At-Tur neighborhood is located in the east of occupied Jerusalem on the slopes of the Mount of Olives overlooking the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque. It is 826 meters above sea level and has an area of 8808 dunums. It is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Jerusalem.
It is bordered to the east by the Al-Aqsa Mosque to the west by Khan Al-Ahmar to the north by the village of al-Issawiya and to the south by al-Eizariya and Abu Dis
The name of the neighborhood goes back to before the birth of Jesus peace be upon him. It was called Tur Zita because most of its lands were cultivated with olives as it was known in the Roman era as Beit Faji “The House of Figs”. It has a population of nearly 40 thousand people.
At-Tur has great historical religious and touristic importance as it has many mosques churches and monasteries of the Ascension of all Christian denominations. According to Christian books the prophet Jesus peace be upon him ascended from the Mount of Olives to heaven.
Among the most prominent landmarks in it are a mosque in which Caliph Umar ibn al-Khaṭtāb prayed on the day he entered Jerusalem and the Salman Al-Farsi Mosque which is one of the oldest mosques since the time of the Ottoman Empire and the Rabaa Al-Adawiya shrine which was built more than 1300 years ago. The Ayyubid King Isa bin Ahmed had also built a fortified castle and among the most important monasteries in it is the Monastery of Beit Faga the Church of the Ascension the Church of the Maskobeya and the shrine of Virgin Mary.
At-Tur neighborhood also includes Al-Maqased Hospital Al-Mutlaa Hospital Princess Basma Hospital for Special Needs and the Red Crescent Hospital.
At-Tur residents suffer from the continuous attacks of the occupation forces and settlers as the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has confiscated more than 8 thousand dunums of their lands since its occupation in 1967.
The occupation forces have been arresting children at night and interrogating them for hours in police stations without their families accompanying them in addition to demolishing citizens’ homes claiming that they do not possess building permits. Furthermore settlers seize homes and expel their residents from them and the occupation courts approve these confiscations under the pretext that they are absentees’ property.
The IOA has established more than one settlement outpost on the neighborhood’s lands such as Beit Arut which consists of 32 housing units and another settlement located in the Al-Khalah area which is a residential building inhabited by 8 settler families and the Jewish Cemetery which has an area of 230 dunums.
In an exclusive interview with the PIC the director of the Jerusalem Center for Economic and Social Studies Ziad Al-Hamouri stressed the seriousness of the current situation in the At-Tur neighborhood especially in light of the presence of more than one settlement outpost.
He emphasized that the greatest danger lies in what is coming from the plans that the IOA is seeking to implement as the number of lands in the neighborhood will be transformed into paths for settlers on their way to reach the Al-Buraq Wall. These paths will also link the settlements to each other especially in light of the geographical proximity of the At-Tur neighborhood to The Hebrew University Hadassah Hospital and other Israeli institutions. The IOA seeks to link all these institutions to Beit Arut and all the settlement outposts in Jerusalem.
The IOA has also confiscated 734 dunums of land in the At-Tur and Al-Sawana neighborhood several years ago to establish a Talmudic park within the plans of Judaizing Jerusalem. This will stop the natural demographic growth in At-Tur and al-Issawiya as these are the only areas in which the residents of the two neighborhoods can expand urbanization.
The IOA considers the park area as a strategic area as two streets are located in it that connects to the street leading to the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim. Through its establishment the occupation guarantees the geographical connection between Ma’ale Adumim and the settlement project called “E1” which provides for building four thousand new settlement units in addition to what is in Ma’ale Adumim and linking them to Jerusalem. This means cutting off the urban expansion of At-Tur Abu Dis al-Eizariya al-Zaim al-Issawiya and Anata.
Commenting on this project Hammouri said “The establishment of this park and the roads passing through it comes in the context of the IOA efforts to link settlements to each other which means besieging Jerusalem from all sides and forcing its residents to live on islands surrounded by settlements.”
As for the occupation forces’ arrest of children and interrogating them in police stations without their families accompanying them Hammouri stated that the arrests of children take place in all neighborhoods of Jerusalem especially in the Silwan Shuafat and Beit Hanina areas as the number has reached thousands of arrests without considering any international laws and the occupation keeps violating these international laws and children’s rights.
As for home demolitions the last of which was the demolition of a building under construction for the Jerusalemite Ahmad Abu Al-Hawa on Wednesday 11/11/2020. Hammouri confirmed that home demolitions take place in every area in Jerusalem even those buildings that have building permits from the authority which is a violation of international laws and the agreements signed with the Palestinian Authority.
Dr. Jamal Amr the academic researcher specializing in Jerusalem affairs and architecture stressed that At-Tur is a neighborhood of the city of Jerusalem and not a town or village according to the Palestinian urban concept. Nevertheless the occupation is trying to turn it into a town or village so that it becomes a countryside and not an urban and civilized Palestinian city suitable to be a capital. He considered At-Tur neighborhood as the center of the city as it is located in the middle of the Holy City on the slopes of the Mount of Olives overlooking Al-Aqsa from the western side and the Old City.
In an interview with the PIC Amr stated that the area of the At-Tur neighborhood exceeds eight thousand dunums and no one can reduce it because it has been fixed since Allah created the Earth as he put it. He explained that the At-Tur neighborhood includes Al-Suwana and Mount Scopus on which the occupation built the Hebrew University and Hadassah Hospital and includes Ras Al-Amud and the Jewish cemetery which has an area of 230 dunums.
He continued “The lands of At-Tur extend to al-Zaim and to “E1” this very dangerous settlement which will lead to the closure of the eastern gate of Jerusalem completely.”
He added that the IOA has confiscated large areas of lands to construct biblical gardens build roads tunnels as well as a cable car. The IOA had intended to establish a military college next to At-Tur Hospital but the occupation court suspended the decision due to the objection of environmental groups and Talmudic groups that want to enjoy the area.
The suffering of the residents of At-Tur continues due to the lack of basic services that the occupation municipality must provide to the neighborhood such as roads sewage services water and electricity networks. Also there is scarcity of sidewalks lighting parks garbage containers and other services that the municipality does not provide despite the fact that the neighborhood residents pay taxes imposed on them by the IOA.
