Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat is being forced to execute orders to seal and demolish a controversial settler structure in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan. The building, called Beit Yehonatan, is a seven-story Jewish-owned structure in a predominately Arab neighborhood that was built without the proper permits.
State Prosecutor Moshe Lador is enforcing the demolition order, despite an alternative plan about the building and other structures in the neighborhood that Barkat worked on with the city of Jerusalem, and the Jerusalem City Council. They say their plan would settle the building dispute more amicably.
The alternative plan would have involved possibly adding stories to existing structures, which would add 1,000 housing units. It also proposed regularizing hundreds of existing structures without permits—a move aimed at reducing most of the friction surrounding permit issues.
Barkat, who strongly opposes enforcing demolition orders under current circumstances, said in a letter to State Prosecutor Lador Wednesday that he will also carry out all pending orders to seal and demolish 200 Arab-owned structures in Silwan. The Arab-owned buildings set for demolition are said to have also been illegally constructed in Silwan and in an area called the King’s Valley.
Barkat’s letter is sharply critical of the push to evacuate, seal, and demolish the buildings without considering the city’s alternative plan, which includes approval of two extra stories on certain buildings in central Silwan. The move could save at least 480 structures.
“I am trying in every way possible to warn you that the enforcement policy in the city of Jerusalem and everything having to do with Beit Yonatan has failed miserably, been selective, and lacking any real justification,” said Mayor Barkat in his letter. “The rationalizations presented by the enforcement system do not stand the test of facts, neither when taken one by one nor as a cumulative whole.”
State Prosecutor Moshe Lador is enforcing the demolition order, despite an alternative plan about the building and other structures in the neighborhood that Barkat worked on with the city of Jerusalem, and the Jerusalem City Council. They say their plan would settle the building dispute more amicably.
The alternative plan would have involved possibly adding stories to existing structures, which would add 1,000 housing units. It also proposed regularizing hundreds of existing structures without permits—a move aimed at reducing most of the friction surrounding permit issues.
Barkat, who strongly opposes enforcing demolition orders under current circumstances, said in a letter to State Prosecutor Lador Wednesday that he will also carry out all pending orders to seal and demolish 200 Arab-owned structures in Silwan. The Arab-owned buildings set for demolition are said to have also been illegally constructed in Silwan and in an area called the King’s Valley.
Barkat’s letter is sharply critical of the push to evacuate, seal, and demolish the buildings without considering the city’s alternative plan, which includes approval of two extra stories on certain buildings in central Silwan. The move could save at least 480 structures.
“I am trying in every way possible to warn you that the enforcement policy in the city of Jerusalem and everything having to do with Beit Yonatan has failed miserably, been selective, and lacking any real justification,” said Mayor Barkat in his letter. “The rationalizations presented by the enforcement system do not stand the test of facts, neither when taken one by one nor as a cumulative whole.”
