RCA completes construction of Sheikh Zayed District in Jerusalem

Jerusalem - May 27, 2010 (WAM)- The Dh 15 million Sheikh Zayed District in Jerusalem is one of the key construction projects being financed and undertaken by the UAE Red Crescent Authority (RCA) in the Palestinian Territories.
The project is part of a series of projects including the Dh 100 million Jenin Camp Reconstruction, the Dh 220 million Sheikh Zayed Housing City in Gaza, the Sheikh Khalifa City in Rafah, the UAE Quarter in Khan Yunis in addition to a number of hospitals, schools, health centres, and disabled rehabilitation centres spread in towns and villages of the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
Spanning 7000 square metres, the project in Beit Henina, a stone throw from the holy Aqsa Mosque, will feature 58 fully serviced apartments (each 135 square metres), designed and built on the modern architectural concepts, for members of the Teachers' Association.
Ahmed Humaid Al Mazrouie, Chairman of the RCA Board, termed the project as one of the largest construction operations the RCA is executing in the holy city. The RCA has made strenuous efforts to obtain necessary permits to complete it.
He told WAM that the RCA construction projects fall exactly in line with the calls of the Palestinian Authority for Arab and international participation to stimulating the Palestinian economy and injecting investment in economic sectors in order to achieve sustainable development for the best interest of broad segments of Palestinian facing deteriorating living conditions due to the events in Palestine.
Samiya Barakat, Chairperson of the Teachers' Association, paid tribute to the RCA for funding the desperately needed project. ''The RCA operations in Palestine are known to every Palestinian citizen ..............the Palestinians highly value the assistance and support lent to them by their UAE brethren at these circumstances they are passing through,'' she affirmed. According to her, the RCA projects stand witness to the critical significance of the UAE aid in Palestine.
''The Aqsa Mosque has been and still lending proper attention and care from the RCA which spent Dh 50 million in various programmes including the health clinic commissioned in the Mosque's nave which received thousands of patients and treated scores of those wounded during the Palestinian uprising,' she noted.
Hashem Abu Lafi, the architect of the project, said the construction of the Sheikh Zayed District had been delayed as the award of the contract had taken more than two years due to several stumbling blocks it faced in its early phase.
Deputy Governor of Jerusalem Abdullah Sayam praised the project as a ''commendable Arab action''. The projects established by the RAC are an example of the Arab and Islamic care for the holy city. ''The Palestinians will never forget this Arab stance besides them,'' he stressed.
''The District was designed and built on the most advanced architectural concepts and equipped with basic services to be ready for accommodation,'' he affirmed.
''The housing project will bring about two valuable benefits: it help the beneficiaries stick to their land and live near the schools they are working in. It will also confirm the Arab and Islamic ownership of the land, now under the Islamic Endowments protection against confiscation.
''This a great success in itself which cannot be easily achieved especially under the current circumstances the people of Jerusalem are passing through,'' he noted. – Emirates News Agency, WAM