Jerusalem to turn Sheikh Jarrah land into parking lot near Jewish tomb
Municipality is not expected to offer financial compensation to the owner of the plot in question.
By Nir Hasson Tags: Jerusalem East Jerusalem Israel newsThe Jerusalem municipality will appropriate a plot of land in East Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood to build a public parking lot near the tomb of a Second Temple-era high priest, despite arguments that the move is intended to benefit Jewish pilgrims and expand the Jewish presence in East Jerusalem.
The plan is the brainchild of city council member Yair Gabbay, who said a parking lot is required for visitors to the tomb of Simon the Just, or Shimon Hatzadik.
"There are days when thousands of people come to the tomb, and safety and security issues complicate their visit," Gabbay said. "This tomb was there long before the Arabs arrived - there is no dispute among archaeologists about that."
The municipality is not expected to offer financial compensation to the owner of the plot in question, even though it previously required a Palestinian company seeking to build a hotel in the area to pay for the right to build there.
Neighborhood residents and non-governmental organizations maintain parking is not limited in Sheikh Jarrah, and say the lot is intended to benefit Jewish visitors alone.
Both the municipality and Gabbay, who said he hopes the parking lot will be built within two months, maintain there is a parking shortage and that the lot will benefit Arabs as well as Jews.
"All those who live there, both Arabs and Jews, lack proper parking," said Gabbay. "We'll build a lot for everyone's use - no one will be asked to identify himself upon entering."
The Jerusalem municipality said in a statement that parking, not politics, was behind the move.
"The lot will be designated as a public space," the municipality said. "The municipality recently built a parking lot in the neighborhood of Silwan in response to a request from the neighborhood committee. The lot [in Sheikh Jarrah] is designated for the benefit of neighborhood residents given the shortage of parking in the area, and there are no political motives involved in the matter." But Meir Margalit of the city's Meretz party said the proposal was meant to create an impression of Jewish contiguity in East Jerusalem.
"It's enough that the area is transferred to Jewish ownership, that there is a municipality sticker and an information booth, and that will create the visual and emotional impression that there is Jewish contiguity in the area," he said.
"To claim there is a parking problem in Sheikh Jarrah is ridiculous, an insult to one's intelligence," said Margalit. "There is no parking problem in the area. There is no denying that the move is politically motivated."
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...as each day goes by, it becomes more and more clear that Israel is lying to the world when it says it wants peace. Where? When? Every day Israel puts another nail in the coffin of what could have been peace. There simply is no good outcome for Israel.
East Jerusalem is illegally annexed - if it is to be an 'undivided city" the whole of East and West Jerusalem must return to UN administration, a 'corpus separatum' as the original UN resolution 181 which delineated Israel's borders in 1947 explicitly laid down. The creeping (but now accelerating infiltration by religious organisations like Elad and Ateret Hacohanim, backed by the State, and US millionaires into Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah is illegal under the Geneva Conventions, and as Meir Margalit says is politically motivated, and a consolidation of Israel's land grab, with the intention of ejecting the Palestinians - it must be stopped by international action and strong sanctions.
`i learned that isrl started putting the name Palestine on their products because they know most people boycotted their products.` There are two separate things going on here: 1. Settlement products are labelled as "Israeli" so they can illegally benefit from the preferential trade agreement with EU. 2. Settlement products (such as dates) are labelled as "West Bank" to confuse UK shoppers. Strange that settlers never speak of West Bank but of "Judea and Samaria".
Please, before going into further details, inform me where are Israeli borders?
'i learned that isrl started putting the name Palestine on their products because they know most people boycotted their products.' This is interesting. Usually it's the other way round, where dates and other fruits and 'dead sea' products are produced in illegal settlements on occupied land, but are marketed as Israeli produce.
Esther I love your posts.
your post shed lights on important issues, particularly that it is coming from an israeli living in TA. I admire people like you, who witness for the truth against all odds.
take land just because you can? Wouldn't it be a little bit more sensible to just, you know, pay for it. Especially since there is reasonable doubt that the parking will serve the Arab population too given it's location
i learned that isrl started putting the name Palestine on their products because they know most people boycotted their products.
I very much agree with your post. It's to bad most isrles do not feel the same way. what does it take for the international community to act on the illegal demolishing of homes not in isrl proper? Isrl claims it wants peace, lol they have a very funny way of showing it. if u want to stop the pals from attacking stop destroying their homes and livelihood. if u want to stop rockets from flying stop robbing the pals of everyting. now one guy once said that the pals cannot make a living without isrls help. thats not true, because if isrl stopped the blockade the pals could sell their goods to other countries. the entire planet knows this! i have stopped buying products from isrl and palestine,because i learned that isrl started putting the name Palestine on their products to help stop the blockade.
and soonest the parking lot will be advertised for private housing units... of course!
While two dogs are fighting for a bone, a third runs away with it. That at least ends the conflict and quiet returns.
In yesterday's Ha'aretz there was a dramatic article by Karni Eldad about the 1948 Jewish evacuees from Sheikh Jarrah. The only detail that the writer forgot to mention is that all the Jewish evacuees had been compensated with properties in West Jerusalem, that had been abandoned by their Palestinian ownwers when Israel conquered that part of the city. In some instances the fleeing Pals had even left their furnishings and belongings in their homes as they fled. The Pals of Sheikh Jarrah don't owe us anything... they are simply being robbed in broad daylight.
Israeli Jews going after more Arab land. It's disgusting and makes the world hate them.