THE SILWAN LAND DISPUTE is discussed by the Mayor of Jerusalem:

Barkat may relocate Silwan residents

By ETGAR LEFKOVITS (Jerusalem Post)

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat hopes to reach an agreement on the relocation of Arab residents living in illegally constructed homes in east Jerusalem's Silwan neighborhood, to make way for a planned archaeological park adjacent to the City of David.

"This is one of the most strategic sites in the city, on an international level, which must be an open public area," Barkat said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. "It is certainly much more important than Central Park in New York."

The 49-year-old self-made hi-tech millionaire-turned-mayor said that he was determined to reach a solution to the problem in the coming months, together with both city residents and the government, after the issue is thoroughly planned by a municipal committee and deliberated in public.

"It is inconceivable that we will not follow the rule of law in the city," he said. "The question is, how do you get from the current situation to the desirable one."

He said it was fair to assume that deliberations between the two sides would lead to a solution - such as an exchange of land, or monetary compensation for Arabs living illegally at the site - and noted that a senior municipal official had held a recent meeting with local residents to discuss the issue.

[...]

While he praised the dialogue with Silwan residents, the new Jerusalem mayor insisted that the issue of house demolitions in the city was about law and order, and not about politics.

"The two issues need to be decoupled," he said. "I would like to see what [New York Mayor Michael] Bloomberg would say about illegal building in Central Park. Would he give up Central Park because there is illegal building there?"

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Background here and follow the links back.

He also touched on the Museum of Tolerance controversy:

Earlier this week, Deputy Jerusalem Mayor Pepe Alalo of Meretz, which opposes any Jewish construction in east Jerusalem, conceded during a tour of the site by party officials that there was a tremendous amount of disinformation about the house demolitions in Silwan, and urged local residents to work with the city to reach a solution to the issue.

In the interview, Barkat also said he would honor a past city agreement with the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center for the construction of a Museum of Tolerance at a central Jerusalem site that partially covers a Muslim cemetery, even though he would have preferred that it be built at a different location.

Background here and, again, keep following the links back.