The Interior Ministry’s Jerusalem office has approved a plan to build a Jewish hotel in eastern Jerusalem, between Rockefeller Museum and Yeshivat Beit Orot.
The land on which the hotel complex is to be built is city-owned land and is to be developed for attracting tourism and public activities. The land is currently used for an Arab open-air market and an Arab kindergarten. Though the new plan calls for the kindergarten to be rebuilt in the new complex, a report in Haaretz stated only that the plan “will require the existing wholesale market to be demolished, along with a Palestinian kindergarten.”
Though Jews do not currently frequent the area in massive numbers, it is hoped that the new hotel and commercial complex will change this situation.
The hotel, to be built by the state-owned Jerusalem Economic Corporation, is to have 200 rooms and will be partly underground. Its top floor will command a view of the scenic Mt. of Olives and the Kidron Valley.
The Interior Ministry Planning Committee’s policy is to support and advance hotel plans in Jerusalem, in recognition of their importance in general city development and of the potential inherent in the development of the public areas in the region.
On Monday, the Interior Ministry approved another plan for Jewish construction slightly to the south, at the foot of Mt. of Olives in the City of David. The land there is also municipality-owned, although dozens of Arab residences are located there. Supporters of the Jewish development of Jerusalem told Israel National News, “The decision itself is important in what it tells the world about our connection to Jerusalem – even if, as we expect, it is not implemented in the near future.”