The occupation municipality revealed that it has prepared a new plan separating the Al-Masara neighborhood from Bab Al-Amoud and the rest of East Jerusalem neighborhoods within a plan to build a complex, a hotel, a parking lot, underground buses and commercial interfaces along the path of the light rail line that changes the shape The area is re-widening the tunnel and road network from Sheikh Jarrah in the north to Bab .Al-Khalil in the west, passing through Al-Masrara and Al-Bab Al-Jadid.
Nasrallah added in an interview with a palestininan journal, "According to the city plan (which was deposited and discussed and implicitly rejected the objections submitted by the Palestinians and it seems that there is an Israeli political decision to final approval of the project), the limits of the influence of the East Jerusalem city center plan end on the eastern sidewalk adjacent to the shops X The city planner, Dr. Rami Nasrallah-IPCC Jerusalem, confirmed, saying: The closure of Sultan Suleiman Street and its transformation into a pedestrian street in preparation for its separation from the Al-Masara area and the new Bab is just a prelude to a huge project that destroys the commercial movement inside the Old City and for hundreds of merchants in Sultan Suleiman Street and Salah al-Din Street and its repercussions will be On the rest of the city´s markets and commercial traffic.
He explained that the occupation municipality kept the triangle of the Al-Masara neighborhood He pointed out that the Israeli authorities leveled the land and cut down all trees in this park for security reasons, as it is adjacent to the metal kiosks (military and police towers) overlooking Bab al-Amud, which constitutes the biggest visual pollution to the aesthetics of Bab al-Amud and the until it became known to separate and isolate it - the triangle in Al-Masara - which is newly registered for the Hminwata settlement company outside the boundaries of the scheme, and all current bus stops (south of the city) and cars in the area will be canceled and the two streets leading to Bab Al-Amoud area from the south will be cancelled. Bab al-Jadid) and the North (the .current tunnel exit to Street No. 1)
He said: The plan to beautify Sultan Suleiman Street and add seating areas adjacent to the garden to the Grotto (Linen) or Suleiman is just a recycling of what was in place - Bab al-Amoud and its sides, .especially the eastern side, were planted and cared for and a beautiful garden in the Jordanian era. He explained that the occupation municipality kept the triangle of the Al-Masara neighborhood.
He pointed out that the Israeli authorities leveled the land and cut down all trees in this park for security reasons, as it is adjacent to the metal kiosks (military and police towers) overlooking Bab al-Amud, which constitutes the biggest visual pollution to the aesthetics of Bab al-Amud and the walls of the old city.
He added: The disregard for the Palestinians reached the point of inviting Palestinian merchants on Sultan Suleiman Street to the municipality headquarters more than two months ago, and presented the project to them and deluded the audience that the street would witness an active the way to the neighborhoods of Wadi al-Joz and Sheikh Jarrah in the Old City .commercial movement. Pictures of the street design were shown to them.
According to the judaization scheme, there is no Palestinian presence in it, and the characters that were highlighted in the three-dimensional design are men in traditional Arab dress from the Gulf countries and Euroupean women in revealing westren clothing.
Nasrallah said: What was not presented to the Palestinian merchants is that the scheme hides an ugly scheme that reduces the areas allocated for trade by two-thirds, and that commercial facades will be approved next to the light rail in the Al-Masara Triangle area as part of a settlement project to build 50,000 square meters of public parking, and 25,000 square meters of hotels within What is being promoted by "Shikem Square", the isolation of this street from Bab al-Amud and its surroundings from from the north and south.
According to the plan, the tunnel will be expanded over a wide strip of Jerusalem, with a new area of up to one kilometer, starting from the bus station and the only cars opposite Bab al-Amoud, all the way to the neighborhoods of Wadi AlJoz and Shaikh Jarrah in the old city.
It is noteworthy that the lands allocated for the settlement project and the tunnel are endowment lands, 70% of which are Islamic endowments, 20% belong to Christian churches and monasteries, while 4 to 5% of the total area of the areas are owned by Jerusalem citizens and merchants, rest is princely lands belonging to the Jordanian administration.
The Islamic Endowments Department and the Latin Patriarchate had objected to the decision of the regional committee for planning and building in the municipality of the occupation after the deposit of a Judaization scheme aimed at expanding the Al-Masara tunnel and swallowing its lands, as it is a flagrant violation of Islamic and Christian sanctities in Jerusalem.
Nasrallah concluded by saying that the commercial facades intended to be erected on both sides of the railway for the light rail are intended to be cosmeticm and to confiscate a large area of Jerusalemites´ lands, along street No(1), and to change the nearest point to the old town and its main entrance, since the AlMassara neighborhood is not far from the walls of thAe old city is a few meters away, especially from the focus of events, Bab AlAmoud, the face of the town and the East Jerusalem, to link it to the western part and the movement of settlres, where it is planned to carry out infrastructure to expand influeence and settlement in light of the plotical, security and settlement conclusions of the system of control, control and Judaization.
It is noteworthy that the plan to saparate the AlMasara neighborhood and the market is inspired by the walls the separated West Jerusalem from the East Jerusalem after the Nakbah in 1948.
