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Last update - 00:00 22/10/2008
Mayoral hopeful Barkat backs new Jewish housing in E. Jerusalem
By <a href="mailto:jlis@haaretz.co.il" class="tUbl2">Jonathan Lis</a>, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Jerusalem, Israel News 
 

Nir Barkat, the leading non-Orthodox candidate for mayor of Jerusalem, backs the establishment of a controversial new Jewish neighborhood near the village of Anata, at the foot of the French Hill neighborhood.

Barkat toured the area last Friday, and said: "A new Jewish neighborhood will be built in Anata that will serve to provide a solution to the lack of housing for students and young people in the city." If Barkat is elected mayor, and if he carries through with his promise, this would mark a major change in existing policies regarding construction of Jewish neighborhoods in the area.

The new neighborhood, to be called Sha'ar Mizrahi (Eastern Gate), is intended to provide continuity between the Jewish neighborhoods of the capital and the city of Ma'aleh Adumim to the east, and at the same time prevent a continuous stretch of Palestinian settlement between Ramallah and Bethlehem.
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Two years ago, the then-Jerusalem city engineer, Uri Sheetrit, stated that the city could not promote the new Jewish neighborhood. He claimed at the time that the available public lands were insufficient or located in small sections surrounded by existing Palestinian neighborhoods. "It would be necessary to expropriate private lands to expand the construction, and in this case it will require significant expropriation. I do not believe, given the present geo-political situation, that it will be possible to conduct the expropriations," said Sheetrit.

Public lands

The controversial proposed neighborhood would be built on both public lands and land privately owned by Jews, over an area of some 200 dunams (50 acres), at the foot of the French Hill neighborhood.

Barkat toured the area with Arieh King, director of the private Israel Land Fund and one of the initiators of the project, and with David Beeri, the head of the Elad non-profit organization, which has funded the archaeological excavations in the City of David and is also a partner to the plan.

King, who represents the Jewish land owners in the Sha'ar Mizrahi, said Barkat's statement was very important coming from a leading mayoral candidate. He explained that initial planning shows it will be possible to build about 2,000 housing units in the new neighborhood.

A Barkat associate told Haaretz: "Those are Nir's opinions and therefore they are not surprising."


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