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Mayor Nir Barkat
Photo: Gil Yohanan

Barkat attempts to sort out irregular construction in east Jerusalem

Jerusalem's mayor says 13,000 homes to be created for Palestinians by 2030 while skepticism abounds

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat announced Tuesday that he would launch a comprehensive construction plan adding 13,550 legally built housing units to east Jerusalem by 2030.

 

The plan, composed by his predecessors Ehud Olmert and Uri Lupolianski as well as dozens of architects, solves many of the problems created by some 60,000 illegal units that have been constructed in the eastern capital.

 

However skepticism abounded as Barkat revealed the plan. Haim Erlich, Ir Amim Organization's coordinator for policy development, said the test was not in the planning but in the execution.

 

"It's hard to see how such a plan would be put into action," he said, citing the millions of dollars Barkat will need to provide housing for the growing Palestinian population in eastern Jerusalem.

 

Erlich says that today the Palestinian residents of Jerusalem constitute 33% of the city's population, a percentage expected to rise to 50% by 2030. "The number of residents who will need housing by then will vastly increase," he said.

 

The coordinating director also bemoaned the fact that less than 20% of the planned units were in the center in the eastern city, the rest spread out in the north and south, far from the center.

 

"This is a plan with Israeli aims. It's not a plan that truly and realistically takes into account the needs of Palestinian residents," he said.

 

Erlich said he found it hard to believe the Palestinian residents would leave the crowded areas as they tended to remain close to their families. "I guess they will just continue to build there in a disorderly manner," he said.

 

Despite the controversy, Barkat's plan is the only one to have been devised for eastern Jerusalem since 1967. The result of the oversight has been illegal construction.

 

Until the plan is enforced, however, many say that a more immediate solution is needed. "It's time to overlook construction crimes, at least for structures built on private property," Meretz MK Meir Margalit, a member of Jerusalem's City Council, told Ynet. "We must also ease limitations on proof of ownership. The mayor must understand that Jerusalem is ready to explode."

 

Meanwhile, Jerusalem Municipality said in a statement that it hoped 70% of the plan, which includes the construction of sewers, water sources, and electricity sources in addition to the housing units, would be completed within 20 years.

 


פרסום ראשון: 05.05.09, 22:33
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