Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Jewish Purchases in Jerusalem Have PA Concerned


Hillel Fendel
A7 News

Jewish efforts and successes in spurring on the historic process of the national return to Jerusalem have the Palestinian Authority concerned. Speaking on Yemenite Television this week, Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas said that while Israel and “world Zionism” act every day to “Judaize” the city, Arab efforts to make the city Arab are “paltry.” Long known by his nom de guerre Abu Mazen, Abbas provided financing for the terrorist attack that killed 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany.

Though he compared the current Arab efforts with the “billions” that Jews are spending on behalf of the Holy City, Abbas also hinted that Arabs are not doing enough militarily for Jerusalem.

“The Palestinians are working and are getting killed,” he said. “The second intifada erupted because of [former Prime Minister Arie Sharon’s visit to [the Temple Moun and the desecration of the mosque, and it lasted seven years. This time, therefore, the matter of Jerusalem requires a much greater effort, something much more practical. It’s not enough to talk about Jerusalem in books, nor to give sermons in mosques; there is a need to work for her.”

In fact, Jews from throughout the world are taking part in keeping Jerusalem safe for the Jewish People and Israel. The Ohr Sameach yeshiva, for instance, is planning a new campus in Nachalat Shimon, a newly renewed Jewish neighborhood just northeast of the famous Me’ah She’arim quarter. Efforts – usually expensive ones - are constantly underway not only to develop, renovate, and zone properties in the neighborhood, but mainly to eject illegal Arab squatters who live there.

Slightly to the south, in Musrara (Morashah), just outside Damascus Gate, similar efforts are underway. Four Jewish families currently live there, and if the efforts are successful, more will soon be on their way.

The Jerusalem Capital Development Foundation, actively and financially dedicated to reclaiming and strengthening the Jewish presence in historic Jerusalem, is among the organizations that, inter alia, conducts tours around eastern Jerusalem. The tours feature the various Jewish projects in the area, as well as explanations of the issues at hand – with an emphasis on the dangers of another division of Jerusalem.

Yeshivat Beit Orot, Jerusalem’s first hesder yeshiva, also conducts tours of the in-the-news areas of the Holy City. Beit Orot, located in a critically strategic area between Mt. of Olives and Mt. Scopus, is also at the forefront of the pioneering development efforts in historic Jerusalem.

The Ateret Cohanim Association, which already owns 20 properties in what is known as the Moslem Quarter of the Old City, has operative plans to purchase six more. Some 900 Jews currently live in the Old City – not including the Jewish Quarter – and the purchase of these properties will increase the number to 1,000.

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