hold 300 police officers, in case of riots on the mount or an attack on Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall plaza."

A senior state official involved in the matter says that the discussion on this issue has been going on for five years.

"The matter was presented in full transparency to any interested elements, including UNESCO and the Jordanian. We are constantly holding talks with Jordan in a bid to reach understandings.

"The goal of the discussion in this forum was to renovate the bridge over the dike which collapsed, without hurting the public feelings involved – and nothing more. The decision on when to start building the new bridge is in the hands of the Jerusalem Municipality by law. This date has yet to be set, as it is a long and open procedure in any case," the official explained.

The current sensitive situation began on February 14, 2004, when the dike under the old wooden bridge collapsed, and fears were raised that entering the Temple Mount would be dangerous. Experts, including then-Jerusalem City Engineer Uri Shitrit, ruled against climbing the dike for safety reasons.

According to the engineer of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, the winter rains have worsened the dike's condition, and it now endangers the temporary wooden bridge and the worshippers praying at the women's gallery in the Western Wall.

Following rescue excavations which enraged Muslims, who launched a violent protest and led to the arrival of a Turkish delegation of monitors, a decision was made to build a permanent bridge which would be coordinated with all parties involved in the matter – Israel, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority and the Waqf.

The prime minister, who is leading this issue together with Intelligence Minister Dan Meridor, has been required to advance a decision on the matter. A preliminary discussion was held several days ago by professional elements, including representatives of the Prime Minister's Office, the attorney general, the Shin Bet, the Mossad, the Public Security Ministry and the police, the Jerusalem Municipality and the National Security Council.

37 Pressure and timing

A summarizing discussion was scheduled to be held at the Prime Minister's Office on Wednesday in order to make the decision, following a demand by security officials, who wish to maintain their ability to intervene in potential Temple Mount riots.

But on Wednesday, several hours before the discussion, Netanyahu decided to postpone it. His motives for doing so included the Muslim world's object to the new bridge project, due to fears that it would allow the entry of Israeli fighting forces and damage their holy site.

In addition, security sources – including Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch, recommended to Netanyahu to avoid making a decision on the start of construction of a bridge charged with religious emotions so soon before the Ramadan fast, which will begin in about a month.

Ministers Meridor, Aharonovitch, Moshe Yaalon, Eli Yishai and Yacov Margi were informed Wednesday that the discussion would be postponed due to the stormy discussion at the Knesset, but a new date for a meeting was not provided.

According to estimates, the prime minister will convene a meeting following the Ramadan month and after the current dispute with the United States over the construction in east Jerusalem fades away.

Another dispute between the Muslim world and Israel is over the Jewish state's plan to expand the Western Wall plaza, taking advantage of the space created under the bridge, after a plan to use this area in order to expand the women's gallery was rejected.

The Muslims, who base their claims on disputed archaeological findings, say that the al-Buraq is located under this area. From this place, according to Muslim tradition, Prophet Muhammad's horse ascended to heaven.

The caution and fear of a violent outbreak is based on past experience. During Netanyahu's first term as prime minister, he made a decision to open the Western Wall tunnel contrary to the opinion of security officials.

The opening of the tunnel on September 1996, which he referred to as "the rock of our existence", led to violent clashes between the Palestinian police and soldiers in the West Bank and Gaza. Fifteen Israelis and dozens of Palestinians were killed in these events.

19. Jerusalem riots / Losing control

Yair Ettinger, Haaretz online, 19/07/2009 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1100863.html

While the police officers of the Jerusalem District were trying to begin negotiations with the leaders of the city's ultra-Orthodox community, protest on the streets apparently spiraled out of control yesterday.

38

The demonstrators were incensed by the arrest of an ultra-Orthodox woman suspected of starving her son.

At 10 P.M., as a rally concluded at Shabbat Square in the Mea Shearim neighborhood, more than a thousand protesters took to the main intersections of Jerusalem, blocking them and clashing for hours with large contingents of police. Dozens were arrested. Meanwhile, the rabbis of the Eda Haredit announced last night that demonstrations against the opening of the Karta parking lot near the Old City will resume on Saturday, for the fourth weekend in a row.

The violence last night flared with mounting accusations against "Zionist rule," the municipality, and the secular public. The recent events amount to an almost unprecedented crisis of confidence, even by the standards of earlier protests in the city. While the rabbis and leaders of the ultra-Orthodox public voice grave claims about the circumstances and the very fact of the woman's arrest, their public became increasingly convinced of the most lurid and visceral accusations against the "impure Zionists." These included hospitals and welfare offices in which tens of thousands of the ultra-Orthodox are served and treated every year.

It's difficult to pinpoint a single reason for this outburst now of all times, but the writing had definitely been on the wall - quite literally. Demonic accusations against the health, welfare and law enforcement services of the city have been plastered on the walls of Mea Shearim since the beginning of the week, three days before the court-ordered gag on the case was lifted. Billboard postings telling of a "plot" wrought against a devoted mother and of "experiments" carried out upon her son, and so on and so forth, have allowed the organizers of the protests to firmly implant such notions in the minds of scores, if not hundreds of thousands, of mainstream ultra- Orthodox.

Unlike the Shabbat wars over the parking lots, in which a compromise may be reached as early as tomorrow, the riots in protest against the mother's arrest appear to have grown from the bottom up - without a lead from the Hasidic community from which they come or an order from the rabbis. This aspect is significant, because it underscores the complete lack of leadership on either side of the divide - both in the ultra-Orthodox community and on part of local authorities.

Although this is beginning to look like a crisis of national proportions, no representative of the authorities has as yet spoken out on the events. Mayor Nir Barkat did not find a way to calm the streets and instead took to issuing a bewildering statement on ceasing all municipal services in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods. His ultra-Orthodox coalition partners, meanwhile, are paralyzed due to the indignation they have caused among constituents with their conduct in regard to the parking lots dispute. On the other hand, the rabbis - both mainstream and radical - have been completely silent, with one exception: Rabbi Menachem Mendel Yurovich took to the stage at the Shabbat Square rally last night and called upon the masses to go out, demonstrate and "not hesitate to get arrested .

39