The government is expected to approve the establishment of an IDF museum, a recruitment office and an office for the defense minister on the ruins of the UNRWA compound in Jerusalem’s Ma’alot Dafna neighborhood at its weekly meeting Sunday marking Jerusalem Day.
UNRWA’s activity in Jerusalem was halted in 2024. The compound was subsequently abandoned and has remained closed and locked, with a guard stationed there. On October 28, 2024, the Knesset plenum approved, in second and third readings, the law to end UNRWA’s activity in Israel — citing suspicions that some of its staff participated in the Hamas-led October 7 massacre.
Security forces demolish the UNRWA compound in Jerusalem
(Video: United Jerusalem Faction)
Under the proposal drafted by Defense Minister Israel Katz, the government will instruct the chairman of the Israel Land Council to submit a resolution allocating to the Defense Ministry, without a tender, a plot of about 36 dunams (9 acres) in the Ma’alot Dafna neighborhood. Katz’s decision is based in part on the argument that the current Jerusalem recruitment office no longer meets the IDF’s needs.
The planned compound is adjacent to Ammunition Hill, which the British built as an ammunition storage bunker for the police academy and which today serves as a national memorial site for the battle fought there during the 1967 Six-Day War. It also houses the Paratroopers Heritage Center.
According to the Defense Ministry, establishing the recruitment office in the historic police academy building would reconnect two compounds that were linked during the British Mandate. All screening procedures for candidates for military service would take place in the police academy compound, while the enlistment itself would continue at Ammunition Hill.
A ministry review found that the former police academy building is well-suited to the recruitment office’s needs. The rectangular structure surrounds a large inner courtyard. The planned IDF museum, which will serve as a heritage museum with substantial exhibition space as well as a venue for educational activities and conferences, also fits well with the planning framework and existing activity at Ammunition Hill and the Paratroopers Heritage Center.