Encircling Wadi al-Joz neighborhood in Jerusalem for settlement projects | Politics

Occupied Jerusalem Wadi al-Joz neighborhood is located in the north of the city, covering an area of ​​500 dunums. Al-Aqsa MosqueIts population reaches Old Town from Jerusalem And its mosque across The Tribes' Gate Or usually on foot.

Because the location of this neighborhood is strategic and sensitive, it was not spared from being surrounded by colonies or projects. SettlementRather, the next step is to penetrate the heart of this neighborhood and transform it into scattered mosaic pieces within a Jewish area within a comprehensive security project called “encirclement, penetration, and dispersion.”

A few steps away from Wadi al-Joz, in the al-Suwaneh neighborhood, 17 families were notified a few days ago that their homes would be demolished in order to expand the “national park,” which the occupation authorities claim will be used to meet people’s needs for recreation in nature, but in reality it further suffocates Palestinian neighborhoods and limits their urban expansion.

National Park

Maps and settlement expert Khalil al-Tafakji spoke to Al Jazeera Net about the most prominent Judaization projects targeting the Wadi al-Joz neighborhood, including the “National Park,” which covers an area of ​​60 dunams, and eats away at the lands of the eastern part of the neighborhood, and extends toward the al-Sawana neighborhood and what is known as “Wadi Qadron,” reaching the town of Silwan, south of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Al-Tafkaji confirms that the dozens of dunams that this park swallows up are private properties of Jerusalemite families, including Al-Khatib, Al-Hidmi, Al-Khalidi, and others. They are notified of the extension of the order to confiscate their lands for the park once every 5 years.

Last June, the occupation municipality posted signs indicating its intention to “landscape” vast areas of Wadi al-Joz land, claiming that they had been empty since 1987. Thus, the Wadi al-Joz neighborhood has been tightly surrounded by a Judaization project from the eastern side.

Al-Tafkji summarized the “encirclement, penetration, and dispersion” project by saying that the encirclement is done by surrounding the Jerusalem towns with settlement streets and colonies, and separating them from each other so that they become completely isolated. Then the penetration policy begins, represented by settlement construction within the Arab towns, and moving to the dispersion stage by turning every town in East Jerusalem into a neighborhood within the Israeli settlements.

Settlement ring

While the “National Park” will surround the eastern side of Wadi al-Joz neighborhood, the Judaization project known as “Silicon Wadi” will surround and penetrate it from the western side, and from the northern side the neighborhood is surrounded by the Hebrew University and Hadassah Hospital in Issawiya, and the southern side that connects Wadi al-Joz to Al-Aqsa Mosque will be surrounded and penetrated by the “East Jerusalem City Center” project.

Therefore, the natural expansion and development of this neighborhood in all directions has become non-existent, according to map expert Khalil Al-Tafakji, who pointed to the tightening of the encirclement and penetration of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood adjacent to Wadi Al-Joz.

The area of ​​land on which the “Silicon Valley” project is supposed to be built is about 30 dunams (one dunam equals one thousand square meters), while the land that the municipality intends to include in the “East Jerusalem City Center” project will swallow up 5 dunams of the neighborhood’s land, and residential buildings are supposed to be built on it with commercial interests located below them, completely ignoring the current use of the place.

The occupation municipality promotes the “Silicon Valley” project through the Israeli media, and held several sessions years ago with landowners in the industrial zone, claiming that it is the largest high-tech project in Jerusalem, which will be built on an area of ​​200 thousand square meters, to create employment places – according to the occupation – in the field of high-tech for 10 thousand graduates and specialized academics from Jerusalemites.

Temptations

The municipality is also enticing landowners there with its plan to develop the street, which will contain wide walkways and yards that will be dedicated to artistic performances that will revive the nightlife in the place, and will generate money for small business owners in the area.

In order for these two projects to see the light, the occupation municipality in Jerusalem intends to evacuate and demolish about 180 facilities for Jerusalemites in the industrial zone in Wadi al-Joz, most of which are used as garages for vehicle maintenance.

According to Tafakji, the urban construction of the Jerusalemites in the Wadi al-Joz neighborhood began in 1959. The residents built their homes after obtaining the necessary permits. The first to live there were Jerusalemite merchants and teachers. The population currently ranges between 5 and 6 thousand people.

It is noteworthy that the Wadi al-Joz neighborhood witnessed violent confrontations over the course of weeks with the outbreak of the war on Gaza last October, and the occupation deployed its forces in large numbers in the neighborhood to suppress the Jerusalemites who were prevented from reaching the Al-Aqsa Mosque and insisted on performing their prayers on the asphalt at its entrance.