Ma'ale ha-Zeitim (Hebrew: מעלה הזיתים. lit. Olive Heights) is a Jewish neighborhood in Mount of Olives, East Jerusalem, near the Arab neighborhood Ras al-Amud.
The property was purchased from the Ottoman government by Nissan Bak, one of the leaders of the Hasidic Jewish community in the Old City, and Moshe Wittenberg, who leased the land to Jewish Kollels in 1928. The Kollels leased the land an Arab farmer. The Kollel community gabbai paid the property taxes levied by the Ottoman authorities. [1]
After the Arab Israeli war of 1948, the land was administered by the Jordanian Custodian of Enemy Property, an organization established to handle property owned by Jews in the Jordanian controlled West Bank.
In 1967, the land was transferred to the Israel Land Administration, which placed it under the jurisdiction of the Jerusalem Municipality. In 1984, the municipality sold it to the Florida-based businessman and philanthropist Irving Moskowitz.[1]
In September 1997, plans for the construction of new Jewish homes on the land provoked an international outcry. Despite American pressure to halt building in the area, the plan was backed by Jerusalem mayor Ehud Olmert.[2]