During Hol Hamoed Succot, a resident of Motza found out that the municipality had approved the demolition of Steinberg House, the first house built in the village by its founders, which served as a winery. Itzik Shweky, the head of the Jerusalem district of the Council for Preservation of Heritage Sites, was the first person to be alerted by a neighbor. Shweky, though already used to this kind of emergency situation, was astonished this time. From that moment on, he became totally engaged in a race against the clock to save the historic building.

A building in the Bukharan Quarter as it was being illegally demolished.

"That's how it works here. Most of my time, I run to put out fires. It is Sisyphean and tough and despite all the improvements we see at the municipality, it's still not enough. Preservation is still not to be taken for granted in Jerusalem," says Shweky.

Almost a year after the election of Mayor Nir Barkat, most people involved in preservation issues agree that things are improving. After years of indifference shown by former mayors Ehud Olmert and Uri Lupolianski, a situation that resulted in many cases of demolition of architectural and historical treasures, a serious attempt at making a list of historic buildings is being made.

Architect and urban historian David Kroyanker once said that not everything should and could be protected and preserved, adding that urban processes must be allowed to run their natural course.

"The major question is what should be preserved and in what way. Do we have to preserve completely, preventing a natural process of urban growth? Or should we allow some partial preservation with adequate supplements?" asks Shweky.

In principle, the issue shouldn't be too complicated. Experts should define what has to be preserved and how, and the authorities - like the municipality - should see that structures slated for preservation should not be harmed. "In principle," says Shweky snidely. "In fact," he elaborates, "it's a daily struggle, and we don't always succeed."

Less than two months ago, an ad-hoc group of residents in the German Colony managed, with the support of the local neighborhood administration, to obtain the support of the mayor and his deputies to annul the plan to shut down the Smadar Theater and sell the plot to build a high-rise. More recently, another group of residents tried - and so far have succeeded - to prevent the closure of the Jerusalem Pool in the German Colony to turn it into a parking lot.

Residents, especially the middle and upper-middle classes, are well aware of their rights and of the possibility of opposing construction plans that do not fit the character of their neighborhood. At the municipality as well, the number of the environment- and preservation-minded is getting larger.

Since the last elections and the appointment of former head of the local branch of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel Naomi Tsur as deputy mayor, things are moving in the right direction. Three new committees relevant to environment and preservation issues have been formed: the Environment Committee, the Preservation Committee and the Urban Planning Committee. All three are headed by Tsur, who also created and headed the Coalition for a Sustainable Jerusalem for more than a decade.

Currently, any plan to build, renovate or add an extension to an existing building must pass through the Construction and Preservation committees, which check whether the building in question appears on one of several lists of sites slated for preservation. If it does, the committees must decide to what extent the building must be preserved. In some cases the landmark cannot be altered at all, in others the façade must be maintained and in still others, extensions may be added. The main concern is the compilation of a comprehensive list of historic buildings - as the current lists are incomplete - and the definitions of the parameters of the changes that will be permitted.

The new master plan for the city includes specific attention to preservation issues. The identification of the "historic city" in the different neighborhoods of Jerusalem, through a detailed program of localization of historic buildings and even of special trees, is in the process of registration and preservation. Although the plan is stuck at the moment at the Interior Ministry, which doesn't like some of its aspects, preservation nonetheless has clearly become a major concern within the various authorities of the city.

"So basically, the whole issue is in good hands," says Shweky. "But there is still so much to do. Things take so much time, while law-breakers keep on destroying our heritage. And also, it must be stated, not all the decisions of these committees match what we have in mind regarding new projects and construction in the city."

The Knesset passed a bill in 1994 to create a statutory committee on the city council whose task would be to submit its professional recommendations for a preservation list to the district planning committee. The law adds that in cases of debates that are originally submitted at the district committee (and not handed over after a first debate at the local planning committee), an expert in the matter of preservation must be present. "This expert doesn't have the right to vote, but his presence and his impact are quite meaningful, and he is part of the professional team of the committee," says Tsur.

In the 1970s and '80s, the municipality of Jerusalem created a list of buildings slated for preservation. A list compiled in 1984 contains 110 structures of historical, architectural and artistic value - among them the Schocken Library close to the Prime Minister's Residence, and the main post office on Jaffa Road. Later, in 1989, others such as Mishkenot Sha'ananim, Yemin Moshe (including the old Sephardi synagogue), the Schneller Compound, the Anglican school on Rehov Hanevi'im and the Morasha neighborhood (Musrara) were added.

Between 1998 and 2002, a team of experts from the municipality and from the Jerusalem Institute of Israel Studies, under the direction of the city engineer, discussed the details of the list and all the additional structures included since. Still, according to Shweky, there are too many neighborhoods, such as Rehavia, Romema and Makor Baruch, that are not yet included nor preserved.