Running out of stall tactics, it appears Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat is going to move ahead in compliance with legal officials and he will seal Beit Yehonatan in the Shiloach area of the capital as well as implementing demolition orders against dozen of illegally-built Arab structures in the eastern capital. According to City Hall, there are over 650 illegal Arab buildings in the Shiloach area of the city alone and since the 1967 Six Day War; over 20,000 illegal structures have been built in predominately Arab areas of the capital. In the overwhelming number of cases, City Hall continues to turn a blind eye to avoid sparking race riots or appearing anti-Arab. The Arab sector continues shouting discrimination, explaining the staggering number is the result of discriminatory practices, not granting building permits to the Arab sector.

Mayor Barkat however is angry, standing alone with his Gan HaMelech project for the Shiloach area, hoping to construct an upscale Arab housing complex to include 100 units. The opposition to the project stems from his own legal advisor, Yossi Chavilov; State Prosecutor Moshe Lador and Minister of Justice Prof. Yaakov Ne’eman. Chavilov, who seems to maintain autonomy in his municipal decision-making process insists the area slated by the mayor is not zoned for housing. The three legal officials refuse to meet with the mayor to discuss the matter of the J. Post reports on Sunday.

The project is part of Barkat’s master vision, and it would include tourism attractions and businesses, as well as green areas, hoping to create new realities in the eastern areas of the capital and make up for years of municipal neglect.

The mayor believes that much must be done to change current realities in the eastern capital, and he also plans to retroactively legalize structures up to four stories to eliminate the staggering list of illegal buildings, but it appears Chavilov has an agenda that sharply contradicts the mayor, enjoying the support of Lador as well.  The mayor views the Gan HaMelech project as vital, aware the area selected has been all but vacant since the Six Day War.

It appears that Chavilov and Lador are more interested in stopping Beit Yehonatan, pressuring the mayor to implement High Court of Justice rulings to seal the seven-story Jewish structure, which lacks the necessary permits – willing place the planned health clinics and shopping centers for the Arab sector on hold. Minister of the Interior (Shas) R’ Eli Yishai is working to retroactively legalize Beit Yehonatan, but he too is encountering legal snarls.

Some surmise that Ne’eman, a right-wing shomer shabbat Jew, is opposed to permitting the mayor to advance his master plan for the Arab sector in the eastern capital, leaving the mayor alone with his Gan HaMelech vision.

Barkat aides explain the administration is seeking to make order in the eastern capital following years of neglect, to find a solution to the illegal construction using creative legal thinking, but the area is a political hotbed with the PA (Palestinian Authority) planning to have Shiloach and other areas for the capital of a future state, supported by the international community, not to mention much of the Israeli political community.

The mayor’s threat to actualize demolition orders is being used as a last-ditch weapon to enlist support for his vision, realizing if he begins to bring down illegal Arab structures it will result in an outcry among the Israeli left-wing and in all likelihood, the international community. The White House and US State Department have repeatedly called on Israel to halt “provocative acts in East Jerusalem”.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)