Stop demolitions

Stop demolitions

We need your help in the next few hours !
30 juillet 2003

The Ministry of the Interior has scheduled at least 6 demolitions in the village of Jabel Mukaber for this Wednesday, Rosh Khodesh Av. I wonder whether these demolitions will help Palestinians identify with the mourning of the Jewish people over the demolition of the two Temples which once stood in Jerusalem, thereby contributing to the "Trust building measures stipulated in the "Road Map."

RHR, ICAHD, BIMKOM and others are exploring every possible avenue to stop these demolitions. You can help by writing to the officials listed below. SHOULD WE FAIL, WE ALSO NEED TO KNOW WHO IS WILLING TO SLEEP IN THESE HOMES STARTING TUESDAY NIGHT OR ARRIVE IN THE MORNINGS.

. We have been receiving reports for two weeks now of large numbers of home demolition orders being handed out in various East Jerusalem neighborhoods - Sur Baher, Jabel Mukaber, Shuafat and Beit Hanina. For various reasons it has taken us a while to put the list together, but the picture is becoming clearer. At least 45 demolition orders have been either handed out or delivered orally. Some families have succeeded in receiving stays, but not all have been so lucky. In addition to the six demolitions scheduled for Wednesday (One family was also told that their home would be demolished on Tuesday.), other homes have 30 day administrative demolition orders going into effect on August 1. Enclosed are the profiles of some of these families. Pictures and additional profiles can be sent upon request.

In Sur Baher and Jabel Mukaber, the orders seem to be concentrated in neighborhoods which will be cut off from the rest of their respective communities by one planned bypass road or another, and perhaps the Separation Wall. Nowhere is the cruel irony more evident than in Jabel Mukaber, where many of the homes were fines were handed out 10 or more years ago, but demolition orders were suspended to give the families time to obtain building permits. This was impossible as the land was not zoned for building, but three years later the families were fined for being in contemp of court for having failed to obtain the permits. After successive fines, the homes are now slated for demolition.

The master plan for Jabel Mukaber - Arab A-Suakhreh 2683 a - was created in the 80’s and approved in 1996. It never took into account the natural demographic needs of the residents. In the neighboring Jewish neighborhood of Armon HaNatziv built on land expropriated from Jabel Mukaber their plan allows them to build much higher and exploit a higher percentage of each dunam for building than in Jabel Mukaber. Sixty-Five percent of the land remaining to Jabel Mukaber is zoned as "Open View Land" and it is forbidden to build on this land. Many residents must choose between leaving Jerusalem or building "illegally." "Bimkom," an Israeli NGO of architects and city planners, is working on a new master plan, but must raise the funds for almost all of the expenses. I participated on Sunday in a meeting of human rights organizations with Mayor Lupolianski’s senior advisor Aharon Agassi who claimed that the Municipality has no responsibility for funding master plans for Jews or Palestinians and was not forthcoming in terms of willingness to help Palestinian families survive the permit process usually taken care of by contractors for large subsidized projects in Jewish neighborhoods. We need to check the sources of funding for master plans in Jewish neighborhoods, but this seems disingenuous.

Please write polite but unequivocal letters, with copies to RHR, to the Israeli officials listed below (I have also listed the officials to write about the single parents which I neglected to include last week.) Interior Minister Poraz has built his reputation on promoting clean and honest government and proper procedure. The Kafkaesque and catch - 22 situation in which Palestinians find themselves in is none o the above. We know that some of you may not wish to write to local officials, but it could really make a difference if the White House would be flooded with faxes, emails and phone calls in the coming hours leading up to Tuesdays meeting between Prime Minister Sharon and President Bush.

The policy of home demolitions is neither fair nor based on the principles of good planning. Rather a Kafkaesque snarl of rules, regulations and resident nor-friendly zoning insures that Palestinians must build "illegally." In the Jewish tradition this is called "Eifa V’Eifa," double standards. With your help, the month of Av need not be a month of massive destruction of Palestinian homes and of the trust necessary to cultivate the fragile beginnings of a reborn peace process.

B’Vrakha,
Arik