Washington Post reporter Rebecca Tan on Tuesday joined a long list of anti-Israel voices who distort the history of eastern Jerusalem’s real estate, and systematically ignore a century of Jewish life and ownership there. “Fakhri Abu Diab led the effort to protect homes in eastern Jerusalem’s al-Bustan neighborhood from demolition,” Tan wrote, noting, “In November, Israel destroyed his house.”
Perfect story of a lone, freedom-loving Arab fighting Jewish oppressors in the third-holiest city in Islam, with the tragic headline, “After decades fighting demolitions, Palestinian sees own home wrecked.”
And now, the facts.
Al-Bustan comprises about 90 buildings, all of which were built illegally in the 1990s, well after the 1967 Six-Day-War, and all of which did not have a building permit. Before June 1967, there were only four buildings in the area, which is part of the Shiloah neighborhood that was settled in the 1920s by Yemenite Jews. Over the years, several Al-Bustan illegal structures were demolished by the Israel Police, but most were left alone.
According to Yehoshua Dorfman, Director General of the Israel Antiquities Authority, who testified before the State Audit Committee, the site had been designated by the British Mandatory government for excavation and preservation and not for construction as part of any plan. Standing as it does, south of the Old City of Jerusalem at the southern entrance of Kidron River, the area is considered a hidden treasure of ancient artifacts from centuries of Jewish rule.
“The retired accountant, with a head of white hair, was the neighborhood’s most prominent resident and de facto spokesman,” Tan reported in a universe without history and context. “For two decades, Abu Diab, 62, led the fight to protect local homes from demolition, drawing support from the United States, which condemned Israel’s destruction of part of his home earlier this year.
“So, when three dozen Israeli officials, including police escorts, showed up with heavy machinery and plowed through Abu Diab’s gate, the neighbors watched not only with shock but fear. A chilling message was sent across Palestinian communities in East Jerusalem, residents said: No one is safe.”
Tan concedes that the reason for the demolitions was that the buildings were constructed illegally in an area designated by the municipality as green space. She cites City spokesman Udi Shaham Maymon, who explained that the homes and other structures were cleared to facilitate “urban renewal plans” designed to “address the needs of the local population.”
The plan for Al-Bustan envisions a mixed-use development combining tourism and residential spaces. It includes archaeological sites, a park, hotels, and souvenir shops. Officials describe it as part of a broader strategy to enhance tourism infrastructure around the Old City, home to religious sites sacred to Christians, Muslims, and Jews.
But naturally, Tan knows better, as she points out: “But underlying the project, Israeli and Palestinian rights groups say, is Israel’s decades-long effort to secure a Jewish majority in the city and push Palestinian residents to leave — one that has accelerated over the past year, according to the United Nations, as Israel’s right-wing government ramped up the demolition of Palestinian homes across East Jerusalem.”
Oh, how she caught us red-handed. Almost eight decades after the Jordanian Legion drove all the Jews of eastern Jerusalem’s neighborhoods, after thousands of acres belonging to Jews were confiscated by Amman, and even Jewish tombstones were lifted from the ground to pave roads – we the Jews are conspiring to take it all back.
Tan cited Shaina Low, spokeswoman for the Norwegian Refugee Council, which provides legal services to Arab squatters who are facing displacement, who said, “We have an Israeli government that is operating with no guardrails.”
Amen, may it be His Will.
Tan cites lawyers and housing rights advocates who claim that since capturing eastern Jerusalem, Israeli authorities have used “a mix of laws, zoning regulations, court orders and other rules” to push Jewish construction on Jewish-owned land in eastern Jerusalem while restricting “development in Palestinian neighborhoods,” which means illegal construction.
Can you believe those Jews? How craftily they use “a mix of laws, zoning regulations, court orders, and other rules?” And how, with their audacious reliance on the law, they dare remove good Arab dwellers whose grandparents stole the land from the escaping Jews who were running for their lives!
As of 2010, the Jerusalem municipality has issued demolition orders for 43 out of the 90 illegal structures in Al-Bustan. So far, only about 15 demolitions have been carried out.
What are they waiting for?
