Jerusalem's new neighborhoods, the ones that effectively separate the Arab eastern parts of the city and the West Bank, were built by Labor people and especially by former Jerusalem mayor, Teddy Kollek. It was also during Kollek's tenure that plans were made for the new neighborhood of Har Homa, an attempt to separate eastern Jerusalem and Bethlehem, which was to be created from numerous land appropriations and stirred international controversy.
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Construction and Housing Minister Isaac Herzog has highlighted his intention to halt the massive flow of funds into Itamar and Yitzhar and even set up a committee to review security in the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem's Old City. However, it seems that he really does not plan to stop construction in the Jewish neighborhoods of eastern Jerusalem. On the contrary, Herzog, as he told Haaretz, plans to promote the next stages of Har Homa to create territorial continuity between Jerusalem and Ma'aleh Adumim.
Herzog explains that "strengthening Jerusalem in a smart manner, without damaging Israel's political standing" is one of the issues at the top of his agenda. The need for construction on Har Homa, he says, stems from his opposition to the Safdie plan for building west of the city. There are no building options in Jerusalem's west, says the construction and housing minister, "unless it is decided to destroy the Jerusalem forests."
Herzog's plan is "in the future and not right now, as part of a gradual process to achieve a possible link between Ma'aleh Adumim and Jerusalem, in the first stage by expanding the plan covering Har Homa." This refers to an attempt to connect to Ma'aleh Adumim's southwest and is not in the larger E1 plan, whose objective is to connect to Ma'aleh Adumim via Pisgat Ze'ev to the north. Herzog says the plan to expand Har Homa "differs from other harmful plans."
"Har Homa is an existing fact that cannot be ignored," he says. "With all due respect, as far as I am concerned the status of Har Homa is not like the status of Yitzhar and Itamar." He adds that linking Har Homa to Ma'aleh Adumim seems reasonable to him, because "even in the Geneva Initiative, Ma'aleh Adumim is part of Israel." He noted, however, that no directives have yet been issued regarding this matter.
Compensation for the right
Attorney Danny Seideman, the legal adviser of the settlement watchdog group Ir Amim and one of the leaders of the fight against Israeli construction in the eastern part of the city, says that the marketing of the first stage of construction in Har Homa, which contains 2,400 apartments, has ended. The second stage includes 2,000 more apartments and of them, 800 have already been sold. The third stage, which includes 3,000 apartments, will be built on some land that was appropriated from Palestinians.
Seideman is worried. The construction of Har Homa in the previous decade caused considerable strain on Israel's ties with the Palestinian Authority and a serious disagreement with the United States. Seideman mentions that the plans for Har Homa were unfrozen and implemented under the Netanyahu government as compensation to the right for the withdrawal from Hebron. He fears that at the time of the disengagement, the expansion of Har Homa will be given to the right as compensation. According to him, building Har Homa is a clear sign that during negotiations, Israel is establishing facts that may affect the permanent arrangement.
Nevertheless, Seideman says Har Homa alone will not establish a break between eastern Jerusalem and Bethlehem. What is also essential for his break and the move toward Ma'aleh Adumim is a Jewish neighborhood in Hirbet Mizmoriya, east of Har Homa. In the past, there have been several reports that the Construction and Housing Ministry is looking into the possibility of building a Jewish neighborhood there and is even doing preparatory work. Except that building in Mizmoriya would require extensive appropriations.
Seideman notes that back in 1995, prime minister Yitzhak Rabin assured the American administration that there would not be any additional land appropriations from Arab landowners in Jerusalem. In order to build a Jewish neighborhood in Hirbet Mizmoriya, it would therefore be necessary to exercise the Absentee Owners Property Law. The moment Attorney General Menachem Mazuz determined that the law could not be exercised within the boundaries of Jerusalem, the chances of building the neighborhood shrank considerably.
Desert area
Seideman says that any link between Ma'aleh Adumim and Jerusalem, whether it is the implementation of the E1 Plan or a link to Har Homa, would split the PA into two cantons and would thwart the two-states-for-two-peoples option. However, at least as far as a link to Har Homa is concerned, there are also numerous questions about feasibility. For example, Ma'aleh Adumim and Har Homa are separated by a string of Arab neighborhoods: Abu Dis, Azzariyeh and Arab es Sawahra. The only possible way of linking the two places would be by making a wide arch heading eastward from Har Homa and turning northward to Ma'aleh Adumim near the community of Keidar. This is a desert area with very rough terrain that would make construction difficult. If this possibility does come into being, all of the Arab neighborhoods between Har Homa and Ma'aleh would in effect be annexed to Jerusalem.
Another problem is a result of the separation fence. It already runs between Har Homa and Ma'aleh Adumim, but if the plan to include Ma'aleh Adumim inside the fence materializes, the fence will have to twist and pass between them another time.
In the area of the E1 plan there has actually been some progress of late. The Higher Council for Planning and Construction of Judea and Samaria recently approved and presented to the public for its objections two construction plans to expand Ma'aleh Adumim northward. One is for construction of a neighborhood with multistory buildings and the other is for a neighborhood of build-your-own-homes. Another of the latter neighborhoods has already been approved for submission to the Ma'aleh Adumim local council, but has yet to be approved by the Higher Council
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