Arab-Palestinians residents of the Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Safafa demonstrated in front of the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on Tuesday against the construction of a six-lane highway and they will appeal next week to the Supreme Court to halt the construction of a highway through the neighborhood, community activists said at a press conference Monday. According to “Al Ittihad” daily newspaper, Knesset members of Hadash: Muhammad Barakeh, Hanna Sweid and Dov Khenin participated in the demonstration.
Work on the six-lane road, an extension of the city’s north-south Begin Expressway, is threatening to ignite tensions in Beit Safafa. Aluminum walls lining the construction site have been covered in graffiti against the expressway – “Don’t run over Beit Safafa,” reads one. “The road in its current format cannot go ahead. It would be a disaster for Beit Safafa,” said Mohannad Gbara, a lawyer for residents.
MK Khenin during the demonstration in front of the Knesset (Photo: Al Ittihad)
Beit Safafa, is a village split between Israeli and Jordanian rule until it was “reunited” after the occupation in the 1967 war. Before the municipality approves such big building projects in the Jewish-inhabited districts of Jerusalem, it has to submit a detailed plan, routinely holding public consultations to hear objections. But the residents of Beit Safafa awoke in November to find bulldozers digging outside their homes. Belatedly they headed to court, but the judge allowed work to continue while she pondered her ruling and then rejected the petition. Police have broken up demonstrations and handcuffed protesters.
Residents bluntly charge the city with disregarding their wishes because they are Arabs. On Sunday, there were scuffles between residents and security personnel sent to guard workers, including both regular police officers and Border Police. Last week, the Jerusalem District Court rejected an appeal by residents to halt construction. On Monday, local activists said they would appeal to the Supreme Court and ratchet up their public struggle against the road.
The extension of the Begin Expressway, initially envisioned in a master plan from the late 1960s, has officially been in the works since 1990. Since the first plans were put forward, however, Beit Safafa has grown, and a road intended to pass by the neighborhood’s southern flank now cuts through its center. The road is meant to ease traffic going to and from the south Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo in the occupied Palestinian territories. But it also aims to make access to the city easier for residents of the settlements of the Etzion Bloc, in the West Bank to the south of the city, aiding the settlements at the expense of Arab-Palestinian residents. The road is “racist planning meant only to connect the settlements to the north of Jerusalem,” said Kais Nasser, another attorney representing the community. “The residents of Beit Safafa gain nothing from this road,” he said.
