ADALAH to file challenge to Israeli Apartheid policies favoring settlers

April 2009

Dear Colleagues,

Greetings to you from Adalah. Below please find a press release concerning a hearing tomorrow, Monday 27 April 2009 at 9 am before a Jerusalem planning committee on an objection filed by Adalah against the Eastern Ring Road. A short briefing paper on the objection is attached for your information.

ADALAH PRESS RELEASE
26 April 2009

Tomorrow, Monday 27 April 2009 at 9 a.m at Shlomzion Hamalka Street 1, Jerusalem:

Jerusalem Planning Committee to Hear Objection Filed by Adalah to the Eastern Ring Road

(Haifa, Israel) Tomorrow, Monday 27 April 2009 at 9 a.m., an investigator nominated by the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee, which is part of the Israeli Interior Ministry, will hear objections submitted by Adalah as well as other groups against the plan for The Eastern Ring Road ? Central Section. Following these arguments, a member of the Jerusalem Municipality will then respond to the objections. Adalah Attorney Suhad Bishara will represent the objectors before the investigator and set forth the main arguments against the plan.

The objection submitted by Adalah on 2 March 2008 demanded the cancellation of the plan, which is essentially intended to create an apartheid road that, if implemented, would confiscate vast amounts of Palestinian private property, isolate Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem from one other, and sever East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank.

Adalah filed the objection on behalf of Palestinian human rights and community organizations which are members of the Civic Coalition for Defending the Palestinians' Rights in Jerusalem (CCDPRJ); the mayors of Abu Dis, Izzariya, Suahara; and a group of Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem. The objection was filed by Adalah Attorneys Fatmeh El-?Ajou and Suhad Bishara and Adalah?s Urban and Regional Planner, Hana Hamdan.

The plan is part of a broad project that encompasses East and West Jerusalem and contains two main sections, an Eastern and Western ring road. The ring road is planned on vast stretches of land (amounting to approximately 1,200 dunams), most of which would be expropriated from its private Palestinian owners. The planned route runs alongside the following Palestinian neighborhoods, to the west of the route: Sala, Jabis, Bashir, Sakriyat, Al-Qunbar, Hai al-Madaris, Umm Lison and Zur Bahar; and to the east the following Palestinian towns and neighborhoods: Abu Dis, Surhai, Sawahri Sharqiya and Sheikh Sa?ad. The Eastern Ring Road is the only remaining part of the project yet to be completed.
Adalah expects that the sub-committee for objections, which is comprised of representatives from the Ministries of Transportation and Justice, planners, and the head of the Mateh Yehuda Regional Council, will decide in the coming months on whether to accept or deny the objections or to make changes to the plan.

For more information including a short briefing paper on the objection, see: http://www.adalah.org/eng/pressreleases/pr.php?file=08_03_17.

Phone contact: Salah Mohsen, Adalah Media Coordinator, Mobile: 052-595-0922
Adalah ? The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel is an independent human rights organization. It works to promote and defend the rights of Palestinians in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). Visit our website at http://www.adalah.org/eng/index.php