Quietly building barrier blocking Jewish neighborhood from capital city
Posted: May 04, 2009
9:47 pm Eastern
By Aaron Klein
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
Barrier under construction this week (WND photo)
JERUSALEM – The Israeli government quietly has begun constructing the country's security barrier along a controversial route that will effectively block off Jewish property and an important Jewish neighborhood from the rest of Jerusalem, WND has learned.
The scenario will likely be surprising to political observers here. During his candidacy, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke about the importance of maintaining and developing a Jerusalem region called E1, specifically the Jewish neighborhood of Maale Adumim in eastern Jerusalem. The Palestinians want that area as part of a state.
The new barrier route, however, will essentially isolate the so-called Palestinian side of Maale Adumim, as well cordon off local Jewish property.
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Since 2002, the security barrier has created a de facto border between Jerusalem and the West Bank. The new route now threads along an area called Anata, leaving eight acres of property owned by Jews on the Palestinian side. The previous governments of Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon delayed construction of the barrier in the area, largely because the route was being contested by local Jewish landowners, but also because it would disconnect Maale Adumim from greater Jerusalem. A Supreme Court case on the subject is pending.
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In spite of the ongoing court case, 10 days ago Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak personally visited the Jerusalem areas in question and unilaterally ordered the defense ministry to construct the barrier through Anatot, blocking off Jewish land and helping to isolate Maale Adumim, according to information obtained by WND.
Now, days later, the barrier's construction – which received no media attention – is almost complete.
Aryeh King, chairman of the Land of Israel Forum, which promotes Jewish construction in Jerusalem, told WND he is concerned Arabs will begin squatting on the Jewish-owned property now that it's been quarantined from Jewish sections of Jerusalem.
More dangerous, King argued, was blocking off Maale Adumim.
"After the barrier is finished, there won't be any other chance to connect the rest of Jerusalem with Maale Adumim," he said. "The vision will become a nightmare."
A spokesman for Netanyahu did not immediately respond to a query as to whether the prime minister was aware of Barak's actions.
But WND has learned key Knesset members have been informed of the barrier's construction. The Knesset members, including senior officials in Netantyahu's Likud party, will attempt to put the barrier's construction on the agenda for discussion by lawmakers tomorrow.
Israel has already forfeited Jerusalem
The barrier construction in the Anatot area is not an isolated incident. Sections of Jerusalem essentially have been forfeited on the ground to the Palestinian Authority, while Jews, including local landowners, are barred from entering parts of Israel's capital, a WND investigation recently has found. The probe further determined the U.S. has been aiding the Palestinians in developing infrastructure in Jerusalem.
Also, it has emerged that the Israeli government has failed to stop Arabs from illegally building thousands of housing projects on Jerusalem land purchased and owned by a U.S. Jewish group for the express purpose of Jewish settlement, culminating in an Arab majority in the neighborhoods.
The situation has been unfolding in the northern Jerusalem neighborhoods of Kfar Akeb, Qalandiya and Samir Amis, which are close to the Jewish neighborhoods of Neve Yaacov and Pisgat Zeev in Israel's capital. Kfar Akeb, Qalandiya and Samir Amis are located entirely within the Jerusalem municipality.
A tour of the three Jerusalem neighborhoods finds some surprising developments. Official PA logos and placards abound, including one glaring red street sign at the entrance to the neighborhoods warning Israelis to keep out.
Another official sign, this one in Kfar Akeb in Jerusalem, reads in English, "Ramallah-Jerusalem Road. This project is a gift form (sic) the American people to the Palestinian people in cooperation with the Palestinian Authority and PECDAR. 2007." The sign bears the emblems of the American and PA governments and of the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID. The displays were not present during a previous WND tour of the neighborhoods in 2006.
Some local schools in the Jerusalem neighborhoods are officially run by the PA – some in conjunction with the U.N. – with many teachers drawing PA salaries. Civil disputes are usually settled not in Israeli courts but by the PA judicial system, although at times Israeli courts are used, depending on the matter.
Councils governed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization oversee some municipal matters. USAID provides the PA funds for road and infrastructure projects.
Israeli security officials said the local Jerusalem police rarely operate in Kfar Akeb, Qalandiya and Samir Amis; instead security has been turned over to the Israel Defense Forces and Border Police, who work almost daily with PA security forces. The PA police operate in the Jerusalem neighborhoods in coordination with Israel.
Shmulik Ben Ruby, spokesman for the Jerusalem police, confirmed the arrangement.
"If there are fights between some local families, sometimes we involve the PA police to make peace between the families," he told WND. "Yes, the PA police can operate in these neighborhoods in coordination with the IDF and Border Police."
Jews barred from sections of Jerusalem
In another recent development, Israeli Jews, including local property owners, have been almost entirely barred from entering Kfar Akeb, Qalandiya and Samir Amis, while Israeli Arabs can freely enter.
Aryeh King, a nationalist activist who holds the power of attorney to some Kfar Akeb land owned by an Israeli Jew, told WND he was barred several times during the past few months from entering the neighborhood to administer to the land, upon which local Arabs illegally constructed apartments.
Police spokesman Ben Ruby explained the new arrangement is due to security concerns.
"It's quite dangerous to be there alone, so if they don't have to be there it's not allowed, because they might find themselves in danger if they go in," said Ben Ruby.
In 2002, in response to the outbreak one year earlier of the Palestinian intifada, or terrorist war against the Jewish state, the Israeli government constructed its security barrier blocking off the West Bank from Jewish population zones. The route of the fence also cut into northern and eastern Jerusalem, incorporating Kfar Akeb, Qalandiya and Samir Amis on the so-called Palestinian side.
Israel recaptured northern and eastern Jerusalem, including the Old City and the Temple Mount – Judaism's holiest site – during the 1967 Six-Day War. The Palestinians, however, have claimed eastern Jerusalem as a future capital. About 244,000 Arabs live in Jerusalem, mostly in eastern neighborhoods, out of a total population of 724,000, the majority Jewish.
Jews lived in Kfar Akeb, Qalandiya and Samir Amis years before the establishment of Israel in 1948, but they were violently expelled during deadly Arab riots in 1929.
Jordan, together with other Arab countries, attacked Israel after its founding in 1948 and administered the three Jerusalem neighborhoods as well as all of eastern Jerusalem following an armistice agreement. In 1967, Jordan attacked again and Israel liberated the entire city of Jerusalem in the Six-Day War. During the period of Jordanian control, some new construction took place, including in areas previously purchased by Jews.
The recent barring of Jews from northern Jerusalem sections apparently coincides with an Israeli government decision the past year to allow the PA some presence in Jerusalem.
Last June, WND exclusively reported then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert allowed the PA to hold an official meeting in Jerusalem to discuss dealing with expected Palestinian sovereignty over key sections of the city. Dmitri Ziliani, a spokesman for the Jerusalem section of PA President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, confirmed to WND the meeting was related to the activities and structure of Fatah's local command in some neighborhoods of Jerusalem.
"We were covering the best ways to improve our performance on the street and how we can be of service to the community," Ziliani said.
Ziliani said the regular PA meetings in Jerusalem are, in part, held in anticipation of a future Palestinian state encompassing all of eastern Jerusalem.
"Our political program as Fatah dictates there will be no Palestinian state if these areas – all of east Jerusalem – are not included," Ziliani told WND.
According to Israeli law, the PA cannot officially meet in Jerusalem. The PA previously maintained a de facto headquarters in Jerusalem, called Orient House, but the building was closed down by Israel in 2001 following a series of suicide bombings in Jerusalem. Israel said it had information indicating the House was used to plan and fund terrorism.
Thousands of documents and copies of bank certificates and checks captured by Israel from Orient House – including many documents obtained by WND – showed the offices were used to finance terrorism, including direct payments to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group
U.S. Jewish group to blame for 'division' of Jerusalem?
Key land in Qalandiya and Kfar Akeb is owned by a U.S. Jewish group that over the years has allowed tens of thousands of Arabs to illegally squat on its land, resulting in the current Arab majority.
The Jewish National Fund, or JNF, purchased the land in the early 1920s using Jewish donor funds for the specific purpose of Jewish settlement.
The JNF lands have been utilized for the illegal construction of dozens of Arab apartment buildings, a refugee camp and a U.N. school.
A previous tour of Qalandiya and Kfar Akeb found dozens of Arab apartment complexes, a Palestinian refugee camp and a U.N. school for Palestinians constructed on the land.
According to officials in Israel's Housing Ministry, Arabs first constructed facilities illegally in Qalandiya and Kfar Akeb between 1948 and 1967, prior to the 1967 Six-Day War during which Israel retook control of the entire city of Jerusalem.
Qalandiya, still owned by JNF, came under the management of the Israeli government's Land Authority in the late 1960s.
Ministry officials say the bulk of illegal Arab construction in Qalandiya occurred in the past 20 years, with construction of several new Arab apartment complexes taking place in just the past two years.
Neither the Israeli government nor JNF took any concrete measures to stop the illegal building, which continues today with at least one apartment complex in Qalandiya under construction.
Land in another Jerusalem' neighborhood, Shoafat, which has an estimated value of $3 million, was also purchased by JNF in the early 1900s and fell under the management of the Israel Land Authority about 40 years ago. Much of the illegal Arab construction in Shoafat took place in the past 15 years, with some apartment complexes built as late as 2004.
In Qalandiya and Shoafat, Israel's security fence cordons off the Arab sections of the JNF lands from the rest of Jewish Jerusalem.
Internal JNF documents obtained by WND outline illegal Arab construction on the Jewish-owned land. A December 2000 survey of Qalandiya summarized on JNF stationery and signed by a JNF worker, states, "In a lot of the plots I find Arabs are living and building illegally and also working the JNF land without permission."
The JNF survey goes on to document illegal construction of Arab apartment complexes and the U.N. school under the property management of Israel's Land Authority.
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