BUILDING IN JERUSALEM – BACKGROUND

BUILDING IN JERUSALEM – BACKGROUND

February 24, 1997

HAR HOMA

1. The planned neighborhood to be built in Har Homa is located
   in an unpopulated area near Kibbutz Ramat Rahel, within the municipal
   boundaries of the city of Jerusalem.
2. Jerusalem is a vibrant, growing city. The purpose of the Har
   Homa project is to alleviate the housing shortage of both the Jewish
   and Arab residents of Jerusalem. As such, it constitutes part of the
   overall municipal plan to construct 20,000 new housing units for the
   Jewish sector and 8,500 for the Arab sector – a ratio comparable to
   that of the Jewish and Arab populations in the city.In this regard, Prime Minister Netanyahu has recently said (Feb.
   20):
   “We will build in Jerusalem, without conditions, without
   restrictions. We will build throughout the city… We are as
   committed to the Arab residents of Jerusalem as we are to providing
   for the Jewish residents. They, too, need housing, and we will build,
   adapting the building plans to the needs of both populations.”
3. The Har Homa project necessitated the appropriation of 1,400
   dunams from Jewish landowners and 450 dunams from Arab landowners.
   The High Court of Justice upheld the government’s right to
   appropriate this land in order to meet the housing needs of the
   public at large.

ROADS

4. The Ministerial Committee on Jerusalem Affairs decided
   (February 18, 1997) to advance the construction of several roads, as part
   of the development of the infrastructure of Jerusalem, in order to
   reduce traffic congestion in the city and to improve access routes
   both to and within the city.
5. The development of such an infrastructure is necessary to
   serve the growing needs of a Jerusalem as a major city, whose current
   population of 500,000 is expected to increase to 800,000 within the
   next few years. The resulting improvement in transport will enhance
   both the quality of life of Jerusalem’s residents and access from the
   periphery to the city center.
6. The approved roads in the Jerusalem area are:
   1. A new road linking Jerusalem with the coastal plain, which
      will serve as an alternative to the existing, already congested
      road.
   2. An eastern ring road linking the Arab population centers to
      the north (Ramallah and Nablus) and south (Bethlehem and Hebron) of
      Jerusalem. This road will enable those traveling between these
      centers to bypass the crowded Jerusalem city center, as is customary
      in metropolises throughout the world.

   LEGAL ASPECTS

7. There is no basis to the Palestinian claims that the
   planning construction constitutes a violation of the agreements
   between Israel and the Palestinians. These agreements do not place
   any restrictions on Israeli building in areas under Israeli
   control.
8. Both the Declaration of Principles (1993) and the Interim
   Agreement (1995) state that the issue of Jerusalem will be discussed
   in the framework of the permanent status negotiations, and that the
   Palestinian side has no authority in Jerusalem during the interim
   period. Under these agreements, the Palestinians have no standing to
   demand that Israel coordinate building in Jerusalem with them.
   For further elaboration see: Har Homa – Legal Aspects.