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/ --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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