Toward the end of a particularly stormy meeting of the local planning and construction committee this past November at city council, the chairman, Deputy Mayor Meir Turgeman, didn't disappoint the local press, which is always looking for juicy headlines. “You are all trash, you will not hold us by our b-lls!” shouted Turgeman at Israel Kellerman, a member of the United Torah Judaism list at city council. The issue at stake was Kellerman's sudden withdrawal from his commitment to approve the construction of four kindergartens in the religious neighborhood of Givat Mordechai – two religious and two haredi. Instead, he voted against it, arguing that the haredi sector required all four kindergartens. Turgeman's frequent – and spectacular – verbal pyrotechnics are not “news” and do not surprise anyone anymore. Once asked how his deputy could be controlled, the rumor is that Mayor Nir Barkat responded honestly that he could control everything at Safra Square “except Turgeman.” No matter whether Turgeman's outbursts are uncontrollable or just a brilliant and somewhat sophisticated method to get his way, as some observers have suggested over the years, he has certainly enhanced his reputation – turning a small municipal committee into a body that is conspicuous at both the national and international levels. Even the most negligible and routine construction plan submitted to the committee raises the attention of politicians on Jerusalem's Balfour Street as well as at key locations around the globe. About two months ago, in reaction to a terrorist act in the city, Turgeman removed from the committee's agenda a plan that was already in the approval process, to build hundreds of housing units for the Arab sector, “until they [the Arab residents] understand that the carrots [referring to the carrot-and-stick approach] are finished.” This decision became “hot news” in the international press within hours, embarrassing the Prime Minister's Office but broadening the smile on Turgeman's face. Those housing units have not yet been returned to the agenda. The local planning and construction committee deals with all aspects of building in the city – from adding a room to an existing house to large new construction plans, including those that change the capital's physical appearance, like towers, as well as the light rail project. With regard to the light rail, the Blue Line planned to connect Ramot to Gilo through the German Colony has raised a lot of anger among groups of residents. Though he made it clear from the beginning that he supported the route that runs along Emek Refaim Street, Turgeman convinced Barkat to give the residents three more months before submitting the project to the district committee. However, the time extension didn't change anything and the project has been submitted to the district committee as is, subject to the residents' objections. For now, the only ones affected by the Emek Refaim segment that Turgeman is ready to listen to and even spare some generous budgets to help are the business owners and merchants on that street. As for residents opposed to the route, Turgeman says that “there will be no NIMBY [not in my backyard] issues taken into consideration. These residents will simply have to get used to it. This is a city, not private property.” A particularly sensitive aspect of the committee's work is meeting the needs of the Arab and haredi sectors. Turgeman's position has always been that solutions to ultra-Orthodox needs should be implemented, as much as possible, inside haredi neighborhoods, so as to avoid friction between haredim and secular residents. Thus, he has demonstrated repeated readiness to promote any construction project for this sector, despite the fact that most of the existing plans aim at construction in neighborhoods beyond the Green Line. Ramat Shlomo and the frozen project to build thousands of housing units in Atarot – thus far not submitted to the local committee for unclear reasons – are all beyond the line. Sources in Safra Square say that while there is no question that these two projects are urgently needed to address the housing need in the haredi sector, the Ramat Shlomo project is progressing very slowly and the Atarot project is regarded as nonexistent for the moment. Perhaps even more sensitive is the issue of building – private or through public tenders – in the Arab sector. While projects for Jewish residents inside Arab neighborhoods are intensifying, construction plans there for Arab residents are few, and there are a growing number of demolition orders for illegal construction. Between May and December 2016, five new demolition orders were issued in Walaja (a neighborhood divided by the Green Line in south Jerusalem near Bethlehem). Last week, building inspectors from the Finance Ministry issued demolition orders for an additional five illegally constructed housing units in Walaja. (In the past, building inspectors were under the authority of the Interior Ministry but were moved to the Finance Ministry when the new government came into power.) According to Ir Amim, an NGO monitoring construction rights of Arab residents in the city, this is the third time since April that demolition orders have been issued in the part of Walaja annexed to Jerusalem. More recently, with the expectation of a change in US policy regarding building when US President-elect Donald Trump takes office, Turgeman vowed to advance some 7,000 housing units over the Green Line, and last week advanced plans for 500 new housing units in Ramat Shlomo. In the coming weeks, the committee is planning to approve plans for construction of 140 housing units in Pisgat Ze'ev, another 262 in Ramat Shlomo and 216 in Ramot. These are new plans to be added to the already approved construction projects in Gilo on the southern slopes: 770 housing units that received final approval at the end of last year, expanding Gilo towards Beit Jala. As for the request for a building permit for a new Jewish housing project in Silwan already submitted to the committee, it is waiting for the Supreme Court to hear an appeal against the eviction of a family occupying a building there – a step necessary to implement the project. A second, sensitive Silwan project submitted to Turgeman's committee last week for approval was a four-story building to be constructed on a vacant plot there. The request was issued by a company owned by members of the Ateret Cohanim organization. Ir Amim believes the Israeli Custodian General sold the plot to the Ateret Cohanim group without the usual public tender process a few years ago. The plot is located across the street from Beit Yehonatan, a building owned by Ateret Cohanim. The High Court of Justice ordered two illegal stories of Beit Yehonatan to be sealed some 10 years ago, but that order hasn't been implemented. Asked why this court decision hasn't been carried out, a municipality spokesman stated that the schedule for demolition orders is planned with the Justice Ministry. Asked why his committee approved this project despite procedural flaws, Turgeman replied that “these are not serious flaws, everything will be taken care of according to the law.” (According to the plans submitted, part of the building stands on a plot not owned by Ateret Cohanim, and one story designated in the permit as storage will actually be for residential use.) According to figures in the last State Comptroller's Report, only 20% of the construction permits or plans approved by the city's local committee were in Arab neighborhoods. All parties involved say the problems stem from the lack of planning in these neighborhoods, and not the refusal to issue such permits. Since the reunification of the city, 50 years have passed, yet there are still no master plans in the Arab neighborhoods, as there are on the western side, and this has an impact on the ability to deliver more construction permits.
(photo credit: WIKIMEDIA)