February 2018 - Har Homa with "Tzahor"

Har Homa is a Jerusalem neighborhood south east of the city that is actually closer in proximity to Bethlehem in the West Bank than it is to downtown Jerusalem. This tour was led by representatives from the local community association, along with Yossi Havilio of the NGO Tzahor, which provides free legal advice and assistance. Tzahor helped Har Homa residents oppose the installation of a waste dump facility on the edge of their neighborhood. Besides this and other environmental concerns, we focused on the geopolitical context the neighborhood exists in, and other challenges in creating a thriving neighborhood so far from the city itself.

Despite its relative high density, the streets of Har Homa are nearly always empty. Its lack of employment opportunities (one or two elementary schools, a supermarket, and a few small businesses) most residents have to commute to Jerusalem or beyond for work every day. Since there aren’t any middle or high schools, even older children have to commute to area schools, creating frantic traffic jams at the neighborhoods single exit, and leaving a ghost town during the day.

 Beyond its domestic challenges, the neighborhood suffers from isolation and disconnection from its neighbors. As mentioned before, neighboring hillsides are populated by Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem on one side, and Palestinian neighborhoods of Bethlehem on the other. Hundreds of meters apart and divided by valleys and highways, the neighbors never cross paths. A few years back the neighborhood council, in partnership with the Jerusalem municipality attempted to build a shared soccer field for use by both residents of Har Homa and neighboring Um Tuba, as a way to foster interaction and physically connect the two Jerusalem neighborhoods. Har Homa vehemently protested the project, and it was cancelled.

Built as a blatant Israeli geopolitical symbol in the West Bank shortly before the the second intifada, today Har Homa is an oft forgotten bedroom community disconnected from the urban fabric of Jerusalem.

Har Homa's topography and attempt at high-density residences has lent to the lego-like, uniform construction seen  here. 

 

Unfortunately, on the day of our tour the weather was extremely foggy and offered limited visibility.  

 

 

Har Homa is located over the "green line" and is not physically connected to Jerusalem.