News Digest: Silwan Pedestrian Bridge
#0202_A_View_From_East_Jerusalem
"Occupation authorities to establish 'tourist pedestrian bridge' in Silwan:
Joint Occupation municipality, Antiquities Authority, and Nature and Parks Authority crews accompanied by members of the Israeli Occupation forces stormed the neighborhood of Wadi A-Rababeh in Silwan on Monday and carried out excavations in several areas of the neighborhood to prepare for a 'pedestrian bridge.' The Israeli municipality is planning to build a bridge between A-Thori neighborhood [in Silwan] and the Nabi Daoud [King David] area through Wadi A-Rababeh neighborhood under the supervision of the so-called 'Jerusalem Development Authority.'
Municipal crews carried out excavations at several points in the Wadi A-Rababeh neighborhood to inspect the soil and to attempt to establish and install foundations for the intended bridge. The owners of the lands and Silwan residents prevented them from completing the drilling operations, so the crew moved to dig inside the settlement.
The land owners told the Information Center that they were surprised today by the invasion on their land and the digging operations to implement a new settlement project without informing them in advance so that they would be able to file objections to the relevant authorities to prevent it.
The residents added that Occupation authorities prevent the residents of Wadi A-Rababeh from using their lands or carrying out any restoration or planting work, only allowing them to harvest olive trees. The new plan means confiscating the lands in favor of settlement projects."
– Wadi Hilwe Information Center – Silwan
#0202_A_View_From_West_Jerusalem
"Would you say that building a pedestrian bridge that’s 200 meters long, and 30 meters above Ben Hinom Valley, one of Jerusalem’s most beautiful landscapes, should be discussed properly, and debated by the public, *before* work begins?
Yes, I thought so too. But hey, it’s problematic, so as usual they do it quickly and secretly, and we have to hear about it from rumors circling on the East Jerusalem social networks (thank you to the 0202 East Jerusalem page) [1].
The bridge will connect Hekel Damah to Zurich garden, meaning the slope of Abu Tor [neighborhood] to the slopes of mount Zion [2]. Access to points of interest from the bridge is not convenient, and the path is not exactly in high demand, so who needs it?
I’m guessing that the ‘Ir David’ Foundation [3] does. They have a Segway route that connects their different sites in the National park that surrounds the walls [of the Old City]. There’s going to be a restaurant, and a visitor’s center of theirs, at Hekel Damah, and I guess they felt like having a convenient connection to Sambusky Cemetery that is on the other side, a connection that will also allow a circular route.
And when it comes to the ‘Ir David’ Foundation, they could ask for a metallic pink dildo, 18-stories high, to be placed on top of the Jaffa gate, and the state authorities will be there immediately, explaining that the dildo will strengthen the Jewish connection to Jerusalem, proving to the whole world who was here first, and who Jerusalem belongs to, that it will bring Jerusalem into the 21st century, and anyway, according to some archeologists, this is the dildo of King David.
If, in order to Judaize sites in Jerusalem, in which (God help us) Arabs live, you are allowed to make use of prostitution [4], clearly no one is going to make a big deal of another routine story of rushed and secret planning, and damage to the landscape, for the sake of this holy cause."
– Shalom Boguslavsky, West Jerusalemite activist
[Selected Comments:]
– "a. We don’t know that they bridge will be ugly.
b. The fact that ‘Ir David’ Foundation is building the bridge, or is the behind its building, doesn’t mean that the residents of Silwan won’t be able to enjoy it.
c. In my opinion, this could be a nice connection between the east and west of the city. The safer both sides visiting the other side’s neighborhoods, the better.
– "The only consolation is that we’ll be able to demolish this bridge at some point."
—-
0202 Editor’s Notes:
[1] The Wadi Hilwe article was originally translated into Hebrew by the 0202 East Jerusalem page.
[21] Abu Tor is a part Jewish, part Arab neighborhood on a hill facing the Old City of Jerusalem. The valley that separates the the neighborhood from Mount Zion and the Old City is called Ben Hinom Valley, where the proposed bridge is to be erected.
[3] A foundation that works to strengthen the Jewish connection to Jerusalem, and increase the Jewish population in east Jerusalem.
[4] The writer is referring to a recent scandal: Phone conversations of high ranking officials in ‘Ateret Cohanim’ (an organization working to purchase lands in Jerusalem from Arab owners), revealed that they had used prostitutes in their attempts to convince potential sellers. For a previous 0202 post about the issue, see https://goo.gl/Gxw4oP.
#Silwan #Abu_Tor #Tourism #0202pov
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