Israel Hayom..
07 December '12..
Soon, we will mark 20 years to the day. Twenty is a nice, round number. It is also a sad anniversary. The subject of this joyous day, which doesn’t know whether to laugh or to cry, even has a Hebrew name: Mevaseret Adumim. It is also known internationally by its non-Hebrew moniker, E1 (the “E” standing for “East”).
E1, the much-talked-about construction plan which is designed to create a territorial linkage between Maaleh Adumim and Jerusalem, supposedly epitomizes an issue that enjoys wall-to-wall backing among the Israeli public. On the one hand, we have the capital, Jerusalem. On the other hand, we have the Jerusalem metropolitan area that encompasses Maaleh Adumim. The plan to connect the two, however, has touched off a “world war.”
The latest round of diplomatic skirmishes began at the United Nations, which recently granted the Palestinian Authority the status of nonmember observer state. In response, the Israeli government announced that it would proceed with the planning phase of its E1 construction initiative. In response to the crime, there’s punishment. Now the Americans are angry — again. Britain and France are threatening to recall their ambassadors for consultations. It seems that E1 will have to wait a few more years. It has long become accustomed to waiting.
“Promises, promises,” sighed long-time Maaleh Adumim Mayor Benny Kashriel, who for years has endured unfulfilled pledges from politicians. He wants to believe that this time will be different, but he has a long memory. In fact, we all do. We flipped through the history books, all the way back to 20 years ago in an effort to understand exactly what it is about E1 that riles up the international community? Why has a building proposal that has won the backing of nearly the entire Israeli political community remained on paper? It seems that everyone championed it. Everyone hailed it. Everyone supported it. But nobody built it.
In the early 1990s, then-prime minister Yitzhak Shamir and his defense minister, Moshe Arens, laid the foundations for the plan when they signed off on a 12,000-dunam north-westward expansion of the Maaleh Adumim municipal boundaries. That was a different era. Washington was less fussy in their dealings with us.
In 1994, then-premier Yitzhak Rabin ordered his housing minister, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, to produce a plan for a neighborhood that was slated to be built in the area. Rabin, however, did not have the opportunity to see the plan through. He was assassinated. The first Netanyahu government which succeeded Rabin’s administration did complete the initial drawings and the overall master plan for E1. When Ehud Barak replaced Netanyahu as prime minister, the Housing Ministry began to draw up detailed plans which filled in the blanks of the overall master plan. In 2004, these preparations were finally completed. Since then, the plans have grounded to a halt.
After he was elected prime minister, Ariel Sharon remarked that he “envisioned a big future for Maaleh Adumim.” When he flew to Washington, however, Sharon gave then-president George W. Bush a promise to halt construction plans for E1. Then came Ehud Olmert, the same man who once said that he saw a future “in which the entire area leading from Maaleh Adumim to Jerusalem would be one, huge, contiguous urban bloc.” Although Olmert did approve the building of the Judea and Samaria police building in the heart of E1, which included the paving of a highway leading to the building as well as connecting the area to the water and electric grid, he, also, promised Bush and President Barack Obama that he would continue the freeze on construction there until a comprehensive agreement was struck with the Palestinians.
A tale of two cities
The Judea and Samaria police headquarters is a 5,400-square-meter slab of concrete and stone. It stands out in all its glory on a clear day by virtue of it being the lone edifice that sits in the heart of the virtual neighborhood known as E1. It might be the only police building in the entire country that enjoys the benefits of infrastructure (roads, water, and electricity) that is sufficient to serve an entire neighborhood. On the other hand, however, sewage facilities remain on paper. Every few weeks, a giant truck drives by to haul off all of the waste that accumulates inside a large pit used by the police officers.
Now, Netanyahu is the prime minister. He inherited a set of circumstances left behind by Sharon and Olmert that have effectively “handcuffed” him. When he was in the opposition, he eloquently explained why E1 was so vital and important.
“We want to create greater Jerusalem’s territorial contiguity from west to east,” he said at the time. “The Palestinians want to create their own territorial contiguity by building from north to south. Somebody will gain the upper hand over the other. They will not concede.”
“They want to choke off Jerusalem from one side and sever it from Maaleh Adumim on the other,” Netanyahu said. “We must prevail over them and build E1.” When he was elected prime minister, however, Netanyahu struggled to cope with the veto that the Americans had imposed on the plan. Has the premier now come to the conclusion that he is indeed ready for a fight? Only time will tell.
For seven years, E1, the construction plan that would physically link Jerusalem with Maaleh Adumim, has waited for the top planning committee responsible for Judea and Samaria to begin the final approval phase. That green light, however, never came. The political leadership has made sure of this. Now, the situation is supposedly different. On Wednesday, the plan was submitted to the planning board. Does that mean we can expect the neighborhood to be built tomorrow morning? No way.
Kashriel estimates that the final approval phase could drag on for at least a year. Afterward, the next defense minister will need to give final authorization, which would be contingent on approval from the next prime minister as well. Then the Housing Ministry will have to prepare the tenders to determine which contractor wins the right to market the properties. This process also requires approval from the political leadership.
The footprint of E1 stretches across 12,000 dunams, most of which is state lands that extend northwestward from the Jerusalem-Maaleh Adumim highway. The planners of E1 sought to create an access point that would connect Maaleh Adumim with Mt. Scopus, the ridge that sits within Jerusalem city limits.
There was a time when the plan garnered universal support among the Zionist parties that always viewed Jerusalem and its adjacent Jewish communities as one, large metropolitan unit. The Netanyahu government continues to adhere to this vision, at least officially.
The urban contiguity that Israel once tried to create is now a source of concern for the Palestinians. If E1 does go forward, it would boost Jewish settlement from the west to the east, creating an entity that stretches from the Arab neighborhood of Musrara near the Old City’s Damascus Gate, through the Jewish residences of the Muslim Quarter, to the national parks, and all the way to the Jewish points of settlement in the Mount of Olives region.
This predominantly Jewish bloc would include Mt. Scopus, which has already been “occupied” and secured as the site of a large university campus and Hadassah Hospital in addition to the Defense Ministry buildings nearby. There is also a national park that connects Jerusalem proper with Maaleh Adumim and the industrial zone that serves both entities. Finally, there is the access road that leads to the residential neighborhood slated to be built in E1.
In the center of the E1 plan sit 3,500 residential units, a commercial center, and a row of hotels. The residential area, which is at the core of the latest controversy, is actually the easy part of the plan. It is an area that stretches northward from Maaleh Adumim and which, today, is totally cut off from the capital.
In stark contrast, the large shopping center and office complex, which is currently slated to stretch across 1,000 square meters, is likely to straddle the seam line along the point at which the two cities meet. It is this scenario that has the world up in arms. This commercial complex is supposed to provide jobs for Israelis and Palestinians alike, just as the Barkan shopping mall in the Samaria settlement is a key source of employment for all the locals in the area.
The most absurd aspect of this whole saga is that the permits for the commercial complex have already been issued. The plans have been approved. Ground could be broken tomorrow morning, except that the whole endeavor has been put on hold due to budgetary and financial disagreements between the Jerusalem and Maaleh Adumim municipalities. This is good news for the “righteous ones” from America, whose handiwork is being carried out by others.
Now that a diplomatic window of opportunity has presented itself, the Jerusalem municipality vows “to move ahead jointly with Maaleh Adumim and government officials to realize the great potential inherent in the development and construction of the territory between Maaleh Adumim and Jerusalem.”
The Palestinians are worried that a contiguous area of Israeli construction between Jerusalem and Maaleh Adumim will create an impenetrable buffer between Palestinian areas of settlement in Judea and Palestinian towns in the Binyamin and Samaria districts, which would supposedly ruin any chances of establishing a contiguous Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria.
For its part, Israel is fearful that if the Palestinians were to gain control of E1, or if Palestinian construction in the area proliferates, then they would be able to realize their years-long aspiration of creating a contiguous area of Palestinian settlement that would constitute their own “Jerusalem envelope” encompassing the Ramallah-area villages of A-Ram, Hizma, and Anata in the north, all the way to Azariya, Abu Dis, and the Bethlehem outskirts toward the south.
This would mean one thing: cutting off Jerusalem from Maaleh Adumim. Such a scenario would create Palestinian contiguity that would enable the establishment of a state in nearly all of Judea and Samaria — from Judea in the south, to Binyamin in the center, to Samaria in the north. Construction in E1 would spell the difference between Jewish contiguity from west to east and Palestinian contiguity from north to south.
Circumstances on the ground are not waiting for the statesmen and the diplomats. The substantial amount of time that has elapsed from the time the first stages of E1 were approved has already led to a trimming down of the original plan. Bedouin tribes passing to and fro and illegal Palestinian construction have swallowed up patches of land that were originally slated for construction. It has also narrowed the corridor between Maaleh Adumim and Jerusalem, the same corridor through which the main artery connecting the capital with Maaleh Adumim and the Jordan Valley runs.
The corridor was once a two-kilometer wide zone, but Palestinian encroachment, particularly from the village of A-Zaim, has reduced it to one kilometer. In recent years, 400 structures, some temporary and others permanent, have been built there illegally. Instead of abutting one another, they were built in scattered areas that stretch across a wide swath of territory. It is estimated that 100 of them were built in E1.
The most attractive areas are those adjacent to Highway 1, the road connecting Jerusalem to Maaleh Adumim. Outside of E1, the Palestinians in Areas A and B easily travel to points in Area C. The “magnet” is a huge water spring known as "kav mekorot." There have been countless numbers of illegal water pumping reported in this area.
Whoever travels along Highway 1 immediately recognizes the situation on the ground. There are a number of pickup points used by students and residents. Tractors travel along the road at a snail’s pace. Herds of goats are often seen crossing the highway. The state and the highway authorities moved heaven and earth and invested millions to build a safe highway that meets the highest international standards. Soon, this safe highway will turn into one large village.
Left-wing organizations are assisting the new “Palestinian settlement” movement, and the Civil Administration is having a difficult time coping. The High Court is helping somewhat, though at its own pace. Sometimes, however, it is of little use. There are instances of dialogue, while sometimes there are evictions by force. Eventually, though, the evictees return.
Here’s another absurdity to consider: In October 2007, the Israeli government expropriated 1,100 dunams of land from four Palestinian villages to build an access road that was given the moniker “the Palestinian quality of life road.” Most of the territory was state property. The road was designed to provide for a freer flow of Palestinian traffic between the Ramallah area and Bethlehem. The northern sector of the highway, which runs from Hizma and bypasses Anata from the east, and continues southward toward the A-Zaim checkpoint, has already been paved. Israel invested about NIS 300 million in building the highway. The roadway passes through a tunnel that was dug underneath the Jerusalem-Maaleh Adumim highway.
The Palestinians could theoretically benefit from roadway contiguity without encroaching on the linkage between Maaleh Adumim and Jerusalem, but the paving of the final phase of the roadway has been delayed for a few years now. Officially, the explanation for the delay is a budgetary disagreement. In reality, however, the Palestinians are concerned that the highway, which appears to pull the rug out from under the claims of “bisecting the West Bank” and “precluding territorial contiguity of a Palestinian state,” would expedite construction of E1.
The final stage of the highway’s construction which has yet to be completed is supposed to turn toward the southeast and bypass Al-Azariya from the north and northeast until it reaches the Al-Azariya checkpoint. The Palestinians and leftist movements in Israel have proposed that E1 be ceded to the Palestinians so that they could build residential neighborhoods while Israel assumes responsibility for connecting Maaleh Adumim to Jerusalem by constructing an underground tunnel. Israel prefers that the Palestinians make use of a tunnel.
Meanwhile, Maaleh Adumim has had to cope with a severe shortage of housing that has been exacerbated in recent years. Natural growth figures and demand for housing mean that the minimum number of new housing units needed to keep pace is 700 per year. In practice, however, just 100 housing units are built in Maaleh Adumim on an annual basis. That means there is a near total freeze on construction.
Once, Maaleh Adumim was the largest Jewish city in Judea and Samaria. Today, that title belongs to the predominantly haredi town of Beitar Illit (with its population of 45,000) and Modi’in Illit (population 55,000). There’s more construction in these areas.
Unofficially, the Americans have made it clear that they have reconciled themselves to the fact that Maaleh Adumim is here to stay. E1, however, which is not a natural part of Maaleh Adumim, is perceived in Washington as one of the more serious obstacles to a future arrangement with the Palestinians, according to one official.
The Americans say that in both formal negotiations and informal talks like those detailed in the Geneva Initiative, the Palestinians have also reached understandings with Israel whereby Maaleh Adumim remains intact under any future agreement and the roadway connecting it to Jerusalem via the tunnel underneath Mt. Scopus stays under Israeli control.
Israeli officials, however, are unfazed. “Implementing construction plans in E1, even if it takes more time, is a key Zionist and national security interest,” said a government source. “Maaleh Adumim and E1 are part of the security belt of Jewish towns that surround Jerusalem.”
“The Palestinians have for years been trying to cut Maaleh Adumim off from Jerusalem, just as they cut Jerusalem off from Mt. Scopus for 19 years,” said the official. “Israel will not stand aside with its arms folded and watch this happen.”
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=6661
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