Construction has begun on new Jewish housing near Arab al-Suahara with permission from Jerusalem city hall, which is one of the owners of the property.The area covers 3.5 dunams and the contractor, Bemuna, plans to build three 7-8 story buildings, comprising 62-66 apartments. Construction began two months ago.
Attorney Dani Seidemann, the legal counsel for Ir Amim, a non-profit organization that works toward coexistence in Jerusalem, insists that the plot on which the new construction is taking place is part of the urban continuity of the Arab neighborhood.
Seidemann says that the area was never included in the area on which Talpiot East was built and that it had never been planned to be part of a Jewish neighborhood.
In a letter to Barkat, Seidemann asks to know how the municipality, which supports Jewish construction in the heart of Arab neighborhoods, intends to promote the construction of Palestinian housing in the middle of Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem.
He pointed to an interview Barkat gave last August in which he said that he understands the concerns of the Jewish residents on French Hill because Palestinians were purchasing apartments there, and considers it legitimate for them to preserve a homogenous, ethnic make up of the neighborhood.
Seidemann asked how the municipality can encourage, on the one hand, Jewish construction in Palestinian neighborhoods, and on the other support Jewish residents seeking to keep Arabs from moving into their neighborhoods.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1081386.html
In other news
Native Israelis, at least half of them second generation, constitute 70 percent of the country's population, a sharp increase from 1948, in which native Israelis constituted 35 percent of the country's population.
While in 1948 Tel Aviv, with a population of 248,000, was Israel's sole city, in modern day Israel there are 14 cities, each with over 100,000 residents, five of them - Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Rishon Letzion and Ashdod - with a population of over 200,000
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1081532.html
In still other news:
I hear that Clinton was shocked by what she saw on her visit last month to the West Bank. This is not surprising. The transition from Israel’s first-world hustle-bustle to the donkeys, carts and idle people beyond the separation wall is brutal. If Clinton cares about one thing, it’s human suffering.
In fact, you don’t so much drive into the Palestinian territories these days as sink into them. Everything, except the Jewish settlers’ cars on fenced settlers-only highways, slows down. The buzz of business gives way to the clunking of hammers.
The whole desolate West Bank scene is punctuated with garrison-like settlements on hilltops. If you’re looking for a primer on colonialism, this is not a bad place to start.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/opinion/27iht-edcohen.html?_r=1
Thoughts?
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