File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_1998/postcolonial.9811, message 14


Date: Sat, 7 Nov 98 02:18:27 UT
From: "zahi damuni" <zdamuni-AT-classic.msn.com>
Subject: Jerusalem/Al Quds


The following is an excerpt from LAW - The Palestinian Society for the 
Protection of Human Rights and the Environment

QUARTERLY HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT

1 JULY 1998 - 30 SEPTEMBER 1998


PART TWO

Jerusalem 

Over 31 years of occupation, Israeli authorities have implemented a
set of procedures aimed at pushing the Palestinian inhabitants of
Jerusalem away from their property and land. These procedures have
taken the form of house demolitions, ID confiscation, high taxation,
closures of certain roads, the isolation of East Jerusalem, settlement
expansion and a refusal to issue construction licenses.

Jerusalem is the centre of Palestinian religious, political, economic
and cultural life. However, since the occupation of East Jerusalem in
1967, Israel has taken measures to force Palestinian residents away
from this important city and legitimise the Israeli occupation. Since
1993, Israel has effected a closure on Jerusalem, preventing
Palestinians living in the West Bank from entering the city without a
permit. 

ID Cards and Residency Rights:
Israel regulates residency in Jerusalem through a system of
identification cards. Jerusalem identification is very important as it
determines access to municipal services, national insurance, building
permits and the right to live and work in Jerusalem. 

In 1994, a policy was adopted by the Israeli government which requires
that Jerusalem be "the centre of life" for anyone holding an ID card.
This policy has serious implications for residents of the city.
Palestinians have found that the Israeli authorities determine that
moving temporarily away from Jerusalem (for educational purposes for
example) is an adequate reason to deny or withdraw Jerusalem ID. This
policy has been applied retroactively. 

Israeli authorities have also refused to issue Jerusalem identity
cards to Palestinians from the West Bank who have married someone from
Jerusalem. Children who have one parent with a West Bank ID and one
parent with a Jerusalem ID have been refused Jerusalem residency
rights. This policy affects over 4,000 families.

Since 1967, almost 4000 Palestinians have had their Jerusalem
identification cards confiscated. The policy has been accelerated
since the signing of the Oslo Agreement - in 1996 alone, over 689 ID
cards were confiscated, which constitutes a 600% increase on the
previous year's figures. 

According to Israeli figures released by the Ministry of the Interior,
about 436 Jerusalem IDs were confiscated by Israeli authorities in the
period January - August 1998. The Interior Ministry Spokeswoman has
said that 276 of these IDs belonged to Palestinian Jerusalemites now
living outside Israel. The rate of ID confiscation is estimated to be
the same as in 1997. 

1998 ID confiscation:

Month 
 # of confiscated IDs 
January	57
February 71
March 	54
April 	9
May 	132
June 	9
July 	-
August 	14

Total : 	
346

House Demolitions
Refusal to grant building permits to Palestinians is the principal way
by which Israel controls the growth of the Palestinian population in
Jerusalem. Overcrowding is a major issue in Palestinian areas and
brings with it numerous associated health and social problems.
Jerusalem residents are subject to restrictive zoning laws that
severely affect the Palestinian population. 

Consequently, Palestinians are forced to build houses without permits
and then find that they are subject to demolition orders. Recently,
the Israeli Mayor of Jerusalem declared that 2600 Palestinian
residents have built illegally in the city, and embarked on a
demolition campaign. So far this year, an estimated ten Palestinian
houses have been demolished in Jerusalem.

Settlement Expansion and Land Confiscation: 
On June 21 1998, the Israeli government gave official approval to a
plan that would annex more land around Jerusalem and formalise
"Greater Jerusalem" under an umbrella municipality of local councils.
Key aspects of the plan include:

1. Incorporating the illegal Jewish settlements of Givat Ze'ev and
Ma'ale Adumim, as well as other areas inside the Green Line into the
area known as Greater Jerusalem.

2. Acceleration of road construction in the West Bank, including an
eastern ring road around Jerusalem, which will connect settlements in
the south with those in the north. A second ring road, the "Menachem
Begin Highway" was opened on June 22.

3. Consolidating the Jewish majority in Jerusalem through the
construction of 142,000 apartments in "the Jewish sector", which
includes illegal settlements. The Israeli Prime Minister, Benyamin
Netanyahu, has openly claimed for the first time that the motivation
of the plan was to keep the Palestinian minority in the city to no
more than 30%.

The plan incorporates an earlier plan drawn up by an Israeli
inter-ministerial committee in 1995. This "Metropolitan Jerusalem
Plan" clearly demonstrates the scale of Israeli planning efforts for
the Jerusalem region and the West Bank. It demarcates 3 borders for
Jerusalem - the municipal border, the Greater Jerusalem border and the
metropolitan border. The largest of these, the metropolitan border,
covers 40% of the West Bank and includes the major Palestinian
population centers of Ramallah and Bethlehem. 

Greater Jerusalem:
A major component of the "Metropolitan Jerusalem Plan" is the area
known as Greater Jerusalem. Greater Jerusalem comprises 440 sq km, of
which less than a quarter lies within pre-1967 Israel. This area is
the key to the consolidation of Israeli sovereignty and Jewish
majority in Jerusalem.

Jewish Demographic Majority:
The expected growth areas of Jewish majority are the "outer-ring" of
illegal settlements such as Giv'at Ze'ev  in the North, Ma'ale Adumim
in the East, Betar and Efrata in the south, all of which lie within
'Greater Jerusalem'. Currently the population of these settlements
stands at 50,000, but settlement plans already underway are expected
to bring the expected Jewish population of these areas to 250,000
within the next15 years. Following the planned increase of the
settlement population of East Jerusalem - including the building at
Jabal Abu Ghneim (Har Homa) - the number of settlers living in the
"inner-ring" is also expected to reach 250,000. This will bring the
total settler population of Jerusalem to 500,000 within the next 15
years.

The Greater Jerusalem plan is meant, in part, to combat an expected
demographic parity between Palestinians and Jews, largely due to the
higher birth rate in the Palestinian population. However, the increase
in the settler population outlined above will prevent this from
happening. When the expected settler population of 500,000 is added to
the population of West Jerusalem and the surrounding areas due to be
included in the "umbrella municipality", the Israeli demographic goal
of 70% Jewish and 30% Palestinian residents will have been reached.
Arab Jerusalem will be permanently separated from Ramallah and
Bethlehem - encapsulated into Jewish Greater Jerusalem.

Another feature of the Greater Jerusalem plan is the E-1 development
plan for the area between East Jerusalem and the settlement of Ma'ale
Adumim. This area is earmarked for a massive infrastructure expansion
(including 10 hotels) which will increase the size of the area of
Ma'ale Adumim to 60 sq. km - an area 20% larger than Tel Aviv. E-1
will be the link between Ma'ale Adumim and Jerusalem and will at the
same time bisect the surrounding Palestinian neighborhoods. 

These Israeli plans for Jerusalem will have severe consequences on the
development of Palestinian life in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.
Jerusalem is the religious, political, cultural and economic centre of
Palestinian society. Cutting Jerusalem off from the West Bank will
impose economic strangulation as trade and movement from the Occupied
Palestinian Territories have two natural routes which both run through
Jerusalem. One runs from Nablus in the north to Hebron in the south.
This line is now interrupted by Greater Jerusalem and the Israeli
settlements which cross the West Bank as well as the numerous
checkpoints and restrictions which hinder the movement of
Palestinians. The second route runs from Gaza, through East Jerusalem
to Jericho along a horizontal axis. East Jerusalem is the key to
Palestinian development in the Occupied Territories as it forms the
natural intersection between these two axes of socio-economic life.
With the finalisation of Israeli plans for Jerusalem, Palestinian
existence will be concentrated into cantons cut off from one another
and with no possibility of economic expansion.

The illegal annexation of Jerusalem by Israel is a clear violation of
international law and the will of the international community.
Population transfer, settlement construction and destruction of
private property are violations of Israel's obligations under the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Fourth Geneva Convention
and the letter and spirit of the Oslo Accords. 

LAW - the Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights 
and the Environment
PO Box 20873
Jerusalem, via Israel
Tel: (972) (2) 5812364/5824559
Fax: (972) (2) 5811072
email: law-AT-lawsociety.org
web site: http://www.lawsociety.org/






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