Yesterday Israeli authorities resumed construction of the Separation Barrier around Al-Wallajeh after having halted work in 2014.  The Barrier around the village is now all but completed.  Several sections (see solid red portions) have been erected; infrastructure has been installed and concertina wire has long been in place in advance of project completion. It is estimated that at most, it could take several months to finish the remaining sections of the fence.

The Separation Barrier is one of several concentric rings of works isolating Al-Wallajeh from its surroundings.  A national park around its northern perimeter serves the function of further detaching the village from the city.  The District Planning and Building Committee approved the Emek Refaim National Park plan in July 2013.  Though most of the park will be located within the Green Line, prior to the plan’s approval it was revealed that the area marked for development spills over the Green Line, seizing 1,200 dunams of Palestinian land between the Green Line and the Separation Barrier.  

In early January 2016, a tender was published for construction of a new visitor center in the park (see map), at the Ein Haniya spring.  Slated for 9 dunams, works are now nearing completion.  Though technically hugging the inside of the Green Line, the spring is a central recreational site for residents of Al-Wallajeh and a major agricultural area for local Palestinian shepherds. 

Development of the visitor center is the first step in what is anticipated to be the growing displacement of the local Palestinian population. Promotion of the park as a major recreational attraction is expected to draw a high volume of Israelis to this pastoral space, along with requisite security forces and restrictions on local Palestinian farmers.  In parallel, demolitions are being used to remove residents from the area.

In April 2016 Ir Amim reported that Israeli forces, under the authority of the Ministry of Finance, demolished three homes located within the municipal boundary and beyond the Separation Barrier.  For four preceding years there had been virtually no building inspection activities conducted in the neighborhood.  These demolitions constituted the first since the beginning of work on the Barrier in  Al-Wallajeh in 2010 and marked the first time that non-punitive demolitions had been executed in the neighborhoods beyond the Separation Barrier. 

Developments in Wallajeh must be seen in the context of a much larger campaign to consolidate the southern perimeter of Jerusalem. Over the last several years, Israel has steadily promoted plans to consolidate the southern perimeter, including the release of tenders for 1,129 units in Har Homa and 708 in Gilo; approval of plans for more than 2,600 units in Givat Hamatos, which would supplant Har Homa as the newest settlement in East Jerusalem; and construction of a six lane highway through residential Beit Safafa which serves to further disrupt contiguity between East Jerusalem and the Bethlehem area.

All of these actions are punctuated by the national park plan, which will isolate Al-Wallajeh and strengthen the connection between Jerusalem and the Gush Etzion settlement bloc—one of the three major blocs, including Ma’ale Adumim/E-1 and Givat Ze’ev, that comprise Israel’s plan for a “Greater Jerusalem” that would de facto absorb these areas into the city.

Please address all inquiries to:

Betty Herschman

Director of International Relations & Advocacy

Ir Amim

054-308-5096

betty@ir-amim.org.il

@IrAmimAlerts

www.ir-amim.org.il