Rashid Khalidi’s letter (Voice, March 6) misleads your readers with a selective presentation of the facts in regard to anticipated building of housing by the Israeli government on an unpopulated location between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, known as Har Homa.
– No homeowners, Arab or Jewish, will be displaced by this project, since the land is vacant, mostly forested.
– Of the 1,850 dunams (about 460 acres) involved, 1,400 dunams come from Jewish owners and 450 from Arabs. All are offered full compensation.
– There is support in Israel for the construction project. An Israeli poll indicates overall affirmation for building in Har Homa at 69 percent, with 38 percent for building “immediately” and 31 percent for doing so at the “right moment” and 24 percent opposed.
– Despite charges that Israel is pre-empting negotiations by building in this area, the Arab population in Jerusalem has increased by 156 percent since 1967 and the Jewish population by 105 percent.
