Before the new housing projects built after 1967, the area was known as Armon HaNetziv (lit. The Governor's Palace) after the headquarters of the British High Commissioner located on the hilltop.[8][9] In 1928, Rachel Yanait Ben-Zvi, wife of Israel's second president Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, established an agricultural training farm for young women, the first of its kind in the country, in the area of East Talpiot. Both the farm and the Arab Girls College, another historical landmark, are earmarked for conservation.[10] The Lili and Elejandro Shaltiel Community Center was inaugurated in 1980.[11]
In the 1967 Six-Day War Israel captured and occupied East Jerusalem, East Talpiot was constructed as part of the 1968 Jerusalem Master Plan, which called for the creation of Jewish settlements around Jerusalem to cement Israeli control over the region.[12] East Talpiot is situated in southern East Jerusalem, between the Palestinian villages of Sur Baher and Sawaher.[12][13]
According to ARIJ, Israel confiscated land from nearby Palestinian neighborhoods/villages in order to construct East Talpiot:
Beit Canada, an absorption center for new immigrants, is located in East Talpiot.[16] Nearly all the streets of East Talpiot take their names from those of the Olei Hagardom, members of Irgun and Lehi hanged by the British.[17]
Demography
Monument to tolerance
In 2006, some 15,000 people were living in East Talpiot. Mainly populated by young couples when it was first established, the neighborhood is now aging. For the most part, East Talpiot is a secular neighborhood, with only 15 synagogues.[citation needed]
An excavation has found remains of a significant royal estate from the second half of the 7th century BC that archaeologists consider as indicative of a remarkable administrative development by the Kingdom of Judah during that century.[18] An ancient aqueduct that brought water to the Temple Mount from springs located outside of Jerusalem was also discovered in East Talpiot. This waterworks, a highly sophisticated engineering feat, continued to function for more than two thousand years.[19]
There have been claims that an ancient tomb discovered in East Talpiot when a housing project was being built in 1980 could be the tomb of Jesus and his family.[20]
Arab-Israeli conflict
On 8 January 2017, 4 Israeli soldiers were killed in the 2017 Jerusalem truck attack that took place on the Armon Hanatziv Esplanade.[21][22]
The international community considers Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem to be illegal under international law, violating the Fourth Geneva Convention's prohibition on the transfer of civilians into occupied territory.[23] Israel however disputes that East Jerusalem is occupied territory and instead considers it to be annexed to its territory as part of the Jerusalem municipality. That annexation is unrecognized internationally and East Jerusalem is considered occupied territory by the international community.[1][12] Israel does not consider East Talpiot or other Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem to be settlements and instead considers them neighborhoods of Jerusalem.[1]
^Handel, A.; Allegra, M.; Maggor, E. (2017). Normalizing Occupation: The Politics of Everyday Life in the West Bank Settlements. Indiana University Press. ISBN978-0-253-02505-0. Retrieved 2018-05-31. Major population centers, each counting more than 10,000 residents, are the "new neighborhoods" established in East Jerusalem (Gilo, Ramot Allon, Neve Ya'akov, Pisgat Ze'ev, Har Homa, Ramat Shlomo, and East Talpiot & 'Throughout this collection, the term "settlements" identifies all Jewish communities (towns, villages, neighborhoods) established in the areas conquered by Israel during the 1967 War')
^Adelman, M.; Elman, M.F. (2014). Jerusalem: Conflict and Cooperation in a Contested City. Syracuse University Press. ISBN978-0-8156-5252-6. Retrieved 2018-05-31. between 1968 and 1970 the first Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem were built, in French Hill and Ramot Eshkol, then in Ramot, Gilo and East Talpiot
In addition to streets named for each individual, the neighborhood’s main drag bears the name by which they’re collectively remembered: Olei HaGardom, “those who ascended the gallows.” Dozens more cities around Israel have an Olei HaGardom Street. Many have streets named for the individual members, too.
Two other streets in East Talpiot are named for Shmuel Azar and Moshe Marzouk, Egyptian Jews hanged in Cairo in 1955 for bombing the American and British libraries. The operation, known as the Lavon Affair, was a bone-headed plot by Israeli military intelligence meant to sour Egypt’s ties with the West. Elsewhere in Israel are streets named for Hirsh Lekert, hanged in Vilna in 1902 for trying to assassinate the tsarist governor; Sholom Schwartzbard, who confessed to assassinating Ukrainian rebel leader Simon Petlura in Paris in 1926, but was acquitted by a French jury; and Herschel Grynszpan, who assassinated a Nazi diplomat in Paris in November 1938, touching off Kristallnacht."
