Nadene Goldfoot
Atarot 1944The Jerusalem municipality has frozen plans to build a new Jewish neighborhood on the site of the abandoned Atarot area, due to heavy US opposition. Foreign Minister Lapid said that the government will make the final decision as to whether the project should proceed.
ATAROT — On the northern edge of Jerusalem, just inside the security wall and overshadowed by apartment buildings in the Kafr Aqab neighborhood, the once rather grand Jerusalem Airport has been gradually fading into rubble since the last planes took off and landed twenty years ago. As revelatory research by the Jerusalem academic and tour guide Dr. Eldad Brin published earlier this year has established, the airport — set up as a military airfield by the British Mandate authorities in the 1920s, and also known as Atarot Airport and Qalandiya Airport — was a steadily growing hub of activity from 1949 to 1967, when Jordan was the occupying power.
Architects' plans for a new neighborhood at the site of the abandoned Atarot Airport. (Jerusalem Municipality)Panel delays East Jerusalem Atarot airport housing project that sparked US ire. Under this heavy pressure, Officials notified the White House that they won’t move forward with their plan to build 9,000 units on an abandoned plot at northern tip of the capital, across the pre-1967 Green Line. 9,000 residential units for ultra-Orthodox Jews (assuming, conservatively, an average family size of 6, this means housing for 54,000 people), as well as synagogues, ritual baths (mikvehs), commercial properties, offices and work spaces, a hotel, and a water reservoir. If built, the Atarot settlement will effectively be an Israeli city surrounded by Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhoods on three sides and Ramallah to its north. Geopolitically, it will have a similar impact to E-1 in terms of dismembering the West Bank and cutting it off from Jerusalem. For more on the Atarot settlement plan.
The Oslo II Accord divided the Israeli-occupied West Bank into three administrative divisions: Areas A, B and C (C being for Israelis) ... Area A comprises approximately 18% of the total territory of the West Bank and Area B about 22% of the territory, together home to some 2.8 million Palestinians.
As of 2015, Area C is home to 150,000 Palestinians in 532 residential areas. It is also home to 389,250 Israelis, in 135 settlements, as well as 100 outposts unrecognized by the Israeli government. Area C forms a contiguous territory, administered via the Judea and Samaria Area administration.
When they say, "housing," it always means apartment housing. There are very few actual houses for individual families in Israel. It's too tiny a space. The current population of Israel is 8,845,772 based on projections of the latest United Nations data. The UN estimates the July 1, 2021 population at 8,789,774. Jerusalem has 801,000 population. West Jerusalem has 400,000. That leaves East Jerusalem with 401,000.
Tel Aviv. Photo: Shutterstock
According to the administration, the population density in Israel’s three major cities stands at 8,565 people-per-km in Tel Aviv, 7,186 in Jerusalem, and 4,346 in Haifa. These numbers indicate a density significantly lower than in some of the most populous cities in Europe including Barcelona with 2,760 people-per-square-km, Paris with 981, and Athens with 2,142, according to a 2013 OECD report.
Israel is one of the most densely populated countries in developed world and had an estimated population of 8.7 in 2017, which ranks 101st in the world population. Calculating with these figures, the population density of Israel is 1022 people per square mile (395 people per square kilometer), which ranks 30th worldwide. According to The World Factbook, much of Israel's population is concentrated in and around Tel-Aviv, as well as around the Sea of Galilee with the city of Tiberias; while the southern area remains sparsely populated except for the shore of the Gulf of Aqaba. This would be the city of Eilat.
Following the 1967 Six-Day War, the airport and site of the former village were captured by Israel along with the rest of the West Bank. The area was annexed into the expanded Jerusalem Municipality, and an industrial park was developed alongside the airport, renamed for the former village.
During the Second Intifada, the park and airport suffered from Palestinian attacks due to their proximity to Ramallah, leading to the closure of the airport. On February 27, 2002, a young Jewish Israeli businessman, Gadi Rejwan, who owned a factory in Atarot, was shot to death by one of his Arab workers. The industrial area lies just south of Ramallah, within Jerusalem city limits. The Palestinian had worked at the factory for several years and had no record of labor disputes with Rejwan, part-owner of the Rejwan coffee factory. Early Wednesday morning he walked into the employer's office and shot him twice in the head at close range, then fled the scene. Two Fatah groups issued a joint statement taking responsibility for the murder.
Before the Intifada, the park housed over 200 companies including Coca-Cola, Mercedes-Benz, Israel Aircraft Industries, and many Arab-owned and joint enterprises. Some 4,000 people were employed prior to 2000; Arabs from Jerusalem and the West Bank comprising about two-thirds of the 4,000.
With the ebbing of violence, the Atarot Industrial Park saw renewed activity, and several new companies moved in, aided by the new Highway 45's linking the park to the nearby Route 443 expressway to the Tel Aviv metropolitan area and Highway 50 (Begin Boulevard) to central Jerusalem.
As of 2003, the park, which has surpassed Har Hotzvim to become the largest industrial park in Jerusalem, and houses 160 factories in a variety of industries. The industrial park is managed by a non profit organization, which successfully lobbied the Jerusalem Municipality for the right to handle security, previously carried out by private firms.
District Committee orders survey on environmental impact of new Haredi neighborhood near industrial zone, which could be lengthy process; Lapid promised non-controversial solution.
Where is the Temple Mount? This area includes Jerusalem's Old City and some of the holiest sites of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, such as the Temple Mount, the Western Wall, the al-Aqsa Mosque, the Dome of the Rock and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, as well as a number of adjacent neighbourhoods.
Tower of David in Jerusalem is an ancient citadel located near the Jaffa Gate entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem. The citadel that stands today dates to the Mamluk and Ottoman periods. It was built on the site of a series of earlier ancient fortifications of the Hasmonean, Herodian, Byzantine and Early Muslim periods, after being destroyed repeatedly during the last decades of Crusader presence in the Holy Land by their Muslim enemies. It contains important archaeological finds dating back over 2,500 years including a quarry dated to the First Temple period, and is a popular venue for benefit events, craft shows, concerts, and sound-and-light performances.
Surrounded by ancient walls, the Old City is home to holy sites such as the Western Wall, Dome of the Rock Islamic shrine, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which dates to the 4th century. Shops and markets selling prayer shawls, rosaries, and ceramics fill busy alleys, while food stalls serve falafel, pita, and fresh-squeezed juice. In a medieval citadel, the Tower of David museum chronicles the city’s history. Traditionally, the Old City has been divided into four uneven quarters, although the current designations were introduced only in the 19th century. Today, it is roughly divided (going counter-clockwise from the northeast) into the Muslim Quarter, the Christian Quarter, the Armenian Quarter, and the Jewish Quarter.
Israeli and Palestinian definitions of it differ about Jerusalem just as they do about many other things. The Palestinian official position is based on the 1949 Armistice Agreements, while the Israeli position is based mainly on the current municipality boundaries of Jerusalem. These were determined by a series of administrative enlargements decided by Israeli municipal authorities since the June 1967 Six-Day War. Despite its name, East Jerusalem includes neighborhoods to the north, east and south of the Old City and, in the wider definition of the term, even on all these sides of West Jerusalem. The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, to be illegal under international law. Israel disputes this interpretation. Today Jerusalem is all one city; belonging to Israel.
David Ben-Gurion presented his party's assertion that "Jewish Jerusalem is an organic, inseparable part of the State of Israel" in December 1949, and Jordan annexed East Jerusalem the following year. It was Great Britain that helped Arabs enter Palestine while they kept Jews out, knowing that they were given the mandate by the League of Nations to help Jews to create their Jewish Homeland, as the Balfour Doctrine showed. Britain was doing the very opposite. Ships were being turned away full of Jews escaping the Nazis by the British. No other country would allow them in because they were Jews. Jews died because of this.
As WWII ended, the magnitude of the Holocaust became known. This accelerated demands for a resolution to the question of Palestine, already home to Jews who never left during 70 CE's Roman attack and since the Jewish 1881-1903 aliyote from eastern Europe, and after WWII so the survivors of Hitler's "final Solution" might find sanctuary in their ancient homeland once again. It was most difficult for Jews to enter the USA. Ask my uncle's family. Those who returned to Germany or other cities in Europe were often killed for being Jews.
Arabs had 48 of Muslim majority countries they could move to. After all, the majority in Palestine were also recently moved there, who came when they saw Jews building and had hoped for jobs. Those who actually owned land had sold it to the Jewish newcomers at high high prices so that they could get out of the taxes and enjoy life in Beirut of Paris or Damascus. Islam had little pull for historic sites as only a few were of Abraham which both the Arabs and Jews revered.
Arabs had from 70 CE to 1917, a thousand years to live in Palestine and make something out of it and what the Jewish pioneers found was weeds, swamps, mosquitoes, and desert when they returned. The land had gone to he...in a handbasket. The Ottoman Empire had it for the past 400 years! Such extremely hot land wasn't worth 2 cents in any other country but they had paid thousands per acre because of their origin being here.
The reunification of Jerusalem refers to the June 1967 administrative merger of West Jerusalem and East Jerusalem by Israel, following the conquest of the Eastern half of the city (including the walled Old City) from Jordan during the Six Day War. In 1980, the merger of West and East Jerusalem was legalized in Israel by the Jerusalem Law, though this attempt to change the status of Jerusalem was rejected by the United Nations (UN) and most of the international community. In front of my apartment building in Safed on David Elezar Street, about 1982. We flew to Israel with our dog, Blintz, female German shepherd. She made friends easily. We broke down and bought a car, had to get a new one, the red Fiat from Italy. We got the bottom floor apartment with bars on the window as we are on the ground floor, and are terrorists that might try to break in. Here I am waiting for our lift to come to port with our things. This is really a twin bed I'm using for a sofa. We already spent 10 months in Haifa going to school-and passed the final Hebrew test, thank goodness. We're ready to teach English; me to the junior high across the street and Danny to the high school further away.
It was in 1980 that my husband and I moved to Israel. The UN has always accused Israel of anything and everything. I don't think they've ever said a thing nice about Israel. The Reunification is celebrated as an Israeli national holiday, Jerusalem Day; the 50th anniversary was commemorated with celebrations in 2017. Now unified Jerusalem is 54 years old going on 55.
The predicted Return of Jews to Israel has been happening. Our prophets foresaw this and said there would be no Messiah until it did happen. They have space to build more housing and have stopped for the sake of keeping the peace. Last time Israel did something drastic like that was to leave Gaza for the Palestinians, a move that also seemed wise at the time. That was done also in the name of peace. When is a peaceful move going to actually bring peace?
Updated: 12/9/21 at 5:45pm
Resource:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-backs-off-controversial-east-jerusalem-housing-project-amid-us-pressure/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atarot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_City_(Jerusalem)
https://www.land-of-the-bible.com/The_City_of_David
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-first-aliyah-1882-1903
https://mfa.gov.il/MFA/ForeignPolicy/Terrorism/Victims/Pages/Gad%20Rejwan.aspx#:~:text=Feb%2027%2C%202002%20%2D%20Gad%20Rejwan,Ramallah%2C%20within%20Jerusalem%20city%20limi
ts.
https://fmep.org/blog/resourcetag/atarot/
Myths and Facts by Mitchell G. Bard and Joel Himelfarb
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