Just outside Jerusalem, immaculate buildings cling to the hillside of Har Homa. “It’s a new neighborhood, it’s only a dozen years old. 40,000 people live here”, explains Michail Edrei, a rabbi who arrived six years ago with his family to open a synagogue. He is one of approximately 675,000 Israelis who today live in settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. “What they say is that Jerusalem is for the Jews. Palestinians have plenty of places to live outside of this country, supports the religious. We’re here to guard every corner of Jerusalem, not just the Old City, that’s why we decided to live here.”
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Like Rabbi Michail, many residents of Har Homa are Messianic Jews. For them, colonization is encouraged by God to prepare for the coming of the messiah. Families also find new housing at this location much cheaper than in Jerusalem. Three bus lines connect the settlement to the city. Barely 15 minutes to reach the center, where prices have skyrocketed.
The first constructions began in the 1990s, as a cordon to isolate Jerusalem from the immediate vicinity of Bethlehem, the Palestinian. They jumped during the mandate of Donald Trump, a great supporter of colonization. On the contrary, his successor Joe Biden is firmly opposed to it. Arrived in Israel for his first visit as President of the United States, Wednesday July 13, Joe Biden intends to redress the position of the United States on the thorny question of colonization when Donald Trump had shown his full support for the settlers and former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “I could see that Donald Trump showed that he really loved Israel, emphasizes Ilana, a young retiree from Har Homa. He proved it by putting the embassy in Jerusalem. To make Jerusalem the focal point for the Jews of Israel and the United States.”
Negotiating with the Palestinians, according to Ilana, makes no sense: “If they want to live with us, in peace, and behave well, I pray for that. This is not a settlement, this is Jerusalem. This is the land of Israel, everything belongs to Israel.”
The thorny question of colonization at the heart of Joe Biden’s visit – the report by Claude Guibal and Benjamin Thuau
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