Israel’s ‘Bible Trail’: Demolishing Palestinian homes to make national parks
trap, with critics accusing officials of using heritage and tourism to
pave way for settler land grab
On the planning map of Jerusalem, the aerial view of Aref Totanji’s
home is obscured by green ink, part of a swath of colour besieging the
walls of the Old City on every side.
Over the past decade, these coloured zones have spread over the map
of East Jerusalem, creating a patchwork that engulfs ever more
Palestinian neighbourhoods close to the Old City.
The green ink may look innocuous on paper, but for 50-year-old
Totanji it signals the impending arrival of bulldozers to demolish his
one-storey house, leaving the family of 16 – including a seven-month-old
granddaughter – homeless.
As Israeli authorities declare “national parks” over residential
areas, thousands of Palestinians living in overcrowded neighbourhoods
close by Jerusalem’s Old City are being trapped in a similar planning
nightmare.
Planners and human-rights group accuse Israel of increasingly using
such parks as a tool to grab control of Palestinian land and demolish
homes, under the guise of archaeological preservation and tourism
development.
Enass Masri, a field researcher for Bimkom, a group of planning
experts helping Palestinians negotiate Israel’s labyrinthine planning
system, said the goal of national parks in Israel was to protect green
spaces and heritage sites but in Jerusalem the policy had been
subverted.
“Uniquely in East Jerusalem, the national parks include residential
areas,” she told Middle East Eye. “They are a monster making these
families’ lives a misery.”
