50 years after war, settlements blur future borders
JERUSALEM — For many Israelis, Har Homa is another neighbourhood in Jerusalem, served by city bus lines and schools. Its quiet streets are lined with apartment buildings, pizza shops, supermarkets and pharmacies.
But for Palestinians and much of the world, this unassuming neighbourhood is far more. It is an illegal settlement in east Jerusalem, and in some ways, the most damaging.
Har Homa lies on one of the last spaces of land linking the Palestinian areas of the West Bank to their hoped-for capital in east Jerusalem. If city planners have their way, Har Homa will soon become one of Jerusalem’s largest Jewish neighbourhoods, expanding a presence that many believe has already dealt a devastating blow to the Palestinian dream of independence.
“It’s a feeling of helplessness,” said Aziz Abu Teir, the mukhtar, or community leader, of Umm Tuba, a neighbouring Palestinian village, as he stared from his balcony at the sprawling rows of apartment buildings across a ravine. “You can do nothing.”