The Jerusalem Distract Planning and Building Committee recently approved a plan for a new national park in East Jerusalem: The Mt. Scopus Slopes National Park. The planned park will sit on lands belonging to the Issawiya and A-Tur neighborhoods. For the residents of A-Tur, this means significant damage to land reserves intended for future development, and for Issawiya, the plan completely eliminates the last reserve of land set aside for future growth.
Using national parks to dispossess the Palestinian population of its land is not a new phenomenon. The exact mechanism was also used within Israeli territory where national parks were established in areas where the Palestinian population is dense (as in the Galilee). A similar act was carried out in the Occupied Territories in 1986 when the residents of the village of Susiya in the South Hebron Hills were expelled from their caves, and on the ruins of their village the Susiya National Park was created. However the Mt. Scopus Slopes National Park, which call for confiscation of lands of both Issawiya and A-Tur, will impact a much larger population (the two neighborhoods have more than 30,000 residents combined).
The Harsh Siege on Issawiya
The neighborhood of Issawiya – effectively trapped between Israeli settlements (French Hill, Tzameret Habirah), Israeli institutions (Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical Center), and national infrastructures (Highway 1, military bases) – is able to develop only southward, onto the land approved for the national park. Without this important land, Issawiya will be forced to build inward and onto itself until it becomes another poverty-stricken slum, similar to the Anata refugee camp.
The neighborhood is already suffering from serious planning shortage and a lack of infrastructure. The present master plan for Issawiya, in fact, limits building to two stories. As a results, many residents were forced to built more than two stories without permits. Residents say that the few building permits given to tall buildings were acquired through shady deals with the authorities, which exchange a building permit for a permit allowing the city to expropriate land.
Due to restrictive plans and because of problems with the land authorities, residents encounter difficulty in obtaining building permits in the neighborhood. As a result, residents are forced to build without permits, and deal later with the high fines and house demolitions. In 2010, 15 buildings in the neighborhood were demolished, affecting the lives of 46 persons.
The local master plan “Jerusalem 2000” (a master plan for the entirety of Jerusalem which for two years has been waiting for consideration and is not in effect yet) designates an additional 90 dunams for the neighborhood (40 of which are included in the planned national park). The plan also proposes to allow two additional floors over what is currently allowed for buildings in the neighborhood. The “Jerusalem 2000” master plan effectively allows the retroactive approval of existing buildings in Issawiya, while also enforcing crowding and the addition of new stories.
The “Jerusalem 2000” plan also affords an option for 6-story buildings, but this possibility is subject to specific conditions. The conditions set by the plan make this option all but impossible, allowing it only if whole areas are demolished and then built completely anew. Details of the problematic aspects of the limitations on high-rise building in East Jerusalem can be found in Making Bricks Without Straw: The Jerusalem Municipality’s New Planning Policy for East Jerusalem, published by Ir Amim and Bimkom – Planners for Human Rights.
The detailed planning in Issawiya, as in the rest of East Jerusalem, was carried out by the resident landowners themselves, incurring large expenses beyond the means of most residents, 65% of whom were living below the poverty line in 2008. It seems that the new master plan is not going to solve the housing shortage for Issawiya residents. The plan prepared by Bimkom in cooperation with the residents was blocked by the Jerusalem Municipality in 2010.
After investing significant efforts in planning for their neighborhood, Issawiya residents have little faith in the declarations of the Municipality with regard to its intent to build “nice things” in the neighborhood such as a mall or a swimming pool. The residents, having learned from experience, are interested first in building enough houses for the growing population.
