The Shepherd Hotel

The Shepherd Hotel was a hotel in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem.

Origins

The building was built in the 1930s as a home for the Muslim Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who never lived there. As he was deported by the British mandate government in 1937,[1] the building was confiscated and turned into a military outpost for the British Army.

At the end of the period of the British Mandate, following the 1948 war, the building was transferred to the ownership of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, like the rest of East Jerusalem, which expanded the original structure by adding a wing to serve as the Shepherd Hotel, mostly used by pilgrims. Following the Six-Day War, Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the hotel was declared "absentee property" (AP) and became the property of the Government of Israel under the "Absentee Property Law". It was used by the Ministry of Justice and as a district courthouse.

The land use of the building is part of Plan 2591 approved in 1982 by the Jerusalem District Committee of the Interior Ministry, and is designated for residential use.

The Israeli government sold the building and surrounding land in 1985 (November 5) to "C and M properties", a corporation controlled by Irving Moskowitz, a Jewish-American business man, supporter of Israeli settlers activities in East Jerusalem, who also partially funded the Hasmonean Tunnel. With the beginning of the first Intifada in 1987, the Border Police leased the building and stayed there for about 15 years before moving to their new building alongside Highway One.

Demolition

Following the zoning of Plan 2591, a request was made on November 6, 2008 to permit construction by C and M Properties Ltd. of two new residential buildings, which include 20 apartments, underground parking, flat roofs, and two floors above the parking level. In March 2009, the project appeared on the agenda of the licensing committee of the Jerusalem Municipality but was removed later. But on July 2, 2009, at the height of U.S. efforts to press Israel to adopt a settlement freeze in order to get the peace process going, the Local Planning Committee of the Jerusalem Municipality approved the request, which included the destruction of the existing buildings on the property, except for the historic structure designated for preservation. The United States voiced its displeasure over the project to Israel's Washington ambassador in 2009 after the plan received the green light from Israel's Jerusalem municipality, a direct challenge to President Barack Obama and his effort to launch negotiations that can lead to Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Arab peace.

On March 23, 2010, final permits were issued hours before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Obama in Washington. The demolition works began on January 9, 2011.

The High Court of Justice ruled in February 2012 that the Husseini family could not claim ownership of the landmark. In dismissing the family's case, the court said too much time had passed since Israeli authorities had transferred the property to private developers for a legal challenge to be brought. The new building is the first settlement construction in Sheikh Jarrah since 1967.

References

  1. ↑ Middle East Monitor

External links

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