New Report by Bimkom and B’Tselem reveals: Before Ma'ale Adummim was built Israel intended to annex it to Jerusalem

Recently-exposed documents show: In the early 1970's, Israel expropriated tens of thousands of hectares to build a settlement and an industrial zone that were to serve Jerusalem

A new report published today (23 December 2009) by the human rights organizations Bimkom and B'Tselem reveals for the first time that even before the settlement of Ma'ale Adummim was built, the Israeli Government planned its actual annexation to Jerusalem. Entitled The establishment and expansion plans of the Ma'ale Adummim settlement: Spatial and human rights implications, the report presents newly revealed documents concerning the settlement-establishment process, which the National Archives recently released for public perusal. Making an exception on its practice in other locations during the same period, Israel did not issue so-called interim requisition orders for the land slated for Ma'ale Adummim, but simply expropriated 32,000 hectares for good.

The report shows how, already in the original map that was drawn in 1975, the site, where the residential neighborhoods of Ma'ale Adummim were subsequently established, had been designated for the construction of a civilian settlement meant as a Jerusalem suburb. The size of the territory expropriated was seven times larger than required for the industrial zone, and even though an inter-ministerial team designated 4,500 dunams for the construction of an industrial zone, a ministerial committee decided to expropriate some 30,000 dunams. Presently, the Ma'ale Adummim jurisdiction area covers 48,000 dunams, of which 35,334 dunams were expropriated.

While Israel claimed that no Palestinians were harmed by this massive land expropriation, the report shows that the establishment of the settlement harmed hundreds of Bedouins, who were deported, and thousands of residents of nearby villages, who were forced to quit their agricultural plots or whose rights to their lands were harmed.

In recent years, Israeli Governments have made a series of additional moves to ensure that Ma'ale Adummim would actually be part of Jerusalem, geographically and functionally. Among other things, it expanded the jurisdiction area of the settlement; intended to annex the settlement of Kedar and nearby land into the boundaries of Ma'ale Adummim; created a physical connection with the municipal boundaries of extended Jerusalem; produced the E1 construction plan that was designed to create an urban contiguity between Ma'ale Adummim and Jerusalem; and decided to erect the separation barrier in such a route that would leave the settlement and large areas surrounding it on the "Israeli" side of the planned barrier, which is partly built.

The Route of the Separation Barrier

The planned route of the separation barrier that runs around Ma'ale Adummim de facto annexed a huge territory to Jerusalem. this piece of land covers some 62,000 dunams that includes Ma'ale Adummim, its industrial zone, six smaller nearby settlements, and some 6,500 Palestinians, some of whom the government intends to deport from the region Palestinians who will be left in the enclave will have to file for permits to go on living in their homes. Tens of thousands of residents of the towns of Al-Eizariya, Abu-Dis, Anata, and As-Sawahra ash-Sharqiya will also be harmed by the route of the barrier that will choke their urban development and disrupt their normal life. The route of the barrier in the region is additionally expected to cut the West Bank in half, impairing on north-south traffic in it.

Israel has recently announced that the construction of the barrier around Ma'ale Adumim is being put on hold for budgetary reasons, but did not nullify the requisition orders it issued for its route, and keeps taking steps for the deportation of hundreds of Bedouins of the Jahalin tribe from the Ma'ale Adummim enclave that the barrier will create.

Future Plan: The Jahalin Will Live 150m Away from a major Dumping site

To allow the expansion of Ma'ale Adummim, Israel deported hundreds of Bedouins from their residential areas to a neighborhood it built for them near the Abu-Dis waste dump, so that the existing buildings on the outskirts of the neighborhood are some 300m away from the dump. According to a new plan, which the Civil Administration approved but has not yet become valid, members of the Jahalin tribe who live near Ma'ale Adummim will be relocated to a new neighborhood that will be built for them near the Abu-Dis dump. According to that plan, the buildings on the edge of that location will be only 150m away from the dump. This is the plan, even though, according to the state's own statements, the dump might collapse or explode due to accumulated methane gas in it. Regardless of this grave threat, the Civil Administration's Higher Planning Council decided to promote the plan's approval, claiming that the risks that the future Jahalin residents are facing are "negligible" in part, while stating that though significant threats exist in parts of the site, "there are reasonable solutions to address them."