MASTER PLAN 2000 ACTION ALERT

ISRAEL SHROUDS ITS ILLEGAL CONTROL OVER OCCUPIED EAST JERUSALEM, INCLUDING THE OLD CITY, WITH A “MODERN” TOWN PLANNING SCHEME

ACTION ALERT

This Action Alert is issued to draw the attention of the International Community to Israel's continued illegal campaign to alter the status of Occupied East Jerusalem in disregard to UN Resolutions, Oslo Peace Agreement, the Road Map and the ICJ ruling on the illegality of building a Separation Wall, in order to undercut efforts to reach a negotiated political agreement over the future of the City

TPS 2000
On September 13, 2004 the Israeli Mayor in Jerusalem, Mr. Uri Lublialsky, disclosed a Town Planning Scheme (TPS 2000) for the City of Jerusalem to serve as a mandatory map for land use and a blueprint for other municipal planning purposes until the year 2020.

The success of the TPS 2000 is contingent on heavy handed geographic and demographic manipulation by the Municipality Planning teams to confine land usage for the Palestinians for housing, infrastructure and economic activity in order to stagger growth in all respects and drive Palestinian youth to immigrate and, to considerably expand the land use for the Jewish population to encourage Jewish in-migration by young couples. In fact the attraction of the latter category of Jews is the focus of TPS 2000.

TPS 2000 Goal and Vision - Messianic & Temporal!
The goal of TPS 2000, as pronounced in the executive summary of the plan is "to create a framework to proceed with the development of the city of Jerusalem as a capital for the state of Israel and a seat for its government.” And “to achieve a long term goal which reflects the future vision for the city as conceived by the City’s ‘fathers’.”

TPS 2000 Demographic Goals (Direct Quotes):

- TPS 2000 targets a population level of 950,000 “to match up the future image of the City as envisioned by the ‘fathers’ ”.
- “This target was espoused after examining population projections which will be consequent of different events likely to take place”
- The ‘stated’ target of TPS 2000 is a city population made up of 70% Jews 30% Palestinians
In other words 665,000 Jews to 285,000 Palestinians

TPS 2000 Demographic Engineering
Precipitated draconian measures are presently undertaken by the Municipality and the Israeli government to reduce the level of the Palestinian population in the City below the stated ratio
- The Separation Wall which excludes more than 150,000 Palestinians from Municipal borders
- House demolitions within Municipal Borders (152 in 2004 only)
- Expropriation of Palestinian land in East Jerusalem as a consequence of issuance of TPS 2000
- Expropriation of private property through another route “Applying the 1950 Absentee property law”

TPS 2000 Land Expropriation Tool Par Excellence
Since 1967, the government of Israel and the Jerusalem Municipality have been systematically expropriating land and confining the Palestinians to ever smaller areas in East Jerusalem so that today, only 7,000 dunams, or 10% of the land is used by its Palestinian owners" Sara Kaminkar: "A Policy of Land Use Denial, 1995).

Two procedures were used to reduce the size of the land area available for use by Palestinians since 1967; expropriation and town planning…..
The Israeli Government expropriated 35% of East Jerusalem land for undisclosed public purposes since 1967
All this land was used for building Jewish Settlements

Conversely:
- The Israeli Municipality in Jerusalem may expropriate Land for public purposes only on the basis of an approved town planning scheme
- The Israeli Municipality used planning as a tool to freeze land use for Palestinians since 1967.

Accordingly:
- 23% remained unplanned areas;
- 17% remained in the planning process;
- 25% was planned (of which only 7.3% was allocated for residential construction in East Jerusalem).
- All the land of this area constitute old Palestinian neighborhoods which are already built-up
- The Municipality forbids the creation of new Palestinian neighborhoods

Through planning and spot zoning, the Israeli government kept 38,8% of the Palestinian land in East Jerusalem either as green zones, unplanned areas or open space where building is strictly prohibited for the Palestinians

As the Israeli Municipality in Jerusalem may expropriate land for public use on the basis of an
approved town planning scheme only, this is why TPS has been prepared and disclosed

TPS 2000 Tool To Increase Jewish Settlement
-The plan provides for the establishment of more Jewish settlements and numerous other Jewish public institutions in “Jerusalem”
-Green Areas in East Jerusalem can be easily changed by the Municipality into white areas for Jewish settlement
The Jewish settlements of Jabal Abu Ghneim in Im Tuba, and Reshes Shoafat are examples: both were forested land
-TPS does specify in very vague terms plans to establish public institutions intended for the use of the Palestinian population:
-One Hospital
-A higher education institution, Al Quds University, or, “any other thing”
-Zero land is allocated for industrial or business development in East Jerusalem
-No place for Hotels at all except for inns near the gates of the Old City

TPS 2000 Tool To Further Weaken Palestinian Control
The weakening of the business center in East Jerusalem as a result of the strict military closures of the City since the signing the Oslo Agreement in 1993, and the wiping out of the old roads which connected the Palestinian areas with each other and with the City center i.e. the old city and its environs, and the appending of the Palestinian areas to the Israeli road system weakened the ties of these areas with each other and with the city center; which is the heart of the Palestinian political, economic, social and religious lives.

TPS 2000 if approved….
Will provide for further isolation of Palestinian suburbs within enclaves completely surrounded by settlements, highways and green and open spaces which will be turned into Jewish settlements and public and private spaces. And, further provide for an advanced road and transportation grid that links Jewish settlements to West Jerusalem consequently forming barricades around Palestinian built up areas to further confine their growth.

Will totally phase out the Palestinian communal entity as it alienates the Palestinian areas from each other, and alienates these areas from a communal center of life in and around the Old City. And append these areas increasingly to West Jerusalem

TPS 2000 The Old City Plan
The Old City will be subject to a modern “Israeli town planning” scheme, and the determination of its religious, historical and cultural value will be the exclusive privilege of the Israeli Municipality planning teams.

Direct Quotes From The Old City Plan
-“Buildings that are of no value to renovation and that might impair the nature of the old city, can be demolished”.
-“It is important to decrease the population density in the old city with the aid of governmental institutions”.
-“Due to lack of an organized registration of land ownership and/or property ownership through the years and with the lack of ownership claim for property (or due to several ownership claim suits regarding one asset) no differentiation between "hold" and "management" was made”.
-“The nature of layer upon layer building in the Old City in itself makes it harder to identify and register ownership rights, since it requires the recognition of numerous ownership claims over the same land plot within the different layers”.
-“In addition to that, the lack of land partition into blocks and plot, "excluding the Jewish quarters", makes it harder to assert ownership rights”.

TPS 2000 Map - A Tool of Clever Concealment
A TPS 2000 Map shows the Palestinian Areas as one continuous stretch of land

The Statement of the Coalition for Jerusalem
How we shop in Jerusalem, or where we work or where we pray or how we tend our gardens should be left for us to determine.

The Members of the Coalition for Jerusalem assert that an imposed and unilateral political solution by Israel in East Jerusalem is not acceptable. And thereby state our unequivocal rejection of the Israeli Municipality town planning scheme 2000 for East Jerusalem. The Israeli Government has to contend that we do not accept its authority over East Jerusalem.

Action Request No.1 - Therefore, the Members of the Coalition for Jerusalem requests the Arab League, the Conference of Islamic Countries, the Vatican and Jewish Community Leaders worldwide, Members of the Quartet, the UN General Assembly Members, the UN World Heritage preservation organizations and UN Human Rights organizations and Non Governmental Organizations to press upon Israel to comply with all UN General Assembly and Security Council resolutions concerning Jerusalem, and the ICJ advisory opinion on the status of Jerusalem, and to refrain from implementing TPS2000 provisions following its formal approval or selectively thereafter, if such approval is not attained .

Action Request No. 2 - The Members of the Coalition for Jerusalem request that the Conference of Islamic Countries, the Vatican and the Jewish Community Religious Leaders assume their responsibilities and request the Government of Israel to avoid stirring up religious sensitivities and refrain from carrying out TPS 2000 in the Old City

Action request No.3 - The Members of the Coalition for Jerusalem request UNESCO to assume its responsibilities vis a vis the Old City and its environs as the embodiment of a World heritage and a living vestige of international communal coexistence and to intervene to stop the implementation of TPS2000.

Action Request no. 4 - The Members of the Coalition for Jerusalem requests the Members of the dignified bodies of the International Community to call upon Israel to resume the Peace Negotiations with the Palestinian National Authority to reach a negotiated agreement on Jerusalem in accordance with International resolutions.

Action Request No. 5 - If Israel refuses to acknowledge international pledges, The Members of the Coalition for Jerusalem request the presence of International observers in the City to protect Palestinian rights in East Jerusalem.

For more information
Israeli Municipality website
http://www.jerusalem.muni.il/

Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights
http://www.jcser.org/
The above website has a list of relevant linkages

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