The occupation authorities are trying to impose an unacceptable organizational reality on the residents of the Jerusalemite neighborhood of Wadi al-Joz, by approving the establishment of the “Silicon Valley” project by the so-called development authority affiliated with its municipality.
The project prevents any possibility of expansion of the Wadi al-Joz neighborhood adjacent to Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem, and limits the natural urban expansion in the neighborhood.
The lawyer for the affected residents of Wadi al-Joz, Muhannad Jabara, considers the new reality that will be imposed on the residents to be “illogical and unacceptable for this Palestinian area.”
Speaking to Tel Aviv Tribune Net – following a session of the Israeli Central Court following objections from residents and merchants to the Silicon Valley project – he added that this project was approved without taking the residents’ opinions into consideration, a step that violates Israeli law itself, which requires regulatory authorities to seek advice from residents.
The population of Wadi al-Joz neighborhood ranges between 5 and 6 thousand people, and the new Judaization project will be implemented after demolishing 180 facilities in the industrial area of the neighborhood, most of which existed before the occupation of the city in 1967.
Jabara considers this “an attempt to impose a new demographic reality in Jerusalem through which the area will be emptied of its original Palestinian inhabitants.”
The occupation municipality promotes the “Silicon Valley” project as a high-tech project, completely ignoring the historical use of the place, which is considered an address for Jerusalemites in everything related to the maintenance of their vehicles in the industrial zone that was established before the occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967.
