Mr. Freeze comes to Ma’aleh Adumim

December 6, 2009 - 10:20 AM by David

Palestinians build Ma'aleh Adumim. (Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski)

The whole brouhaha surrounding last week’s declaration of a 10-month building freeze in the settlements of the West Bank has been somewhat of a theoretical one for most people.

Critics have called it a draconian measure that takes no account the difference between settlement blocs in the national consensus, and ‘contentious’ settlements that could end up on the negotiating table.

I live in one of those ‘settlements’ in the national consensus – at least I’ve always thought I have (and anyone who doesn’t think so is evidently out of the national consensus). Ma’aleh Adumim is a city, actually, about eight kilometers (5 miles) from Jerusalem. As pleased as I am to be living there, I can see how its expansion with new buildings and homes in undeveloped areas could indeed put ‘facts on the ground’ that could alter the shape of a future Palestinian state.

So, as the liberal moderate I am, I can see some logic to the government’s freeze in that respect. However, as a neighbor discovered last week, it’s not just a freeze on approving new buildings.

He went to the local municipality to fill out a zoning license to build a porch and add a bedroom onto his apartment, which was originally built 15 years ago. He was told that all building permits, including additions to existing buildings, have been frozen.

I mean, c’mon guys. This apartment is already lost to the Palestinians – it’s not going to be part of their state, whether there’s an extra bedroom and porch or not.

In the meantime, there’s still a long line of Palestinian laborers queuing up each morning to enter my city to work on the construction of buildings which had previously been approved and are going up in desert areas where there have never been buildings before. If there was more thought put into this, maybe those are the areas where the freeze should be implemented, not on additions to 15-year-old buildings.

Share with others