Officials: Jewish bid for East Jerusalem home likely to fail
Interior Min. Yishai moves to thwart court-ordered evacuation of building illegally built by nationalist Jews.
By Nir Hasson Tags: Eli Yishai Israel news East JerusalemInterior Minister Eli Yishai resolved Monday to use his powers to thwart a court-ordered evacuation of an illegally built home erected by nationalist Jews in a predominantly Arab neighborhood of East Jerusalem.
The Shas chairman said he plans to raise the matter of legalizing the structure, known as "Beit Yonatan," during the next meeting of the ministry's district planning commission in Jerusalem. Yishai believes he will be able to void the evacuation orders which the municipality intends to distribute to the building's residents.
Nonetheless, officials with intimate knowledge of the matter said the chances that Yishai will succeed are virtually nil, given that zoning approval for Beit Yonatan would require the approval of a long list of building violations.
Beit Yonatan, a seven-story residential structure that houses eight Jewish families, was built illegally in the heart of the predominantly Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan by the nationalist association Ateret Cohanim. The courts issued an evacuation order for the building last July.
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat initially refused to enforce the evacuation order, though he later yielded after considerable public pressure from the attorney general and state prosecutor.
"Just as Nir Barkat is not above the law, Eli Yishai is also not above the law," said a source familiar with the issue. "The interior minister cannot intervene in a court ruling and he will need to learn this lesson just like Barkat did."
Even if the structure is legalized, the building's residents would need to undergo a lengthy process in order to obtain the necessary permits from the Jerusalem municipality. These permits are a prerequisite for nullifying a court order.
The Jerusalem District Court has already turned down the residents' appeal to strike down the evacuation order so that they can win approval for a new building plan.
In a letter to State Prosecutor Moshe Lador, Barkat pledged last week to enforce the court order to evacuate the structure, though he added that he was doing so under protest. Barkat also wrote that the municipality would tear down some 200 Palestinian homes slated for demolition in East Jerusalem. The letter essentially ended a power struggle between Barkat and the judicial system, especially the Jerusalem municipality's legal consultant, Yossi Havilio.
Meanwhile, the Jerusalem municipality canceled a planned visit by inspectors Monday to the home. The municipality originally dispatched officials from its construction, licensing and inspection department to "Beit Yonatan" to distribute evacuation and seal orders to its residents, however sources in City Hall said the police requested the trip be postponed due to security concerns.
Meanwhile, residents of the house are enlisting the support of right-wing activists and public figures. The dwellers said they would not initiate violence should the evacuation proceed as planned.
Since Barkat's letter was made public, right-wing members of the Jerusalem municipality have lobbied the mayor to delay the sealing of the building. Deputy Mayor David Hadari (National Religious Party) and city councilman Elisha Peleg (Likud) paid a solidarity visit to the site Monday. "We have come to protest the expulsion of Jews in East Jerusalem," Peleg said.
"Everybody agrees that there cannot be discrimination against Jews in Jerusalem," Hadari said. "This is not an issue just for the extreme fringe of the right wing."
One of the Israelis residing in the building gave a tour of the site. "Look around," he said, pointing toward the neighboring Palestinian homes. "Everything you see here is illegally built structures."
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Beit Yonatan in East Jerusalem. |
| Photo by: (AP) |
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Jerusalem is and will forever be the capital of Israel, and will forever be a Jewish city. Why are "Israeli" administrators even contemplating removing Jews from the Jewish capital? Especially when there are so many Arabs still living in buildings they grabbed from the Jews in the 1930s?
If they were Arab, they will be on the streets by now. No peace for Israel. No future for Israel. Come on Bibi, stand up and start sacrificing before we get sacrificed
If the Israelis do not go back to the 67 Borders as accepted by Fatah and Hamas, then Israel will become a Binational State, where for sure, as a Dmocratic State, the Jewish State will be no more, thanks to the Settler activities. Former Pres. J C arter and now E. Barak,DM are right to point out" If the Arabs vote in any Election then it is a Binational State and if they DON'T vote it is an Appartheid State" The ball is now in the SETTLERS UNITED against the Favourite, the SILENCE MAJORITY Disunited.
your hopes. Israel,s leaders are not interested in peace---they just give it lip service.The intl community may be on to them but it may be too late and the Palestinians will not withstand another let down.They will drop their two state demand ---you know the rest.
Every move the right wing makes shows them to be self absorbed delusionals. Coincidentally every move they makes brings the one state solution closer to a reality. Personally I'm looking forward to it. Religion causes wars. Religious states are like Israel and Iran are in fact delusional. The real world has NOTHING TO DO WITH RELIGION!!!
According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silwan: In 1884 a group of Jews arrived from Yemen, and Yemenites moved into new stone houses on the eastern slope of the Kidron, north of the Arab village, built for them by a charity called Ezrat Niddahim. This settlement was called Kfar Hashiloach or the Yemenite Village. An 1891 photo shows the homes on an otherwise vacant stretch of hillside. The Yemenite Jews left Silwan during the 1936?1939 Arab revolt in Palestine and non-Jewish Arabs moved into the vacated buildings.
not being Jewish.
Number of building permits granted to Jews in Jerusalem (2008): 13,941 (about 20% in Arab neighborhoods of occupied East Jerusalem). Number of building permits granted to East Jerusalem Arabs (to build in Arab neighborhoods only, of course): 400 units. The figures are from an April 2009 United Nations report: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWFiles2009.nsf/FilesByRWDocUnidFilename/PSLG-7RMB33-full_report.pdf/$File/full_report.pdf But you're wrong that Israelis don't want coexistence between Jews and Arabs. This Israeli Jew wants exactly that, and I'm far from being the only one. When enough of us on both sides put away our fists, nothing can stop us.
our internal and external ministers as well as a few others are the real danger to israel'existance. the trouble is that this situation is unevoidable having an election system which is a real aberation...
Eli Yishai isn't a democrat. He's an ethnocrat. The West should not do business with him or any government that contains him.
Israel calls itself a democratic country. However, Palestinian rarely get permits to build homes on their own lands. While Jewish settlers are building without permits in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem, Arabs are forced to evacuate their homes by the IDF and so called Border Police and if they don't do that in mostly few hours, their homes are destroyed by US Caterpillars, as you can see on the following clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re8qP_RREsM And the Israelis are still fooling the West by talking about co-exisistance between Jews and Arabs!!!!!!
Shiloah residents claim that they did'nt know they were selling to Jews. In order to prevent such situations, I propose, that all property sales are handled by Arab lawyers, and that the sales contract includes, that the seller leaves his property, takes his million$$ and goes to live elsewhere, There is a lot of real-estate available in Jordan