* The project is located on sign #6 in the above map.

Location
The Hinnom Valley

Initiator
Elad Settlers’ Association

Implementer
Jerusalem Development Authority, Elad Settlers’ Association.

Budget
NIS 5.1 million

Project Description
On roughly 60 dunams of privately owned Palestinian land, owned by residents of Silwan and Abu Tor (some of which have been declared as “absentee property”), the Center is meant to create a tourism attraction by replacing Palestinian agricultural landscape with an artificial, supposedly biblical landscape, created by the Elad Settlers’ Association.
Even though this project is run by the Elad Settlers’ Association, it has enjoyed full institutional support through funding, land allocation, or by turning a blind eye, including from the Jerusalem Development Authority, Jerusalem Municipality, Nature and Parks Authority, Custodian for Absentee Properties, Antiquities Authority, the Ministry of Jerusalem and Kadishah Company.
The Center was created through landscaping orders issued by the Jerusalem Municipality. Such orders are issued by the municipality to expropriate unused private green spaces, since they are allegedly located in the heart of a national park, where construction is prohibited. In this case, it was done even though Palestinians have been cultivating the land, and in fact still have olive groves they are now barred from. Additional landscaping orders have been issued in the areas adjacent to the “Bayit Ba’Gai” settler project.
The development works in the Center are a real blow to the historic character of the valley. The works that simulate an agricultural landscape, while pushing traditional Palestinian agriculture out of the area, reveal the absurdity and political use made by the state, the municipality, and the settlers’ associations in the national park. In this process, the authorities use the law to prevent the Palestinians from using their land, while circumventing the law through various manipulations to destroy the ancient (Palestinian) landscapes in the area.

Status
Opened in the summer of 2022, the “farm” is active; the Elad Settlers’ Association has begun operating the farm and allowing tours (for Israeli soldiers, pupils, and the general Israeli public). The farm is promoted as a tourist attraction that offers visitors a “Biblical” experience in the form of agricultural work.

Approving Entity
The Custodian of Absentee Properties took over the land in 2021, after Elad Settlers’ Association had begun its work in the area. However, it was discovered that two years prior, the Custodian had authorized the Nature and Parks Authority to use it, even though it officially had no authority over it.
Landscaping orders were issued by Jerusalem Municipality.

Objections
Emek Shaveh, Peace Now, Palestinian families from Silwan.

Picture above by ACAP.

Picture above by Uri Urlich.