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Buildings in the Har Homa neighborhood. (Daniel Bar On / Jini)
Last update - 08:14 06/01/2008
Har Homa neighborhood slated for 'absentee' Palestinian land
By Meron Rapoport, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Israel, Ehud Olmert 

The Housing Ministry is pushing forward with the construction of more than 1,000 residential units in East Jerusalem's Har Homa neighborhood on land held by "absentee" Palestinians from the Bethlehem area. The move is in violation of both an instruction from the attorney general to stop applying the absentee law in East Jerusalem and explicit promises to the U.S. not to apply that law in the capital's eastern quarters.

About four weeks ago, the Housing Ministry published a tender to build 300units to complete Stage B of the Har Homa plan. The tender evoked international outrage and U.S. and Palestinian pressure to block the construction. It is now evident that most of the land for the 300 units belongs to residents of Beit Sahur who were declared absentee, so
their lands were taken by the state without compensation or legal hearings.
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According to ownership maps of the area, of the 24-dunam (6 acres) area slated for the construction, 18 dunam belonged to Beit Sahur residents and six dunam were appropriated from Jewish owners. A total of 188 of the apartments are slated for construction on the absentee land.

The application of the absentee law to East Jerusalem has been very controversial ever since the annexation of the eastern part of the city after the Six-Day War. Then attorney general Meir Shemgar stated one year after the war that there was no "justification for the annexation of East Jerusalem to amount to taking a person's property" and recommended not applying the law. Over the years there have been changes in this position, and in late 2004 the Ministerial Committee on Jerusalem Affairs
decided, in an unreported meeting, to resume application of the absentee law.

After that decision was published in Haaretz, the U.S. government demanded it be changed. As a result, in February 2005 Attorney General Menachem Mazuz published instructions adopting the 1968 Shemgar opinion and ordered the "immediate cessation of the application of the absentee law on East Jerusalem assets."

Apparently that instruction has not been implemented. In addition to the 300 units mentioned above, the state apparently plans to build another 1,000 apartments on absentee lands in Stage 3 of Har Homa. The construction of the new neighborhood was approved by the Jerusalem municipal planning board. The Housing Ministry is moving forward, even after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert directed that he be apprised of any
construction plans in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

The new neighborhood is planned for east of the already-constructed Har Homa, in close proximity to Beit Sahur and Bethlehem. If built, it would isolate Bethlehem completely from the Palestinian neighborhoods south of Jerusalem.

In a hearing by the Jerusalem planning board last January city council member Pepe Alalu opposed the plan, saying the area could serve to expand Beit Sahur, which suffers from great overcrowding. In response, the Jerusalem district planner for the Housing Ministry, Ayalon Bernard, said the residents of Sur Baher do not own the Stage 3 and Stage 4 Har Homa lands, which belong to Bethlehemites. The landowners are absentees."

The land is farmland owned by about 600 Beit Sahur families who worked the plots until the construction of the separation fence in the area.
The Justice Ministry preferred to ignore the apparent contradiction between Mazuz's 2005 instructions and what appears to be sweeping application of the absentee law in order to build new neighborhoods at Har Homa.

The Justice Ministry said in a response that the land for the Har Homa construction was expropriated for public purposes from Jewish owners also, and that the absentee issue is irrelevant.

In its response, the Housing Ministry stated, "there is no decision to stop the construction" of Har Homa Stage 3 and technical amendments to the plans will be submitted to the district planning committee in the coming months to enable approval of the plan.

Related articles:
  • Rice: Har Homa homes harm talks

  • Government officials: Har Homa row sparked by 'two bureaucrats'

  • PM plans to halt E. J'lem tenders, okay Har Homa
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      1.   Let the Legislature Change the Law if Needed - That`s Their Role 01:28  |  Straight Talk 06/01/08
      2.   Shame, shame 01:38  |  Sally 06/01/08
      3.   Israeli Justice Ministry = Oxymoron 01:51  |  Papa Jay 06/01/08
      4.   Just exactly who is in control in Israel? 02:48  |  peacelover 06/01/08
      5.   This is WRONG! 03:17  |  Charles B. Hall 06/01/08
      6.   Only a deluge will likely solve this problem! 03:40  |  lakshmi 06/01/08
      7.   WOW 03:49  |  John 06/01/08
      8.   If only Atheists ruled the world. 05:04  |  kiwi girl 06/01/08
      9.   Just Kick the Palis out of Judea and Samaria 05:31  |  John Klein 06/01/08
      10.   ARABS OWN NO LAND OF ISRAEL! 05:56  |  Dodi Shtern 06/01/08
      11.   Law and winking, like a revolving proson door. 05:59  |  Fred Locke 06/01/08
      12.   This is wrong 06:10  |  Ely 06/01/08
      13.   how absolutely SUCculent!! 06:18  |  eric 06/01/08
      14.   US needs to step up 06:56  |  Steve 06/01/08
      15.   Typical Arab Absenteeism, Laying Claim to Land they Never Saw 07:09  |  Efox 06/01/08
      16.   re: kiwi girl 07:11  |  Efox 06/01/08
      17.   # 10: Dodi Shtern: Hitler said the same thing about the jews 07:33  |  Papa Jay 06/01/08
      18.   Newsflash: Haaretz renamed to Palestine Post 07:49  |  Gili 06/01/08
      19.   Arrest members of and Dissolve Housing Min. 07:49  |  Awake 06/01/08
      20.   "funny" 08:36  |  rm 06/01/08
      21.   # 9 09:24  |  Milo 06/01/08
      22.   TO Dodi Shtern #10 09:30  |  Steve Beikirch 06/01/08
      23.   #4/Who is in control? 10:01  |  Anne 06/01/08
      24.   my neighbor has been out 10:06  |  sam i am 06/01/08
      25.   Sally, 2#, what are you really ashamed about? 10:18  |  Judah 06/01/08
      26.   the tragedy of this story 10:19  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 06/01/08
      27.   #21 SAM I AM 10:32  |  DANNY 06/01/08
      28.   Europe should return the favor to Jews. 10:43  |  Dutch Dirk 06/01/08
      29.   #19 steve beikirch 10:53  |  danny 06/01/08
      30.   #2 SALLY 10:59  |  DANNY 06/01/08
      31.   Just wondering 11:00  |  Iz Ray Leigh 06/01/08
      32.   DUTCH DIRK 11:05  |  DANNY 06/01/08
      33.   Dutch Dirk 11:13  |  Iz Ray Leigh 06/01/08
      34.   # 14 my my my, efox; the kiwi girl got your gall! 11:19  |  eric 06/01/08
      35.   #21 SAM I AM 11:24  |  DANNY 06/01/08
      36.   # 15 ohhhhhh...efox; where lies the end... 11:29  |  eric 06/01/08
      37.   Jewish land. 11:38  |  Avraham 06/01/08
      38.   # 15 efox 11:42  |  Axel 06/01/08
      39.   # 10 dodi 11:44  |  Axel 06/01/08
      40.   bulid build build and build yet again 11:54  |  harzion 06/01/08
      41.   lakshmi prays for a deluge 11:55  |  jaihind 06/01/08
      42.   lakshmi "the un gave us kashmir" 11:57  |  jaihind 06/01/08
      43.   lakshmi your problems in india are so vast 12:02  |  jaihind 06/01/08
      44.   axel "clasical zionism" 12:10  |  honigstein 06/01/08
      45.   axel taunts jews with words from the dictator 12:13  |  honigstein 06/01/08
      46.   Flagrantly criminal, provocative armed robbery 12:14  |  Ivar 06/01/08
      47.   # 26 i beg to differ, cipora 12:19  |  eric 06/01/08
      48.   # 44 honigstein 12:23  |  Axel 06/01/08
      49.   lakshmi you remind me of students from the third world 12:27  |  jaihind 06/01/08
      50.   # 33 iz ray re dutch dirk 12:28  |  Axel 06/01/08
      51.   Security as a fig leaf for blatant theft 12:50  |  Ben Alofs 06/01/08
      52.   # 45 honigstein 12:51  |  Axel 06/01/08
      53.   axel from your starting point i would have thought you 12:55  |  honigstein 06/01/08
      54.   #28 why restrict it to jews dirk muslims too 13:34  |  victor hardman 06/01/08
      55.   Land theft 14:35  |  Jacob 06/01/08
      56.   possession is 90% of the law,so i thought 14:51  |  lex pinchon 06/01/08
      57.   # 5 Charles B. Hall 14:56  |  Petra 06/01/08
      58.   # 10 No questions and you`re right!!!!! 14:57  |  Petra 06/01/08
      59.   # 16 re: Kiwi girl EFox 15:04  |  Petra 06/01/08
      60.   # 12 Eli Montreal and the land you live in was 15:06  |  Petra 06/01/08
      61.   # 17 Papa Jay and the camps in Lebanon, Jordon etc.? 15:10  |  Petra 06/01/08
      62.   # 11 what`s `proson`? 15:11  |  Petra 06/01/08
      63.   # 24 Sam I am- we`ve heard about rockets,suicide bombers tunnels. 15:15  |  Petra 06/01/08
      64.   John Klein Canada 15:17  |  Petra 06/01/08
      65.   # 7 Wow, porBertys? what`s that, Dummy? 15:18  |  Petra 06/01/08
      66.   How Jews can make easy money or easy mitzvah in Har Homa 15:45  |  Tosefta 06/01/08
      67.   The first valid reason I`ve heard for not building 15:48  |  David Teich 06/01/08
      68.   Uh, Oh! There`s Too Much Wrong With This 15:48  |  Jeff Northridge 06/01/08
      69.   Is "Liars" too strong a word? I think not! 16:13  |  Toronto`s Finest 06/01/08
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      71.