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One olive in my garden is better than anything material in the whole world.

听were uttered by Mahmoud Salhiya after his home in Sheikh Jarrah was recently听.

听is a Palestinian neighbourhood of 3,000 inhabitants at the eastern part of Road 1 that runs north to south through Jerusalem and separates Israeli and Palestinian sectors. The neighbourhood has two distinctive sections: the north is the part inhabited by wealthier Palestinians while the poorer, southern part is populated by hundreds of Palestinian refugees from 1948.

The Salhiya family house is in Sheikh Jarrah鈥檚 southern area on land designated by an old urban scheme authorised in the 1980s for the construction of a public building. But part of the house already existed, along with some other structures, when the plan was being prepared. In fact, the house and the other buildings on the plot are already visible on maps of Jerusalem from the 1930s.

Importantly, according to听, Palestinian houses built in East Jerusalem before 1967 are considered legal and therefore cannot be demolished. But zoning the Salhiya plot for public use 鈥� which ignored the fact of the existing residential property already on the site 鈥� is indicative of a common practice that has characterised听听since 1967.

The Israeli authorities argued that the Salhiya property had been expropriated to establish a 鈥渟pecial needs鈥� school for the benefit of the neighbourhood鈥檚 residents. But this 鈥渢op-down鈥� planning did not include any consultation with the family or the community.

Demolition as a tool of control
The police are听听arrived at the property in the early hours of what was one of the coldest nights so far this winter, and forcibly removed 15 members of the Salhiya family before bulldozing the house. They arrested Mahmoud Salhiya and five members of his family, as well as some of their supporters, both Palestinian and Israeli activists.

This traumatic event is part of an ongoing attempt of displacing Palestinians from their homes 鈥撎�听but also in other neighbourhoods such as听, on the outskirts of the Old City, which is the subject of the continuing conflict between Jewish settlers and the local Palestinian community over archaeology, tourism development and housing.

听have become an all-too-regular occurrence. According to a听听(the Israeli information centre for human rights in the occupied territories) between 2006 and November 2021, Israeli authorities demolished at least 1,176 Palestinian housing units in East Jerusalem. At least 3,769 people lost their homes 鈥� including 1,996 children. Housing demolition serves Israel鈥檚 attempt to control the city鈥檚 鈥溾�� 鈥� keeping a Jewish majority within Jerusalem鈥檚 municipal territory back to the 70:30 ratio that has driven Israeli policy since 1967.

Emerging urban geopolitics
The Salhiya family鈥檚 case should be understood within a wider context of the political processes taking place in Jerusalem since June 1967 and the declaration of the city as Israel鈥檚 unified capital. The expropriation of Palestinian land by the state through legal measures was central to the colonisation of East Jerusalem at this stage.

Planning further contributed to the colonisation of the city and was characterised by the听听(鈥渟atellite neighbourhoods鈥�). Since 1967, Israel has expropriated over one-third of the Palestinian land that was annexed to Jerusalem鈥檚 municipality new boundaries 鈥� 24.5 square kilometres 鈥� most of it privately owned by Palestinians. Some 11 neighbourhoods have been erected for Jewish inhabitants only.

Under international law, the status of these neighbourhoods is the same as the Israeli illegal settlements throughout the West Bank. As a complementary step, a series of听听were drawn that have effectively limited the growth of Palestinian neighbourhoods by limiting construction rights and defining most Palestinian land as not eligible for housing construction.

The beginning of the 21st century marked a shift into a more radical policy in Jerusalem with the听. This has allowed Israel to de facto annex another 160 square kilometres of the Occupied Territories.

The route of the barrier creates a sharp division between the walled city of Jerusalem and the Palestinian hinterland. The concrete barrier deliberately disrupts the functional integration of Palestinian neighbourhoods and isolates them from their hinterland in the West Bank.

The construction of the separation barrier has placed the vast majority of territory and resources in the Jerusalem metropolitan under Jewish control. Palestinians are confined to disjointed enclaves, without sovereignty, freedom of movement, control over natural resources, or contiguous territory.

Micro colonisation
Recent events in Sheikh Jarrah clearly mark the current phase in colonising Jerusalem. This is a micro-scale appropriation of Palestinian territory accompanied by evictions and displacements of Palestinians who remain in the city. Palestinian homes are demolished or colonised by settlers such as in the case of听听补苍诲听听while agricultural land is confiscated from its Palestinian owners 鈥� as in the case of听听where the separation barrier surrounds the village and cuts it off from most of its inhabitants鈥� land.

This is a new phase in which Palestinian space is appropriated not solely through military acts or large-scale urban planning (such as described above) but rather on small-scale urban spaces and the use of planning policies. These include land-use changes, planning for the apparent 鈥減ublic good鈥� (such as the attempt to build a school on Salhiya鈥檚 plot in Sheikh Jarrah), infrastructure development and touristic development. There is also clear discrimination in the听. While 38% of the city鈥檚 residents are Palestinians, only 16.5% of the building permits were given for construction in Palestinian neighbourhoods.

In this way, Jerusalem has become a model for using 鈥渂anal鈥� apparatuses such as听听to reinforce Israeli domination of this divided and contested city.

We are grateful to Dr Mandy Turner for providing the translation of Mahmoud Salhiya鈥檚 words at the opening of this article and the linked video.

This article first appeared in on 27 January 2022.

Links

• The Bartlett Development Planning Unit at 911爆料网
• The Bartlett, UCL鈥檚 Faculty for the Built Environment