Israel – Dov Hikind Leads Cornerstone-Laying Ceremony at Nof Zion, As Obama Protests Building Expansion [Photos]

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    Dov Laying The Cornerstone Photo Credit: Heshy RubinsteinIsrael – Dov Hikind, a member of the New York State Assembly, was in this disputed city on Wednesday looking for property to buy. He said he was most excited about a new apartment complex overlooking the Old City called Nof Zion.

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    At noon, Mr. Hikind, led a group of about 50 American Jews in laying a cornerstone for the next phase of Nof Zion, with construction scheduled to start next spring. “I want to buy here,” Mr. Hikind said. “I might make a deal while I am here this time.”

    More than a real estate deal, though, it would be a statement: Nof Zion, a private Jewish project, is located in Jebel Mukaber, a Palestinian Arab neighborhood of East Jerusalem, in territory that Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 war. Israel claims sovereignty over all Jerusalem; the Palestinians demand the eastern part as the capital of a future state.

    Scroll down for more photos from Israel.

    Even within Israel, the idea of Jews moving into predominantly Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem stirs heated debate. Two well-known Israeli families refused City Hall’s offer of naming the street leading to Nof Zion for their deceased relatives, according to the local Jerusalem press.

    But illustrating the complexity of the Jerusalem conundrum, others argue that Jews, Christians and Muslims should be able to live wherever they like. Not allowing Jews to live in certain neighborhoods of the city “is segregation,” said Mr. Hikind, a Democrat who represents several heavily Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn.

    With new tensions surfacing between the Obama administration and Israel over building in contested parts of Jerusalem, the character and future of the city remain central motifs in the long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

    The cornerstone-laying ceremony at Nof Zion came a day after the Israeli authorities moved ahead with plans for the expansion of Gilo, a Jewish residential district in south Jerusalem on land that was also captured in the 1967 war. The plans for 900 additional housing units drew a sharp rebuke from the White House.

    President Obama, speaking to Fox News from Beijing, said “additional settlement building does not contribute to Israel’s security” and makes peace-making harder. “I think it embitters the Palestinians in a way that could end up being very dangerous,” he said.

    From 1948 to 1967 Jerusalem was divided between Jordanian and Israeli rule. It has been united, at least nominally, under Israeli control for the past 42 years. In that time, the parts of Jerusalem claimed by the Palestinians have turned into a patchwork of Arab and new Jewish neighborhoods, home to up to 250,000 Palestinians and roughly 190,000 Jews.

    So long as the populations live in separate quarters, advocates of twostates, Israel and Palestine co-existing side by side, say a formula for an agreement on Jerusalem can still be found, with the Jewish areas administered by Israel and Arab areas coming under the control of the Palestinian authorities in the West Bank.

    But critics charge that mingling the two populations will destroy the prospects for a two-state solution. As a first step toward resuming the peace process, the Obama administration and the Palestinian leadership had been trying to get Israel to halt all settlement activity to create a more conducive environment for talks. The Israeli government has offered to slow down construction but not halt it completely, and it refuses to include Jerusalem in any settlement freeze.

    Mr. Hikind vociferously opposes the Obama stance, which means, he says, that Jewish residents “cannot build a toilet” in the West Bank. He says he is also for peace, only “unfortunately, it is not happening” right now.

    Earlier this week his party toured the Jewish settlements of Samaria in the northern West Bank with a view to buying houses or trailers to rent out to settler families. On Wednesday morning, before the cornerstone ceremony, they toured Silwan and other Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem where Jewish religious nationalists have moved in.

    Nof Zion is built on privately owned land that an Israeli developer bought over the years. In the first stage of the project 91 apartments were built, of which 70 are already occupied. There are kindergartens, a small park with a jungle gym and plans for a domed synagogue.

    Across town, in the Arab East Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya, the Israeli authorities on Wednesday demolished a Palestinian home that had been built without a permit.

    When it comes to demolitions, Jerusalem’s City Hall says it applies the law equally in all parts of the city, regardless of religion or race. But officials acknowledge that the process of obtaining a building permit is costly and extremely complicated. Most Palestinian residents do not qualify.

    Instead, many of them feel that the Israelis are trying to push them out.

    “In Gilo they are building, here they are demolishing,” said Abdul Halim Dari, 44, the owner of the destroyed house.

    All Photos Credit to Brooklyn’s famous photographer Heshy Rubinstein who is traveling along with the Assemblyman


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    27 Comments
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    yoelg
    yoelg
    14 years ago

    Dov: what abbout hisgars beims? dont take out the palestitn from ther hole, we dont need more teror attect, sham on you dov

    Kudos
    Kudos
    14 years ago

    Dov your work in Congress is fantastic. As a Congressman, you can do so much as you are doing in Israel and BP. You will always have my vote for Congress.

    Shimmy
    Shimmy
    14 years ago

    Dov your the best!!! keep up your good work!!!

    Milhouse
    Milhouse
    14 years ago

    Boruch Hashem, Jewish houses are being built, and our enemies’ attempts to colonise our land are being thwarted, at least for once. When one sees such projects as this one, one must say a bracha with shem umalchus: ברוך אתה ה׳ אלקינו מלך העולם מציב גבול אלמנה.

    mojo
    mojo
    14 years ago

    baruch hashem keep up the work

    Mr T.
    Mr T.
    14 years ago

    I believe that Dov is endangering his and his families life. Dov please..

    bp boy
    bp boy
    14 years ago

    Shame on you dov ! How about bldg some houses in bp for your commu! I’m sure you would not get so much coverge maybe that’s why u don’t build here

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Thank you Dov! Since you represent us We all feel as having a share in this and you are the shaliach.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Allthough I don’t agree with the obamanation , its kind of radical what dov is doing…too much kahane style , I like dov he does allot of good for us in BP , this is a little crazy , just my 2 cents

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    These theatrics make great photo ops but they complicate the president’s efforts to achieve a just peace settlement for EY and the Palestinians. If more bloodshed is what he wants, than this is a great symbolic achievement but I doubt it will do much for the security of jews living in Israel.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Wonderful, a New York Assemblyman conidering buying a vacation condo in Israel so as to help start another Intafada….We should be kvelling that our New York legislators have nothing better to do while the state budget is falling apart and he is meddling in foreign policy matters

    Yossi
    Yossi
    14 years ago

    It’s sad the way everybody is thinking but the gemara in ms’ ktibot tells us very clearly what the punishment is…

    Crazy
    Crazy
    14 years ago

    Crazy Americans always making trouble. Wasn’t it last week with the crazy American terrorist in EY?

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    dov the last time you ran for office it was is NY Not in Jersulem

    Jewish Jerusalem
    Jewish Jerusalem
    14 years ago

    Since the Arabs believe and will convince the world that all of Jerusalem is theirs, those who have apartments in Rechavia, Sharei Chesed, Bayit Vegan, Sanhedria, Givat Shaul and beyond the greenline Har Nof are in danger. Jerusalem was given to the Yidden for their capital and place of the future bais hamikdash. Thank hashem there are geborim like Dov and his kehilla that will find time in a trip to EYisroel to erect a corner stone in a new neighborhood. There is a major zechus to own property and even more so to live in Yerushaylaim. Wonder how many of you are speaking angrily from jealousy and envy??? Baruch Hashem to see Yerushaylim growning, flouirshing and full of yiddishish kinder.
    Dov, find time to make even more ‘corner stone’ happenings.

    GG Jew
    GG Jew
    14 years ago

    I am neither American nor Israeli but it seems clear to me that Mr Hikind, for all the good work he does in BP, has no business making such overtly political moves in another country. If he wanted to go buy himself a holiday home in Israel then fine, but how is it his business to make a whole tour and show of it? As a public figure in the US he should remain slightly more neutral, at least in public, for the good of his constituents back home. If he wants to up sticks and become a settler then good luck to him, but not at the same time.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    i was on the trip with dov hikind. it was the most amazing trip i ever took and i have been to israel over 20 times. jewish protesters told us to go home. i answered them that i am home.