187,000 Jewish homes planned for 'east' Jerusalem
At a conference on Sunday at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center, the founder of the (non-governmental) Israel Land Fund Aryeh King described a plan for building 187,000 Jewish housing units on government-owned and Jewish privately owned land in 'east' Jerusalem.
“If Jerusalem doesn’t expand, and expand eastward, it will become the Gaza Strip,” King said.For those wondering why Jerusalem doesn't just expand westward and avoid the run-ins with the 'international community,' the simple answer is that we are prohibited from doing so because of the environmental impact (yes, really).
Using a blown-up map of the city and its surrounding areas, King showed the audience where hundreds of dunams of land outside the northern Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood could contain roughly 12,000 new housing units.
Around the southern Gilo neighborhood, King said, there is enough similar land to build 60,000 units, he said.
“There are 800 dunams [80 hectares] in E-1, owned by a wealthy, Jewish philanthropist, that could prove room enough for 100,000 housing units,” King said. “The potential is enormous.”
King’s vision faces a number of obstacles, among them the area’s large Palestinian population, who claim the territory for a future Palestinian state.
While King stressed that much of the land was “empty and unused” property, redrawing Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries to include such areas would drastically affect the city’s demographics, though he didn’t seem perturbed.
“I’m ready and willing to bring 200,000 [additional] Arabs into [a wider municipal boundary of] Jerusalem,” King told the audience. “As long as there are 800,000 Jews that come with them.”
Obviously, I would love to see this happen. Could we fill that many housing units? If they were affordable, yes.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:37 PM
3 Comments:
Obama went nuts with 1200 units. This will drive him over the edge!
The prospects of those homes being built eastwards anytime soon are slim to none. The PA would see it as a "provocation" and blow up the talks and besides the Obami are going to make sure Israel does not build there at all - at least while the "proximity talks" are on.
What could go wrong indeed
Yes!
Post a Comment
<< Home