A new master plan for Occupied Jerusalem will include a giant international airport a railway line a huge commercial and employment area a Biblical park ring roads and dozens of new hotels as part of Israel’s plan to Judaize the entire city and its boundaries.
The plan dubbed “Jerusalem 5800” according the Hebrew calendar year refers to the year 2040. It has recently come to the surface again as a private project run by Australian Jewish businessman Kevin Bermeister.
The planners claim it is not related to the city’s political problems but many believe it is the right-wing government’s attempt to reshape and Judaize the entire holy city as a preemptive step to prevent any chance in the future to divide it between two states.
The planners claim they want Jerusalem a world city inhabited by five million people and visited by 12 million tourists a year; therefore it will be full of tourist attractions hotels and advanced means of transportation.
The plan however ignores Jerusalem’s sensitive political situation. The plan sees Jerusalem as a metropolis whose boundaries extend far beyond the existing municipal lines. The boundaries of Jerusalem 5800 include Modi’in and the Etzion bloc in addition to plans to link it to Bethlehem Jericho and Ramallah.
The plan does not address the Palestinian residents’ needs or the development of the Arab neighborhoods that suffer from deliberate Israeli neglect and demolition campaigns. Nor does it entertain the possibility that Jerusalem in 2040 will include Palestinian government institutions or that Palestinians would be partners in its planning.
According to a brochure released by the planners their plan starts out with six basic ideas all of them dealing with Jerusalem as a Jewish city. “Israel is the Jewish nation’s core and Jerusalem is Israel and the Jewish nation’s core” the first idea says.
The second states that the city’s Jewish population increase will not be based merely on natural growth but on increased migration to the city. The third says the plan’s goal is to “create a process to increase the chance of Israel and the Jewish nation to prosper.”
The remaining ideas deal with the need for drastic demographic changes to maintain a Jewish majority in Jerusalem.
The brochure also says “We did not go into the question of how the conflict will be solved which is of course outside the plan’s jurisdiction. But we assumed that for considerations that are not political the Jerusalem metropolis will not be divisible so we see it as a territorial continuity enabling free traffic of people and merchandise.”
An entire chapter is dedicated to the demographic issue. The Israeli government is urged to adopt a demographic policy to ensure the ratio of Arab residents does not exceed 40 percent. Otherwise it says “The increase in the Muslims’ rate compared to the Jews’ is likely to continue in the future as well.”
The planners claim Jerusalem is sacred to the three heavenly religions but barely deals with any religion but Judaism. The word “Palestinians” does not appear in the brochure at all. The word “Muslims” appears 11 times eight of them in the chapter talking about the demographic threat.
One of the projects in the plan deals with renovating several mikves (ritual bath houses) in the area between the so-called City of David and the Aqsa Mosque (which the plan describes as the alleged temple mount).
Two other projects are aimed at developing the Refa’im National Park as a huge tourist attraction associated with the Bible which will include hotels. At least one of the sites is planned in the West Bank village of Walaja near Bethlehem.
Another huge hotel is located in Jabal Mukaber neighborhood in east Jerusalem.
According to Israeli newspapers Bermeister purchased the land on which the Jewish settlement of Nof Zion was built in the Palestinian village Jabal Mukkaber in east Jerusalem. He also purchased other lands from Palestinians for settling Jews on and invested money in hotels and lands in the western part of the city
So far some five million shekels have been invested in the Jerusalem 5800 project since it was launched five years ago. Its team of planners is led by architect Shlomo Gertner and includes transportation tourist and conservation experts.
The final draft of the plan was completed recently. A brochure outlining it starts with congratulations by tourist minister Yariv Levin and Jerusalem affairs minister Zeev Elkin.
In addition the plan will include building a large international airport (accommodating up to 35 million passengers a year) in an area between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea not far from Jericho.
The planners will also establish a railway line from Ramallah via Jerusalem and al-Khalil to Beersheba.
