Whose Neighborhood Is It?
Municipal officials have said demolitions are not part of the plan for the historic neighborhood of Jabal Qalaa -- but within the local community mistrust still lingers. Part 1 of 3.
Words by Nicholas Seeley.
OVER THE LAST FOUR months, a dispute has been simmering between the Greater Amman Municipality, the community activist collective Hamzet Wasel, and some residents of Jabal Qalaa over the topic of the municipality's new development plans. In May, the issue came to a head when members of Hamzet Wasel aired worries about what they believed was a municipal plan to expropriate and demolish several old houses in Jabal Qalaa, and to construct a wall around the Amman Citadel archaeological site.
Activists asked why the municipality hadn't consulted the community before it made its plans; the municipality responded that the activists had misunderstood what was going on and were being guided by rumors.
Since then, the dispute has been, to varying degrees, quieted, if not all addressed. The municipality has made some public statements to try and clarify its plans, and held forums and meetings with representatives from the community in Jabal Qalaa. Hamzet Wasel has held discussions with the Mayor, and started working on its own community-centric development plan for the area, which it hopes to unveil in the next few months.
People on all sides have said that that dialogue between activists, the community and the government has been, so far, a success. But many residents of Jabal Qalaa are still seized with uncertainty and even suspicion about their future.
Over the last two months, JO conducted more than two dozen interviews with community members, activists, business and land owners, and local and municipal officials to try and understand what's behind the debate, and what it means for the future of one of Amman's oldest neighborhoods.
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“EVERY DAY WE HAVE different news,” said “Yasser.” The elderly resident of Jabal Qalaa, who did not want his real name used, was interviewed on a scorching afternoon in August, as he sat drinking tea on the narrow stoop of a furniture shop. That very day, he explained, someone had come and told him that the government was going to expropriate houses on the next street down the hill.
Yasser is thoroughly convinced that there's a plan to demolish his neighborhood -- because, he said, it's the only area in Amman where the houses have not been given new numbers by the municipality.
Theories like this abound among the residents of Qalaa. Since April, in particular, stories that houses on the Jabal are going to be expropriated and demolished seem to have been common.
Raghda Butros is one of the founders of Hamzet Wasel, a group of residents of Amman that aims to build relationships between people of different socio-economic, cultural and religious backgrounds, and to engage in social activism in the city. In early May, Butros summed up the concerns about Jabal Qalaa in a public letter about the demolitions project, which was posted on the Creative Jordan website (urdunmubdi3.ning.com).
“The next planned step is to knock down several beautiful 50+ year old houses (with people in them) to build a funicular to link the Roman theater with the Citadel and there is even talk of knocking down several other homes to sanitize the community for tourists and send the residents elsewhere,” she wrote.
Four days later, the Mayor held a meeting with members of Hamzet Wasel. Nothing was written about this by the group.
Municipal officials were also deeply upset about the situation. In interviews conducted by this magazine in mid-July, officials there said they were still trying to figure out if a funicular was even a feasible option, and that expropriating and demolishing houses was never part of any plan they had -- and added that they had explained this in a public meeting in Jabal Qalaa on June 6.
“It's very easy to ... come out with a lie, and then believe it,” HE Mayor Omar Maani told JO on July 18. “Nobody [from the municipality] ever talked about [a project like this]. There is no way we would ruin old houses. They know this. ... And what's funny about it is that after we met [with Hamzet Wasel on May 27] and they were convinced, they still talked about Jabal Qalaa, and the wall.”
