On Monday (24 October), the Jerusalem Municipality's Finance Committee approved a three million NIS budget for the relocation of the al-Walaja checkpoint situated on the bypass road running between Jerusalem and the al-Walaja village.
The new location is approximately two kilometers closer to al-Walaja, which will block residents’ access to some 1200 dunams of their agricultural lands and Ein Haniya, a spring which once served as the village's social center and now converted into an Israeli recreational destination. The Jerusalem Municipality and Israel Nature and Parks Authority (INPA) have been working for years to transform al-Walaja’s agricultural lands into an Israeli recreational space, while further detaching them from the village through various measures aimed at restricting access. In 2013, these lands were declared an Israeli national park, known as Nahal Refaim National Park, in parallel to the construction of the Separation Barrier around three sides of the village. While the Barrier physically isolates al-Walaja from its surroundings and severs the village from its agricultural lands, the national park serves the role of “touristic settlement,” creating contiguity between Jerusalem and the settlements in the Gush Etzion Regional Council.
The designation of areas as national parks, nature reserves, and/or green spaces is a common Israeli practice in East Jerusalem used to alter the character of the space, fracture the Palestinian environs, and suppress Palestinian urban planning, while allowing for the seizure of their lands for Israeli interests.
Attempts to Relocate the Checkpoint in the Past
Relocation of the checkpoint was attempted in 2018 alongside the Israeli "inauguration" of the Nahal Refaim National Park, but the plan was suspended at the time due to the shortage of funding. An appeal submitted by the al-Walaja village was rejected by the District Court based on claims that the checkpoint's relocation was necessary for “security purposes.”
Now four years later, the Israeli authorities have re-initiated measures to relocate the al-Walaja checkpoint with the recent approval of the three million NIS budget by the Jerusalem Municipality's Financial Committee. According to Ir Amim’s initial inquiries, no building permit necessary for the relocation and construction of the new checkpoint appears to currently exist. The Finance Committee's agenda cited that the checkpoint’s relocation is being carried out at the request of the Jerusalem Municipality, Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs, and the Israel Police. However, the checkpoint constitutes a military facility--the location of which should be determined by the Israeli army. Yet, the army is not among the Israeli bodies requesting its relocation; therefore, claims stating that such a measure is necessary for "security reasons" can be interpreted as unsubstantiated.
If the checkpoint is relocated, it will have dire consequences on the residents of al-Walaja, their agricultural lands, and their livelihoods.
It should be underscored that the resumption of the plan to relocate the al-Walaja checkpoint is being carried out in parallel to other recent alarming developments in the area, which serve to further entrench de-facto annexation of the Greater Jerusalem area. These include the recent approval of the expansion plan for the
al-Walaja bypass road in September 2022 and the advancement of the plan for the
Har Gilo West settlement on al-Walaja lands. The
Civil Administration’s Higher Planning Council is scheduled to convene a discussion on objections to the new settlement plan on November 7, 2022.
In tandem to this, residents of Ein Juweize, the portion of the village within the Jerusalem municipal boundaries which is under mass demolition threat, are required to submit a report on the urban planning progress in the area to the Supreme Court by November 1, 2022. As reported previously,
local and international pressure prompted the state to agree to extend a demolition freeze on 38 homes during a Supreme Court hearing in March 2022. Such an extension was given in order to allow Ein Juweize residents to initiate their own zoning plan despite the state’s unwillingness to fulfill its responsibility in promoting the plan itself. Meanwhile, new demolition orders are still being issued in this part of the village, while demolitions of homes not protected by the freeze continue to be carried out.
It is therefore vital that the state agree to apply a village-wide demolition freeze while the urban planning process is underway and likewise uphold its position in favor of a zoning plan for Ein Juweize.
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