New Jewish Tourist Center in Palestinian Neighborhood

Palestinian Territories in Israel, 2014

            The Jewish and Palestinian people have had a never-ending issue on land in the area where the state of Israel is currently situated.  Since the years of the British Mandate in the 1920’s to the 1940’s the issue of territory claims have been a conflict between the Jews and the Palestinians.  In 1948, the state of Israel had been created and the Palestinians in the region have ever more been scattered.  In 2014, you can see where there are Palestinian settlements inside the Jewish state.  These territories are very precious to the Palestinians since they do not have much to claim.  According to the Ma’an News Agency, Israel is planning to build a Jewish tourist center on private Palestinian land.  The project is government sponsored by the Ir David Foundation.  One of the foundation’s commitments is development for tourism. Israel is planning to develop a Jewish history museum and national park in the eastern part of the neighborhood of Saliwan. 

Saliwan and threatened Palestinian neighborhood

This city is near the Al-Aqsa Mosque. This mosque is the third holiest site to the Islamic religion. Already you can see there is tenseness on the decisions by the Jews for the location of this proposed Jewish tourist center. The article goes on to address that the Wadi Hiweh Info Center condemned this project since it is threatening the many Palestinian homes in this area. There is a notice of the project posted in the area with language that states that the homes of the occupants will  essentially go into eminent domain if the occupants of this area do not leave. It is in Hebrew, so I cannot really see what it says.  Additionally, the article explains how some of the lands that the Palestinians are on have not really been registered, so they can be kicked off regardless. But I do not think that it should be Israel’s decision to make that happen.  The Wadi Center( linked above) also mentions that Jews have no historical roots in this area which contradicts the whole purpose of this project since the Israeli government wants to make a Jewish museum and a national history park.

            I tried to look into different opinions about this new project that Israel has decided to embark on because of the lack of information and shortness of this article. I unfortunately could not find different articles other than the information from the Wadi Hiweh Center.  Both articles did not display authors.  After reading the source from Ma’an News, I was curious as to why did Israel want to build another historical Jewish museum.  I thought about this after reading that the location the Israeli government chose was not really historical to the Jews. I wanted to know how many museums there were in Israel already. Israel and the Middle East alone, have fifteen museums providing history about the Jewish people. Globally there are much more than that in the UnitedStates, Europe, Canada, and Australia just to name a few. I thought this was really interesting to find that there are so many museums dedicated to the history of the Jewish people.  If Israel decides to build another historical park or museum, they should opt a more suitable area for a tourist center in their state and not on Palestinian land.  I think it would keep a sense of peace within the two cultures and keep them away from unnecessary conflicts. I hope there will be a follow up on this article as this develops more.