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31°43′N 35°11′E / 31.717°N 35.183°E / 31.717; 35.183 Gilo (Template:Lang-he) is an Israeli Settlement and neighborhood of Jerusalem, located in the West Bank, south of East Jerusalem. It was established on land which has been de facto annexed by the State of Israel after the 1967 Six-Day War. Around 40,000 Israelis reside in the settlement, making it one of the largest in East Jerusalem.

Geography

Gilo lies on Slaiyeb mountain in the southwest quadrant of Jerusalem overlooking Beit Jala. It is separated from the more urban downtown by a large, forested recreation area. To Gilo's south, a deep gorge lies between it and Beit Jala. The Tunnels Highway to Gush Etzion runs underneath it on the east, and the settlement of Har Gilo, which shares its name, is visible across the gorge on the adjacent peak. North of Gilo are the Jerusalem neighbourhoods of Beit Safafa and Malha.

History

Biblical references

The biblical Judean town of Gilo (from which the current settlement takes its name) is mentioned in the Book of Joshua (Joshua 15:51) and the Book of Samuel (II Sam 15:12) as a town in the Judean hills. Its name was preserved by the neighboring Bethlehem suburb of Beit Jala.

Modern era

Some of Gilo's land was owned by Jewish institutions prior to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, though more than 2,700 dunams of land used to build Gilo were confiscated by the Israeli government from the nearby Arab towns of Beit Jala, Beit Safafa and Sharafat. Although the Israeli Government considers it a neighborhood of East Jerusalem since annexing East Jerusalem into Israel in 1980, this move was almost instantly rejected by the International Community, who considers it an Israeli settlement and Illegal under International Law. In 2001, following pressure from an Israeli advocacy group CNN issued a memorandum to its staff stating that "We refer to Gilo as a 'Jewish neighborhood on the outskirts of Jerusalem'... We don't refer to it as a settlement." This drew criticism from a number of Palestinians as well as some media watch groups.

Shooting incidents

Between 2000-2002, during the course of the Second Intifada, over 400 incidences of shooting from Beit Jala into Gilo took place. Though no residents were killed, some were seriously injured and there was much damage to property.

The mostly Palestinian Christian residents of Beit Jala reported that their homes were used against their will by Muslim militant groups, and believed that the strategy was designed to effect a demographic change in the area. They point to the Tanzim militants' choice of Christian Beit Jala to shoot from over other places where they could have similarly targeted Jerusalem, and their specific positioning in or near Christian homes, hotels and churches such as St. Nicholas, as well as institutions like the Greek Orthodox club, and their knowledge that a slight deviation in Israeli return fire would harm the Christian buildings.

Andreas Reinecke, head of the German Liaison office to the Palestinian Authority, protested:

I would like to draw your attention in this letter to a number of incidents which occurred at "Talitakoumi" school in Beit Jala...which is funded mainly by the Protestant Church in Berlin. Over the last few days the school staff noticed attempts on the part of several armed Palestinians to use the school premises and some of its gardens for their activities. If they succeed in doing this, an Israeli reaction will be inevitable. This will have a negative impact on the continuation of the functioning of the school, in which no less than 1,000 Palestinians study....You cannot imagine the kind of upheaval which will be provoked among the supporters of this school should they discover that the school premises are used as a battle ground.

Eventually the Israeli Government bulletproofed the outer row of homes. The shooting on Gilo ceased completely only after Operation Defensive Shield.

See also

• Positions on Jerusalem

References

1. ^ Settlements in East Jerusalem Foundation for Middle East Peace
2. ^ Letter dated 12 November 1986 from the Permanent Representative of Qatar to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General United Nations
3. ^ "One more Obstacle to Peace": A new Israeli Neighborhood on the lands of Jerusalem city Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem, 10 March 2007
4. Jerusalem Post
5. Oslo's last gasp: The implosion of the Palestinian Authority Foundation for Middle East Peace
6. Gilo & Har Choma
7. Letter to the Chicago Tribune CAMERA
8. מגזין הכיבוש Occupation Magazine
9. " Is Beit Jala burning?" Inside Israel, 4 September 2001
10. ^ Resolution 476 (1980) United Nations
11. The Incessant Expansions of the Illegal Israeli Settlements Puts the Peace Process at Stake Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem, 3 February 2007
12. Barak downbeat over Clinton talksBBC News, 13 November 2000
13. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2007/12/mil-071207-voa09.htm
14. Israel sticks to settlement policy BBC News, 6 May 2001
15. The Impact of the First Phase of Barrier on UNRWA-Registered Refugees UNWRA
16. Spotlight: Why is Gilo so important? BBC News, 16 August 2001
17. Euphemisms for Israeli Settlements Confuse Coverage FAIR, August 2002
18. Associated Press, as reported in Yoram Ettinger, "The Islamization of Bethlehem by Arafat," Jerusalem Cloakroom #117, Ariel Center for Policy Research, December 25, 2001.
19. Letter from Andreas Reinecke to Colonel Jibril Rajoub, Head of the PA Preventive Security Apparatus in the West Bank, May 5, 2002, from IDF Spokesperson, May 12, 2002.
20. Excerpts from Briefing by Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert on the Situation in Jerusalem Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 24 October 2000

• Neighbourhoods of Jerusalem
• Al-Aqsa Intifada