OVERVIEW OF EAST JERUSALEM HOME DEMOLITIONS

C O N F I D E N T I A L JERUSALEM 002020

SIPDIS

NEA FOR FRONT OFFICE AND IPA; NSC FOR SHAPIRO/KUMAR

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/05/2019
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KPAL KWBG IS
SUBJECT: OVERVIEW OF EAST JERUSALEM HOME DEMOLITIONS

REF: A. JERUSALEM 1977

B. JERUSALEM 1790

Classified By: Consul General Daniel Rubinstein, per reasons 1.4 (b) an
d (d)


1. (C) Summary. With many more homes built illegally each
year than are demolished, an estimated 20,000 buildings in
East Jerusalem -- one-third of the total -- are illegal.
Permits for new construction are limited by municipal
planning (since the 1970s explicitly aimed to preserve a
Jewish majority within the city),making it impossible for
many Arab residents of East Jerusalem to build legally. The
Jerusalem municipality plans to demolish 41 homes in East
Jerusalem before the end of 2009, although both the Mayor and
the Israeli government can suspend demolitions. Existing
legal mechanisms could be used to prevent home demolitions
and enable legal construction, if sufficient funds were
available to hire lawyers and planners. End Summary.

Forty-One Demolitions Before Year's End?
--------------


2. (C) The week of November 2, Jerusalem City Council and
OCHA sources separately provided Post with copies of an
internal Jerusalem municipality document listing 41 homes in
East Jerusalem scheduled for demolition before the end of

2009. The document also lists 16 properties designated for
demolition in West Jerusalem. The properties include eight
buildings in Silwan and six in the Muslim Quarter of the Old
City, as well as two properties in Abu Tor that were
demolished on November 2 (Ref A). A full list is provided in
paragraph 17.

Two Routes to Demolition
--------------


3. (C) In separate conversations with PolOff, Jerusalem
municipality and NGO sources explained the process through
which demolitions occur. According to municipality legal
advisor Yossi Havilyo, there are two legal routes for
demolition. Properties that are still under construction or
have been occupied for fewer than 30 days are subject to
"administrative demolition," which requires a court-issued
injunction, plus concurrence of the legal advisor and Mayor.
This is the quickest route to demolition because it does not
require a court trial. Administrative demolition orders are
issued by the municipality's Department of Building
Monitoring, which regularly surveys new building in the city.


4. (C) The second type of demolition is "judicial
demolition," which is applied to completed structures that
have been occupied for more than 30 days. This type of
demolition requires an indictment followed by a court trial.
Havilyo said that this route requires only the consent of the
municipality's legal advisor, although he acknowledged that
the Mayor has informal influence over the indictment process.



5. (C) Note: On October 7, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat told
the CG that the municipality plans to demolish 19 homes in
the Al Bustan neighborhood, and upgrade more than 60 others
to make way for several high-end residencies, commercial
properties, and a community center, as reported in Ref B.
The municipality plans to use the judicial demolition process
for these demolitions, as most homes in Al Bustan were built
during the Second Intifada, when municipal inspectors were
unable to access the properties for security reasons. End
Note.

Who Can Stop a Demolition?
--------------


6. (C) The Municipality has the ability to suspend both
administrative and judicial demolitions, our contacts said.
Havilyo noted that each year, the municipality and the
Israeli National Police agree to suspend demolitions during
Ramadan and the Jewish high holidays. Stephan Miller, aide
to Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, confirmed that for security
reasons, the municipality attempted to avoid inflaming
tensions during this period of increased sensitivity.
Regarding national-level (GOI) influence into the demolition
process, Margalit said, "Can the Prime Minister make it stop?
Of course. Can the Minister of Interior? Of course. The
Minister of Internal Security? With one phone call."


7. (C) Our contacts did not, however, agree on which entity
sets the timing of individual demolitions. According to
mayoral aide Miller, "the timing of demolitions is decided by
the police and the courts, not the municipality." However,
Jerusalem-based lawyer Danny Seidemann told Post the
municipality does set the timing in practice, as it is
responsible for hiring the private contractors who physically
conduct the demolition, as well as sending police to secure
the site.

How Properties Are Selected
--------------


8. (C) Jerusalem Council Member Meir Margalit estimated that
each year, 1,000 homes are built illegally in East Jerusalem,
and that overall, as many as 20,000 buildings in East
Jerusalem -- one-third of the total -- are illegal. However,
the city's annual budget for demolitions (roughly USD 1
million) allows for only 100 demolitions. As a result,
demolitions are prioritized -- a process in which, Margalit
said, the Mayor is personally involved. Margalit claimed
that priority is given to homes close to Israeli
neighborhoods or access roads, in areas of designated Israeli
development, or near the security barrier. Separately,
Seidemann said that the municipality also targets previously
demolished properties rebuilt by NGOs like the Israeli
Committee Against House Demolitions.

Importance of the Holy Basin
--------------


9. (C) Margalit said that the current mayor has given
particular attention to demolition of properties in the Holy
Basin (the valley south of the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif,
surrounded by the Mount of Olives and Mount Zion, in which a
number of holy sites and rich archaeological remains are
located). "The Mayor knows sooner or later Jabal Mukaber (a
Palestinian neighborhood in southeast Jerusalem) will be
returned to the Palestinians," Margalit said, "and he is
willing to give back the periphery back, for demographic
reasons -- if it means he can hold the Holy Basin."

Overall Strategy
--------------


10. (C) Margalit said that the overall strategy informing
the prioritizing of East Jerusalem home demolitions was
driven by the Israeli need to maintain a favorable
demographic balance in the city. He argued that the policy
of maintaining a 70-30 Jewish-Muslim population ratio in
Jerusalem, as set out by the GOI-empaneled Gafni Commission
more than a quarter-century ago, remains effectively in
force, although the new "master plan" for East Jerusalem
development developed by the current Mayor (Ref A) proposed a
60-40 demographic target in recognition of the impact of
disproportionately-high Palestinian growth.

Limitations on Legal Building
--------------


11. (C) Margalit argued that home demolitions in East
Jerusalem were, in effect, the enforcement arm of a permit
regime designed to limit legal Palestinian construction
inside the municipal borders. Asked what factors under the
municipality's control limited the ability of Palestinian
residents to obtain legal building permits, he noted that 25
percent of East Jerusalem is still, "forty-two years after
the occupation," not covered by a municipal "master plan" --
a prerequisite for issuance of a permit.


12. (C) "They will never tell an Arab permit applicant that
his request was denied because he is an Arab," Margalit said.
"They just say they wish they could help, but that your
property is in a 'green area' (designated for open space),or
that there is no 'master plan' in your area." Margalit added
that a lack of municipal infrastructure in East Jerusalem
(properties not connected to infrastructure are not eligible
for permits) and the high cost of permits -- approximately
20,000 USD -- limited the ability of Arab residents to build
legally.

Ideology vs. Bureaucracy
--------------


13. (C) Margalit said that he believed a combination of
strategic and administrative factors played into most
demolitions. "There is an ideological element, and now we
have a Mayor who is trying to keep the support of the right
wing. But there is also a bureaucratic culture, which has
its own priorities, and which leads to inertia in the
apparatus. You can change the mayor, but you won't change
the situation until you change the functionaries."

AL-Wallaja: A Possible Way Ahead
--------------


14. (C) Margalit argued that with sufficient funding,
existing legal processes could be used to prevent home
demolitions by creating conditions which facilitated the
issuance of legal permits for the building of Palestinian
homes. He pointed to the recent efforts of the NGO "People
of al-Wallaja," which presented a development plan for the
village (located south of Jerusalem, straddling the
municipal-West Bank border) to municipal authorities, leading
an Israeli court to order a halt to demolitions inside the
area covered by the plan.


15. (C) According to Margalit, Israeli courts have the
option of freezing even previously-approved administrative or
judicial demolition orders if, as in the case of the
submittal of a new neighborhood "master plan," there is a
possibility an illegally-constructed building may be
retroactively legalized by the issuance of a permit.
Therefore, he said, the development and submission of new
"master plans" has the potential to prevent demolition of
existing properties, as well as enabling future legal
construction.


16. (C) Margalit noted, however, that development and
submission of a "master plan" was expensive and
time-consuming. "For al-Wallaja," he said, "the architect
was paid USD 100,000 and the lawyer USD 40,000. And it took
more than three years, for just one village. If you want to
do this (create the conditions for legal construction) in
every Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem, you can do
it legally through the system. But you will need a team of
lawyers and architects, and it will cost you more than USD 1
million." He also noted that funding for the al-Wallaja
effort had come from European donors.

Properties Slated for Demolition
--------------


17. (SBU) The properties listed on the document passed to
Post by Jerusalem City Council and OCHA sources and described
in para 2 are:

-- Three properties in Abu Tor (two of which were demolished
on November 2);

-- Five properties in Jabal Mukaber;

-- Six properties in Beit Hanina;

-- Four properties in Wadi Joz;

-- Four properties in Al Issawiyah;

-- One property in Sur Baher;

-- Four properties in Ras al-Amud;

-- Six properties in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City;

-- Eight properties in Silwan, including Beit Yonatan -- the
seven-story property occupied by setters and named after
convicted spy Jonathan Pollard -- and one property in Al
Bustan.
RUBINSTEIN