Palestinians face the bulldozers to make way for 'Bible' park

Published on Tuesday 24 February 2009 21:48

ISRAEL is reviving a plan to demolish an entire Palestinian neighbourhood in east Jerusalem, posing the first major test of the international community's commitment to the idea of a viable Palestinian state since the right-wing's victory in Israel's parliamentary elections early this month.

The plan calls for bulldozing 88 houses, home to more than 1,000 Palestinians, to make way for a "biblically resonant" archeological park and tourist site that could be administered by Jewish settlers, who control the nearby City of David archeological site in the part of Jerusalem occupied and annexed by Israel in 1967.

"It is an area meant to be an archeological park, not a residential area," said Yakir Segev, in charge of East Jerusalem affairs for the Jerusalem municipality. "The houses there were built without permits. It is preferable that these people leave voluntarily, but if not the law will be applied."

It would be the largest home demolition operation in Jerusalem since 1967, and promises to help shape whether east Jerusalem eventually becomes the capital of a independent Palestinian state or whether it is permanently absorbed into Israel, the latter being the stated goal of right-wing Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been tapped to form the next Israeli government. A British official said last night. "We are very concerned about plans to change the character of a very sensitive area of the city."

The demolitions could be carried out in smaller installments rather than all at once. The plan targets the crowded al-Bustan neighbourhood, built mostly during the 1980s and 1990s as an extension of the sprawling Silwan area beneath the al-Aksa mosque, Islam's third holiest and the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest place. A few of the homes were built before 1967.

The City of David site in Silwan has served as the ideological and practical bridgehead for settlers bent on transforming east Jerusalem into a Jewish area. It is seen as the cradle of Jewish Jerusalem, and some archeologists claim to have found remains of the biblical king's palace from about 3,000 years ago.

Israel first revealed plans to destroy al-Bustan and replace it with the "King's Valley" archeological park four years ago but suspended the effort amid a tide of international opposition. The mayor at the time, Uri Lupolianski instead asked al-Bustan residents to draw up their own plan for the future of the neighbourhood.

That plan was rejected last week by a city committee and housing inspectors escorted by paramilitary border police entered the neighbourhood on Sunday, surveying houses and photographing its alleyways from rooftops, said residents, who are convinced this was to plan for demolitions. "Each house has a demolition order against it and there is an order against the entire neighbourhood," said Fakhri Abu Diab, a neighbourhood activist.