Beit Safafa
Beit Safafa ( Arabic بيت صفافا, Hebrew בית צפאפא) is a residential Arab district in the West Bank south of the old city of Jerusalem .
geography
Beit Safafa is located in the middle between the Israeli new housing estates Pat and Gilo north of Bethlehem . In 2010 it had 5,463 inhabitants in an area of 1,577 dunams .
history
Beit Safafa was listed in the Ottoman tax register of 1596 as a place in the Nahiya (district) of Al-Quds (Jerusalem) and part of the Liwa of Al-Quds. The place had 41 households and wheat, rye, olives, grapevines or fruit trees as well as goats and beehives were subjected to the tax.
The Green Line established at the conclusion of the armistice after the Palestinian War in 1949 runs through the northern part of the town, which means that a small area lies within the internationally recognized state borders of Israel, but the majority of it belongs to the West Bank , which was controlled by Jordan until 1967 . Residents of the small northern Israeli part of Beit Safafa, provided they were not expelled or prevented from returning after their escape, were able to acquire Israeli citizenship. The areas immediately north of the Palestinian-Israeli residential areas were settled from 1949 onwards with Jewish-Israeli residents of the neighboring districts of Pat and Katamonim, which are gradually expanding southwards.
After its victory in the Six Day War in 1967, Israel declared all of Beit Safafa (like all of East Jerusalem and the surrounding parts of the West Bank) by law to be part of Jerusalem and Israeli territory, which is not recognized internationally as a measure contrary to international law. As a rule, the forcibly incorporated Palestinian residents did not receive Israeli citizenship, but a special ID card stating their permanent residence status with restricted rights, which includes, for example, freedom of movement and work permits throughout Israeli territory, but only grants local voting rights and can also be withdrawn by the Israeli authorities.
Since 1967, numerous Palestinians of Israeli nationality from different parts of Israel have settled in Beit Safafa.
In September 2017, an expressway construction project was completed, providing an important transport link between Jerusalem and Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank. Since construction began, the six-lane “Begin Expressway” (Road 50) has cut the town of Beit Safafa diagonally into two parts through its center and increases the existing scarcity of building land for natural expansion of the town's living space. The construction, which the residents tried to prevent legally, was approved in 2014 by a final decision of the Supreme Court.
Government plans to establish a large Jewish settlement in Giv'at Hamatos , in the West Bank immediately east of Beit Safafa, first announced in 2011 , were revived in 2017 after international protests and a break of several years.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Begin Highway project is Finally Completed, message from the Jerusalem City Council of September 28, 2017, accessed on December 21, 2017 (English)
- ↑ Beit Safafa residents angry over highway set to divide village, in: Jerusalem Post of January 27, 2014, accessed on December 21, 2017 (English)
- ↑ Israel resumes settlement project in Givat Hamatos, in: ORF.at from October 16, 2017, accessed on December 21, 2017
Coordinates: 31 ° 45 ' N , 35 ° 12' E