Israel mayor holds off on plan to raze Jerusalem homes

Ma'an
The Israeli mayor of Jerusalem delayed on Tuesday a plan that would demolish dozens of Palestinian homes to make way for a park and tourist attraction....

...The controversy concerns dozens of houses Israel wants to demolish in an area called Bustan, in the heart of Silwan, a Palestinian neighborhood abutting Jerusalem's Old City which Israel occupied in the 1967. Neither Jerusalem's Palestinian residents nor the international community recognize Israeli sovereignty in the area.

The Israeli-controlled Jerusalem municipality ordered the 89 houses demolished on the grounds that they were built without Israeli permission, although many of their residents own the land they were built on, and pay taxes to the municipality.

Barkat is now offering to retroactively "legalize" some of the houses, while apparently moving to demolish others to make room for a park with tourist attractions centered on archaeological findings that some Israelis say date to Biblical times.

But the archaelogy is disputed. Speaking to the Britain's Guardian newspaper, Israeli human rights lawyer Daniel Seidemann said Barkat was playing into the hands of right-wing extremists.

"He is doing the bidding of extreme settlers," he said. "These are partial demolitions and replacing Palestinian families in order to allow for a construction of a settler-inspired pseudo-Biblical park. He is making genuine public needs subservient to the ideology of the settlers."

Fakhri Abu Diab, a spokesman for Silwan homeowners, said the Jerusalem municipality was using the idea of a park as a pretext to expel Palestinians from their homes

"This is a political decision. It has nothing to do with just building a biblical park. They want us out of Silwan and Jerusalem for political reasons," he told the German news agency DPA.

Also on Tuesday, the United Nations warned Israel that demolishing Palestinian houses would undermine efforts to renew peace negotiations.

"We have seen the media reports of possible plans related to Al-Bustan in East Jerusalem. If this turn out to be true, its a matter of serious concern," UN spokesman Richard Miron said in a statement.

"We are trying to reduce tensions at the current time, not exacerbate them. We are at an important moment when a great deal of effort is being invested to bring about resumed negotiations," he added.

"Whatever the intentions behind such a project, Israel needs to understand that demolishing Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem demolishes confidence not only among Palestinians but frankly also internationally," he also said.  Full story