Jerusalem Court Halts Funding for Silwan Settlement Visitor Center
Translated & summarized from Arab48 by baba
The Jerusalem District Court has canceled government funding for a settlement visitor center in Silwan, ruling against a conflict of interest involving the Benvenisti Trust and the Ateret Cohanim settlement group. The project, slated for a building from which five Palestinian families were evicted, was to receive up to three million shekels from the Ministry of Heritage. This ruling follows years of legal challenges by the Ir Amim organization and local residents, who are also pursuing separate litigation to counter settlement expansion in the area.
The story in 5 lines · by baba
- Jerusalem court canceled funding for a settlement visitor center in Silwan due to conflict of interest.
- The project was planned by the Ateret Cohanim settlement group and received government funding.
- Five Palestinian families were evicted from the building designated for the visitor center.
- Ir Amim and Batn al-Hawa residents have been fighting the settlement project legally since 2020.
- The ruling halts the current agreement, requiring new measures to address conflicts of interest.
The Jerusalem District Court has canceled government funding for a Jewish settlement visitor center in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem. The court accepted a lawsuit filed by the Ir Amim organization and residents of the Batn al-Hawa area against the funding, which was intended for a center operated by the Ateret Cohanim settlement group. The court ruled that an agreement between the Benvenisti Trust and the Madreshet Kدمat Yerushalayim association, controlled by Ateret Cohanim, was invalid due to a conflict of interest among the trust's trustees and the settlement association. The Israeli Ministry of Heritage had allocated up to three million shekels for the project, planned for a building from which five Palestinian families were evicted. Trustees linked to Ateret Cohanim are pursuing legal actions to evict approximately 100 Palestinian families from their homes in the neighborhood to further settlement expansion. This ruling follows years of legal efforts by Ir Amim and Batn al-Hawa residents. The project was initially frozen in 2020 after legal action by Ir Amim, but was revived in 2022 with political intervention from ministers Gideon Sa'ar and Ze'ev Elkin, prompting renewed legal challenges. Judge David Zeller stated that the influence of Ateret Cohanim's interests on the trust's decisions was not merely theoretical, suggesting that the trustees' relationships with the settlement group may have dictated the property's use rather than the trust's objectives. The current agreement cannot proceed as is, and any future plans require measures to address the conflict of interest. Separately, Ir Amim and Batn al-Hawa residents have an ongoing lawsuit against the trust's trustees and Ateret Cohanim's control over it. Ir Amim called the ruling a significant achievement against the exploitation of the Benvenisti Trust to promote settlement and displace Palestinian families, aiming to turn the property into a tourism center for its settlement project.
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