THE JERUSALEM municipality has approved plans to demolish 22 Palestinian homes as part of a plan to develop a tourist centre in the Silwan neighbourhood, opposite Jerusalem’s walled old city.
Eighty-eight Palestinian homes were built without valid permits in the al-Bustan area of the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Silwan where the municipality plans to build its controversial King’s Garden tourist centre and archeological park. Under the plan, 22 of the homes will be destroyed, with the other 66 being given retroactive permission.
But the project, which still requires further planning permission, has been condemned by Palestinian residents as another step in Israeli plans to Judaise eastern areas of the city, claimed by the Palestinians as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat accused Israel of undermining the recently revived Israeli-Palestinian proximity talks, and called on the international community to stop “this dangerous project”.
The King’s Garden plan was first unveiled in February by Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat but put on hold, partly due to pressure from prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, fearing it would jeopardise efforts to renew the peace process.
Mr Netanyahu is due to meet US president Barack Obama at the White House on July 6th.
Washington made it clear that it wants no surprises from either side during the four-month period allotted to the proximity talks. Israeli leaders were reluctant to make specific promises on east Jerusalem but it was widely understood that no new construction projects or Palestinian house demolitions would be announced during the duration of the talks.
The left-wing Meretz faction in the council voted against the King’s Garden plan and declared it will quit the municipality coalition to fight against the plan to destroy Palestinian homes. Meretz councillor Meir Margalit called the mayor “a clumsy amateur” for bringing the plan to a vote just two weeks before Mr Netanyahu is due to meet Mr Obama. “The world will thus recognise that it is dealing with pyromaniacs,” Mr Margalit said. “This is a political plan. It contains no humanitarian considerations for the residents but aims only to strengthen Israeli sovereignty in Silwan.”
Right-wing politicians criticised the plan because it granted legitimacy to illegally built Palestinian homes. But Palestinian residents have argued for years they are forced to build without permits because the municipality refuses Palestinian building requests.