RAMALLAH, West Bank — Extreme right-wing Jewish settlers will take up residence in a group of buildings in East Jerusalem’s predominantly Arab neighborhood Ras Al-Amud in the next few days based on an agreement signed with former Israeli police commissioner Moshe Karadi, a report said yesterday.
The buildings had hitherto served as the headquarters of the Samaria and Judea district (West Bank) Police. The daily Haaretz said that the buildings are slated to become the nucleus of a new Jewish neighborhood in the so-called Holy Basin area, the fate of which is supposed to be decided in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
Police officials said that work began before the Jewish Passover holiday on vacating the place, and that in the coming days they will finish moving the offices to a new facility built in controversial Area E1, which connects Jerusalem with Ma’aleh Adumim settlement.
Concurrently, extremist settler groups filed a request with the Jerusalem Planning and Construction Committee a few days ago to approve construction of a new neighborhood of 110 housing units on the vacated site.
The request states that the new neighborhood, Ma’aleh David, is intended to link up with the Jewish neighborhood Ma’aleh Zeitim, which was built in the heart of Ras Al-Amud by tycoon Irving Moskowitz, with the encouragement of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert while he was mayor of Jerusalem.
In all, the neighborhoods of Ma’aleh David and Ma’aleh Zeitim are projected to house around 250 Jewish families in an area with 14,000 Arab residents.
Nadav Shragai, writing in Haaretz on Jan. 8, reported that the right-wing groups active in “redeeming Jerusalem” by buying up Arab land were negotiating with the Jewish Bukharan community committee to purchase the land and building that housed the police’s Samaria and Judea District headquarters, which were acquired by the committee during Ottoman rule.
Haaretz said that Noga Ben David, one of the leaders of the community, declined to discuss whether settler groups are behind the deal, saying he prefers to remain silent until the police vacate the premises.
Meanwhile, a Palestinian military court in the West Bank city of Hebron sentenced a Palestinian security officer to death by firing squad after he was found guilty of treason and collaboration with the Israeli occupation, court officials said yesterday.
The head of military court Ahmed Abu Dayyeh said that “the suspect has been found guilty of treason within a network of collaborators led by his uncle that operated in the town of Yatta (near Hebron).” Abu Dayyeh added that the suspect “used to transfer information to his father. He confessed to transferring information that led to the killing of four wanted Palestinian activists, the destruction of a house and apprehension of several wanted operatives.”
