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 Jerusalem Development and Community Empowerment Project
For the past forty years, East Jerusalem was the locus of much migration on the part of its Palestinian population. While soon after 1967, Israeli policies first pushed Palestinians to reside outside the city, recent actions such as the checkpoints, the wall and the "center of life" plan caused a massive influx of Palestinians back into the east part of Jerusalem. This influx, combined with a natural demographic growth, put high pressure on the infrastructure of the city and, while Israel invested into the building of new settlements, no funding was allocated to the maintenance and sanitation of East Jerusalem, which lead to the creation of slums and concentration of poverty in certain areas. As a result, a phenomenon of sporadic and individual "illegal" construction was observed due to the difficulty of obtaining housing permits, this often led to house demolitions by the Israeli authorities. Today, 48,000 units should be built to reduce the population pressure in East Jerusalem and increase the Palestinian quality of life substantially. However, a fear of the Israeli planning system as well as a dire lack of access to civil society networks have prevented any sort of cohesive action on the part of the Palestinian communities towards Israeli authorities. In order to bring a solution to this growing problem, the multi-disciplinary staff of IPCC worked in partnership with the Cooperation for Development (CD) on a two-level project for the past 2 years. IPCC engaged in discussions with the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem and other Israeli institutions in order to negotiate the land supply of unplanned dunums for mass buildings reserved to the Palestinian population, thus tackling the planning and housing problem that the Palestinian Jerusalemites suffer in East Jerusalem neighborhoods. IPCC is the only Palestinian NGO in East Jerusalem that has a network of planners, engineers, maps, knowledge and database, as well as a strong relationship with the community. The aim then is to provide the Palestinian community with a greater say in the zoning and planning of Jerusalem through the initiatives of the IPCC and its partners as well as facilitating betterment of housing conditions and community empowerment with the help of the Lassalle Institut. In the long term, this project will re-invigorate the social and economic life of East Jerusalem as well as require the participation of communities and will hopefully attract intellectuals and middle-class populations back into the city. Beyond the Palestinian interests, the project will insure the sustainable development of the world city of peace and will foster peaceful cohabitation between the Israeli and Palestinian populations. Discussions wit Israeli institutions have been ongoing for the past two years and now seem to indicate a potential shift in their policies in favor of helping solve the housing crisis in East Jerusalem. |
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