Last update - 00:00 14/12/2006
5,000 dunam of Jewish-owned land left outside J'lem fence
By Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent
About 5,000 dunam (1,250 acres) of private land owned by Jews were left outside the separation barrier in the Jerusalem area. The route of the barrier was completed earlier this week. In the Atarot-Neveh Ya'akov area, some of this land is already being used by Palestinians. In other areas, such as Har Gilo and Anatot, the land is currently not being used.
Military officials say that deciding on the route of the fence sometimes required making difficult decisions that take into consideration High Court decisions as well as the demographic map created by the barrier. They emphasize that the barrier harms Arabs as well as Jews, and that most of the difficulties are the result of decisions based on security factors.
Much of the Jewish land at issue was purchased before the establishment of the state. In his book "Zahav beyerushalayim" ("Gold in Jerusalem"), author Eliezer Smali related how, in the 1930s, educator Yehoshua Avizohar went to Meah She'arim to persuade residents of the neighborhood to purchase land in Abu Dis. Hundreds of Meah She'arim residents followed Avizohar to Abu Dis then considered "the end of the world" in hopes of exchanging their dark, crowded homes for a better place. About 1,000 dunam of the land purchased there will be beyond the separation fence.
In north Jerusalem, about 1,000 dunam of Jewish National Fund land next to the Atarot airfield will suffer a similar fate. If the landowners' appeal to the Appeals Committee of the Tel Aviv District Court is rejected, this land will not serve the "Jewish people," as the JNF's convention specifies. Here, too, much of the land is already in Palestinian use and hundreds of homes the majority without permits have already been built.
Military, police and Border Police officials have repeatedly told the landowners, or their heirs, that if they can remove the squatters from their land, there is a good chance that the property will be included within the route of the barrier and remain within Jerusalem. The political echelons, however, thought differently. Even in places where trespassers were driven from the lands, the ground remained outside of the fence.