“Title By Conquest: The Judaization of Jerusalem”
“We must bring Jews to eastern Jerusalem at any cost.
We must settle tens of thousands of Jews in a brief time. Jews will agree to
settle in eastern Jerusalem even in shacks. We cannot await the construction of
orderly neighborhoods. The essential thing is that Jews will be there.”
David Ben-Gurion, 1967
Few months ago I decided to write about Israel’s Judaization
and de-Arabization of Jerusalem as well as about the agony and hardship of the
Palestinians living there. At the
beginning, I thought it was going to be an ordinary exercise that would take
few days of research before finally writing it.
As I had expected, there was nothing ordinary about the contemporary
history of Jerusalem. Today, discrimination,
convolution, manipulation, underhandedness, hypocrisy, deceit, and injustice
mark everything related to Israel’s occupation and annexation of Jerusalem, and
to the treatment of Palestinians there.
As I started to write, I soon realized the heightened level
of scrutiny one must employ in writing about this divine city. It was
overwhelming to see the amount of misinformation and historical falsification being
deliberately and consistently disseminated concerning the history of Jerusalem
and Palestine. Avoiding the use of
anachronistic and misleading terminology was of particular importance given the
manipulation of language, especially in appellations, masterminded by the
colonizing Zionists.
I naively hoped that by learning more about the intricacies
shaping today’s Jerusalem that I would find answers to why and how Israel
continues to violate with impunity international law and human rights
conventions. It did not take long before it dawned on me that most, if not all,
of the international community has collectively colluded to ignore and turn a
blind eye to Israel’s repeated and persistent violations there. Today, the international
community whitewashes its complacency towards Israel’s illegal actions in
Jerusalem through occasionally issuing carefully worded reports showing
Israel’s violations of an array of international laws, resolutions and
conventions. These reports not only expose Israel’s contempt of international law,
they also clearly expose the inability of the world community to impose punitive
measures against Israel. It is ironic to
see the same community mobilizing in recent years “Armageddons” to invade and
destroy Arab countries for not complying with resolutions that are identical in
their legal binding nature to the ones Israel has been violating for decades.
Today, what Israel is doing in Jerusalem is a crime and a
travesty of justice of horrific proportions.
Jerusalem is undergoing a massive systematic Judaization and de-Arabization
process. The Palestinians living there are
in danger of losing their homes and identity as Jerusalemites. They are alienated and helpless in fending for
themselves against Israel’s monstrous colonial policies. Israel subjects them
to provocative and suffocating measures in the hope of driving them out of
their generations-old homes. Edward Said best described Israel’s policies in
Jerusalem as “programmatic policies designed to remove Palestinians, officially
erase their traces, consign them to legal and institutional non-existence”.[1]
As I pored over the heaps of books and articles on
Jerusalem, one truth kept on asserting itself: “Jerusalem is the cornerstone of
any peace agreement in Palestine. Without
a comprehensive and viable solution to the question of Jerusalem (East and
West), there can never be just and lasting peace not only in Palestine, but
also in the Arab World.”
The status of
Jerusalem:
It does not take the observer long to realize that clear and
unambiguous discussion of the “status of Jerusalem” is rare. By Jerusalem it is meant all of Jerusalem,
east and west (old and modern). Confining the discussion of Jerusalem to East
Jerusalem serves at sanctioning Israel’s aggression of 1948 and de facto
annexation of West (Or modern) Jerusalem. Today this very status continues to
be entangled in legal quagmires in what seems to be a deliberate attempt to
render a simple and straightforward case of illegal land occupation, annexation
and usurpation into a complicated matter without attainable solutions.
For many the mention of the status of Jerusalem recalls the
Oslo Agreement of 1993 and its Declarations of
Principles. I am not going to allude
to this at all in this paper. I
personally believe that waiting for a just resolution of the status of
Jerusalem through the Oslo Agreement is like waiting for Godot. It will never happen. The surge in Israel’s
creation of infamous malicious “facts on the ground” between 1993 and today is
enough to validate my belief.
To tackle the status of Jerusalem one could go as far
back as the time of the Jebusites almost 3800 years ago, or as recent as few
decades ago. I will not delve into the
ancient history of Jerusalem. However, given
the subject of this paper, it is important to highlight that the Jewish rule
was the shortest in Jerusalem and lasted 413 years, which ended 2500 years ago.
A fact that needs to be emphasized in the face of historical myths and fabrications
like “Jerusalem
3000” celebrating Jerusalem’s 3000 years as a Jewish capital, which of
course deviously implies an unbroken 3000 years of Jewish sovereignty over
Jerusalem. In contrast, one must not lose sight of the fact that the pagans
(Jebusites, Canaanites, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks and Romans) ruled Jerusalem
for seventeen centuries, the Christians (Byzantine, Crusader and British) ruled
it for 420 years, and the Moslems (Arabs and Turks) ruled it for twelve
centuries. For the purpose of this essay,
I will look into the status of Jerusalem starting in 1947.
A significant watershed in the contemporary history
of Jerusalem was marked with the United Nations (UN) General Assembly Resolution 181, also
known as the partition plan. On November 29, 1947, and in line with the
recommendations of the Palestinian Royal Commission (Peel Commission)
that was formed by the United Kingdom following the Palestinian revolt of 1936, the
UN General Assembly voted to divide Palestine into two states, a Jewish state with
control over 56% of the land, and an Arab state with control over 43% of the
land. The remaining 1% pertained to
Jerusalem, which was to become a “corpus separatum
under a special international regime to be administered by the United Nations.
“[2]&[3] Resolution 181 also ended the 26 years of British mandate
over Palestine. The British Government
ended its mandate on May 15, 1948 without providing for a successor local administration,
which resulted in plunging Palestine in utter chaos. Around the same time and on
May 14, 1948 David
Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel (1948-1953 &
1955–1963), declared
"the establishment of a Jewish state
in Eretz Israel, to be known
as the State of Israel”[4]
Although Jerusalem is the main topic of this paper, one
must allude to the absurdity of such division at a time when the population of
Palestine was 67 percent Palestinian and 33 percent Jewish. The Jewish ratio was artificially high given
the waves of European (mostly British)-facilitated Jewish immigration during
the mandate years to Palestine. In 1900 the
Jewish population in all of historic (mandate) Palestine was no more than 7
percent, which clearly demonstrates the unnatural rate of 33 percent in 1948.[5] Jewish population in Jerusalem mushroomed
from approximately twenty thousand in 1918 to close to hundred thousand in
1948.[6] It is interesting to note that only in the 19th
century did the Jewish population in Jerusalem begin to increase. According to historian Joseph Hajjar, by the
mid 1800s the Jews living in Jerusalem numbered no more than 5,000.
The ownership of the land subject the partition was over
90 percent Palestinian while the Jews owned less than 7 percent. Therefore, the Palestinian population falling
under the partitioned Jewish section was 45 percent, while the Jewish
population in the Palestinian section was 1 percent. To put it in the words of Professor Walid
Khalidi the resolution (UN 181) said to the Zionists: “You will increase what you have 8-fold (from 7 percent to 55 percent of
the country).” It said to the
Palestinians: “You yield 45 percent of what you have and let one-third of your
population live as a permanent minority under alien rule.”[7]
Immediately after the passage of the partition plan civil
war broke out between the Palestinians and the colonizing Zionists. This escalated into a full fledge war in May
1948. The war officially ended in 1949
with four armistice
agreements signed between Israel and Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Transjordan.
Palestine was now divided into three parts with three different political
regimes: Israel, the hill country of central Palestine[8]
(West Bank), and Gaza Strip. The
“temporary in nature” “Armistice Agreements” established demarcation lines marking
the boundaries of the various parts of divided Palestine. The demarcation lines concerning Jerusalem
were with Jordan and constituted part of what is known as the Green Line (reference
to the green ink used to draw the lines on the map in question). [9] The demarcation lines are also referred to as
the 1967 borders.
As the very name denotes[10],
the “Armistice Agreements” were never meant to establish permanent borders. They were simply meant to delineate areas
under Jewish, Palestinian and Arab control for the purpose of cessation of
hostilities. These new cease-fire lines
brought 78 percent of Palestine under Zionist control as opposed to the 56
percent originally allotted to the Jewish state by the UN partition plan of
1947 two years earlier. The remaining 22
percent of the land went under Arab control and it encompassed the Gaza Strip,
the eastern side of Jerusalem comprising of the Old City with a total land area
of 6.5 square kilometer, and the rest of what came to be known as the West Bank
of TransJordan. It must be emphasized
that by seizing 78 percent of the land the Jews invoked General Assembly
Resolution 181 to proclaim a Jewish state, but completely disregarded its
provisions concerning its own boundaries or the territories reserved for the
Arab State and the “Corpus Separatum” concerning the City of Jerusalem.
With Jerusalem falling within the boundaries of the Armistice
Agreements, Israel occupied and later annexed the western part of Jerusalem,
while Jordan occupied and later annexed the eastern part of the city. The Israeli-Jordanian
General Armistice Agreement of 3 April 1949 effectively formalized the de
facto division of Jerusalem. In the
meantime, and after receiving assurances
from Israel that it would implement UN resolutions 181 and 194 (refugees, right of return), UN General Assembly resolution
273 was adopted on May 11, 1949 to admit the State of Israel to membership
in the UN.
Excerpts from the resolution read:
“Recalling its
resolutions of 29 November 1947 (181) and 11 December 1948 (194) and taking
note of the declarations and explanations made by the representative of the
Government of Israel 5/ before the ad hoc Political Committee in respect of the
implementation of the said resolutions,
The General
Assembly, Acting in discharge of its functions under Article 4 of the Charter
and rule 125 of its rules of procedure,
1. Decides that Israel is a
peace-loving State which accepts the obligations contained in the Charter and
is able and willing to carry out those obligations;”
Following the signing of the armistice agreements as
well as its admission to membership in the UN, Israel was quick to act on
manipulating the temporary “de facto” recognition of its role in West Jerusalem.
On January 23, 1950, Israel declared West Jerusalem as its capital and shortly
thereafter it moved its parliament (Knesset) there. This move was in violation of international
law as well as of the UN resolutions on the question of Jerusalem.
The hill country of central Palestine including East
Jerusalem was annexed by Transjordan in 1949, and came to be described
erroneously and un-historically as the “West Bank of Transjordan”. A prelude to this annexation was a conference
held in Jericho, and organized by King Abdullah I in December 1948, with
Palestinian notables who afterwards called for unification with Transjordan. In
February 1949, the Jordanian Nationality Law was amended to grant every
Palestinian a Jordanian citizenship. In
March 1950, King Abdullah I issued a royal order to erase the word “Palestine”
from the map and from all official statements; thereafter the area was to be
known as “The West Bank of the Hashemite Kingdom”[11].
The unification was finally completed on April 24, 1950 when the Jordanian
National Assembly adopted a resolution for the unification of Transjordan and
Palestine.
The UN kept its stand on the “Corpus Separatum”
status and the internationalization of Jerusalem. It initially resisted the post 1949 Israeli
and Jordanian occupation and annexation of East and West Jerusalem. However, with time there seems to have been a
de facto acceptance of the control of both countries over the city. It is
crucial to note that the UN never rescinded the Partition Plan, which simply
means that to this date the issue of the status of Jerusalem (east and west) is
still legally undetermined, and in abeyance.
In effect, by 1949 historic (British mandate)
Palestine came under the jurisdiction of Transjordan, Egypt and Israel. A Jewish state as stipulated by the partition
plan (Resolution 181) was created with complete disregard to the provisions
concerning the boundaries or the territories reserved for the Arab State and
the “Corpus Separatum” in the plan. The Palestinian state as envisioned by the
partition plan never materialized. Up
until 1967, Jerusalem remained divided between West and East under Israeli and
Jordanian control respectively.[12]
After the war of June 5, 1967 Jerusalem was dealt another
fatal blow when Israel seized the West Bank including the Old City (East Jerusalem),
the Gaza Strip and parts of Egypt and Syria.
By then, the entire city of Jerusalem fell under Israeli control. It is “immediately” after June 1967 that the
process of structured and premeditated Judaization of Jerusalem became
blatantly clear. This was amply
evidenced on June 27, 1967 when Israel passed the “Law and Administration
Ordinance (Amendment
11) Law” extending Israel’s law and jurisdiction and administration to
newly conquered East Jerusalem. On June 28, 1967 Israel enacted the “Municipalities
Ordinance (Amendment No. 6) Law”, which gave the Israeli Minister of Interior,
then Moshe Dayan, broad powers to amend the municipal boundaries of
Jerusalem. Armed with this law, Dayan expanded
the land area of East Jerusalem from 6.5 square kilometers to 71 square
kilometers of expropriated Palestinian land, which included an airport and
lands of 28 Palestinian towns and villages. On that same day the Knesset amended
the law of 1950, which proclaimed Jerusalem as Israel's capital, to reflect the
newly defined municipal boundaries. The following day, the Assistant Israeli
Commander of Jerusalem, Yaacov Salman, issued an order to dissolve the 12-member
elected Arab Municipal Council headed by Mayor Rawhi al-Khatib. A year later al-Khatib was taken out of his
home by the Israeli military in the middle of the night, and was deported to
Jordan under the pretext that his presence in Jerusalem constituted a danger to
the security of Israel.
By the end of June 1967, newly expanded East
Jerusalem was fully primed to be amalgamated with West Jerusalem. The illegal
and unilateral annexation of East Jerusalem was finally cemented on July 30,
1980 with the enactment of the Basic Law: Jerusalem,
Capital of Israel, which declared, "Jerusalem, complete and united, is the
capital of Israel.” The international
community vigorously condemned this law, and soon afterwards on August 20, 1980
the UN National Security Council adopted Resolution
478 (by 14 to none) declaring the law “null and void”. There was one
abstention in the voting on this resolution, the United States. Fifteen years
later and true to its unconditional and unwavering support to Israel, the USA
passed “The Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995” which called for initiating and
funding the relocation of the Embassy of
the United States in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, no later than
May 31, 1999. The Act also called for Jerusalem to remain an undivided city and
for it to be recognized as the capital of the State of Israel. Moreover, in
2000 and in a show of utter contempt and disregard to the international
community Israel enacted an amendment to the Basic Law of 1980 in which it
specified the jurisdiction of the law, that included East Jerusalem. The
amendment also prohibited transfer of authority to a foreign body, for example
an international regime (Preempting any attempt to enforce the corpus separatum
status stipulated in UN Resolution 181). In October 2010, the Israeli cabinet
unanimously approved a draft law to official Judaize the city of Jerusalem.
Plan No. 30 states that Jerusalem is to be a Jewish national priority area and
promoted as the “united Jewish capital” for the Jewish majority, as “the heart
of the Jewish people” and the cultural and spiritual center for Jews in Israel
and around the world. [13]
To date, the annexation of West Jerusalem by Israel in
1948 is not recognized de jure. Although the 1949 General Armistice Agreement
endorsed the de facto division of the City, it did not affect the legal status
of it. Today, the international community views Israel as exercising only de
facto authority over West Jerusalem, and it decisively rejects Israeli claims
to sovereignty over Jerusalem (East and West). Nor is it accepted that there is
currently any other Power that has sovereignty over it.[14]
Israel’s egregious abuse and violation of international law in the Old City of Jerusalem spurred Jordan to propose in 1980 to enlist it on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) world heritage properties in danger. In December 1982 and during a session of World Heritage Committee held in Paris at UNESCO headquarters, Jordan highlighted the serious and specific dangers which threatened the "Old City of Jerusalem" pointing out the destruction of religious properties, threats of destruction due to urban development plans, and the deterioration of monuments due to lack of maintenance and responsible management, as well as of the disastrous impact of tourism on the protection of monuments. “The US delegate was opposed to Jordan making the proposal. He stressed that a property must be situated in the territories of the nominating State and, in the opinion of his government; Jordan had no standing to make such a nomination. Furthermore, the consent of Israel would be required since it effectively controlled Jerusalem.” After discussion, the Committee decided, by 14 votes for, 1 against (USA) and 5 abstentions, to inscribe the "Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls" on the List of World Heritage in Danger.
The Judaization
of Jerusalem:
Judaization is a form of ethnic and theological cleansing
that Israel employs to create the conditions necessary for the survival of an
exclusive Jewish theocracy. In simple terms, it is an Israeli policy aimed at
reducing the number of Arabs (Christians and Moslems) in Israel as well as in
parts of the occupied Palestinian Territories in order to ensure Jewish majority
against a negligible Arab minority. Judaization, therefore, goes hand in hand
with de-Arabization of both Christians and Moslems. It is believed that the idea of Judaization was
the brainchild of Yosef Nahmani (Nachmani), one of the originators of “the
redemption of the land” and head of the Karen Keymeth (The Jewish National Fund) in eastern Galilee from1935 and until his death
in 1965. Nahmani stressed the need to create a Jewish majority in the Galilee
to reduce "the Arab
threat" and prevent the formation of "a nucleus of Arab nationalism within
the Jewish state”. Moreover, the Judaization policy was intensely
advocated and enacted in order to ensure that there could be no serious
discussion of returning any of the lands earmarked
for an Arab state by the United Nations to Arab control. In a letter written in 1953 to David Ben Gurion, Nahmani wrote:
“Though western Galilee has now been occupied, it still has not been
freed of its Arab population, as happened in other parts of the country. There are still fifty one villages and the
city of Nazareth whose inhabitants have not left, in all there are 84,002
Arabs, not counting Acre, controlling 929,549 dunums of the land.”[15]
“We
must bring Jews to eastern Jerusalem at any cost. We must settle tens of
thousands of Jews in a brief time. Jews will agree to settle in eastern Jerusalem
even in shacks. We cannot await the construction of orderly neighborhoods. The
essential thing is that Jews will be there.” [17]
1- That Israel would
never pull back to its borders of 4 June 1967
2- That Jerusalem, one
and unified, would remain for eternity the capital of Israel
3- That there will never
be a Palestinian State in Judea and Samaria
It
is not surprising, therefore, to see Israel’s relentless and tireless attempts
to Judaize, de-Arabize and integrate Jerusalem into the state of Israel. These attempts were and still are manifested
through legislative, administrative, military, as well as physical intimidating
“facts on the ground” measures. A glaring
example of such attempts is the 1968 “Master Plan” for the city of Jerusalem,
which noted that:
“The majority of the [expanded] municipal land reserves that are
amenable to [Israeli-Jewish] development are in private [Palestinian] hands.
The effective development of the city will require the expropriation of substantial areas.”
Prior to the
1968 plan, there was the first Israeli master plan for Jerusalem, which was developed
as early as 1950. Arieh Sharon, one of
Israel’s founding architects, noted:
“The Jerusalem
Masterplan, prepared by the Planning Department in 1950, attempted to find an
organic solution to the different urban problems and to help the city serve its
main functions as the political and cultural capital of Israel. The hills in
the centre were expropriated and designated as the location for the Parliament,
Government Ministries, Hebrew University and Israel Museum. The Judean hills
west of the city were added to the municipal area for the erection of new
residential neighborhoods. It was proposed that a new commercial centre should
be established on the western city entrance and several industrial zones on the
outskirts. For the green belts and open spaces, Jerusalem offered a natural
solution: all wadis ravines and valleys between the hills on which the city
stands were designated as parks, with green strips separating the neighborhoods.”
It
is evident how Israel’s plans to systematically Judaize Jerusalem started as
early as 1947. These plans have not stopped since then, and they have been
gaining astonishing momentum and steam over the past few decades. As mentioned
earlier, the relentless efforts at Judaizing Jerusalem
were
more clearly evident after 1967.
Immediately
after its illegal conquest of the West Bank in the 1967, Israel carried out a
series of measures in the Old City of Jerusalem and its environs that were
aimed at changing the character of the City.
Tipping the demographic balance in favor of the Jewish population has
always been one of Israel’s top Judaizing maneuvers.
Today,
Israel continues to employ a variety of interrelated policies and tactics in
its plans to Judaize Jerusalem. These
tactics include, but are not limited to the following:
- Demographic manipulation
- Illegal settlement building
- Expropriation of Palestinian land
- Demolition of Palestinian homes
- Revocation of Palestinian residency rights
- Building of “The Apartheid Wall”
- Isolation of Jerusalem
- Encroachment of the Hebrew Language on East Jerusalem
Demographic manipulation:
It is safe to say that demography is the main driving
force behind Israel’s Judaizing policies manifested in settlement building,
land expropriation, revocation of residency rights, apartheid wall sanctioning,
and others. Israel’s main target in
Jerusalem has always been to achieve demographic superiority in favor of the
Jewish population.
Jerusalem’s conquest by the Zionists took place in
two waves and so did its Judaization.
The first wave was between December 1947 and June 1967 when Israel
occupied the western side of the city, which included the upscale districts of Upper
and Lower Baq’a, Talbiyya, Qatamon, Mamilla, and Shama’a, and others. During
the first two years, a combination of fear and intimidation campaigns carried
out by terrorist organizations such as the Haganah coupled with Israeli
military orders led to the transfer of almost the entire Palestinian population
out of Western Jerusalem into areas where they could seek shelter in East
Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Jordan.
The number of Palestinians who were subject to this forced evacuation is
estimated at 70,000 persons. Israel
confiscated close to 10,000 urban homes and about 35km2 of land (equal to
60-80% of Israeli municipal Jerusalem after 1948), and allocated it to its
Jewish population.[18] In 1946 the population of Jerusalem was
divided between 99,000 Jews and 65,000 Arabs.
By 1948 the population in West Jerusalem was 83,000 Jews and 1,000
Palestinians (Arabs).[19] The Western and Eastern sides of the
city were then almost completely devoid of Arabs and Jews respectively. By the end of 1948, the city lauded over the
centuries for its ethnic diversity and temporal tolerance became bitterly and
militarily divided across religious and ethnic lines.
Immediately
after its conquest of the West Bank in 1967, Israel conducted on July 25, 1967
a conniving census aimed at altering the demographic make up of the conquered
eastern part of Jerusalem. Palestinians who were not recorded due to their
absence at the time of the census lost their right of return to their homes. Their property was turned over to the Israeli
Custodian of Absentee Property, who in turn and according to Military order No.
150 (1968) could expropriate these properties.
East Jerusalem became illegally and against all human rights
conventions, subject to the Israeli “Absentees’ Property Law of 1950”, which is
a major component of a system of Israeli land laws designed, under a legal
guise, to expropriate Palestinian land, and to bar restitution of confiscated
land to its Palestinian owners.
The Master Plan of Jerusalem is another instrument through
which the make up of the population is manipulated in favor of the Jews. The
Jerusalem Master Plan 2000, which was ratified by Jerusalem Municipality in
2007, aims at stopping the Palestinian population from growing beyond 40%. This is an increase form the earlier balance
set of 70 percent Jewish and 30% Palestinians. Currently, the population ratio
is 64 percent Jewish to 36 percent Palestinian.
Between
1967 and 2013 the population of Jerusalem tripled in number from 266,300 to
829,790, and it almost doubled from 1980 to 2013. The Muslim population grew by
136 percent from 125,000 in 1988 to 295,000 in 2013. The Jewish population grew
by 44 percent from 354,000 in 1988 to 522,000 in 2013. Over 200,000 illegal Jewish settlers out of
the 522,000 Jewish population live in East Jerusalem. The Christian population remained stagnant at
15,000 levels. This is a sharp drop from the 45,000 Christians recorded in
1947.
Projections
for Jerusalem in the year 2020 show the city’s total population at 958,000
inhabitants with 61.2 percent Jewish (587,200) and 38.8 percent Arab. Porfessor Eyal Weizman, an Israeli architect writes:
“By
trying to achieve the demographic and geographic guidelines of the
political
master plan, the planners and architects of the municipality
of Jerusalem and
those working for them have effectively taken part in
a national policy of
forced migration, unofficially referred to in
Israeli circles as the “silent
transfer,” a crime according to
international law.2 The evidence of these
crimes is not only to be found in protocols or in
the wording of political master plans, but in the drawings of
architects and
planners. They can be seen as lines in their plans.3 Yet
remarkably, in spite
of all Israel’s efforts to keep the 28 per cent
Palestinians to 72 percent
Jewish ratio, its planning policy is falling
short of its target. Out of the
650,000 registered residents of
Jerusalem in 2005, about a third were
Palestinians. This has obviously
increased the frustration that further
accelerates Israel’s draconian
measures.”[20]
Illegal settlements and outposts:
Settlements are illegal under international law. Today 35% of the unilaterally Israeli-defined
municipal area of East Jerusalem has been illegally designated for settlement
use.
Israel has built a massive network of settlements in and
around Jerusalem. The positioning of
these settlements is carefully selected in order to manipulate the make up of
the City demographically and geographically.
In essence they are colonizing tools used for gerrymandering as well as
for creating facts on the grounds aimed at strengthening the Jewish historical
narrative of Jerusalem. Moreover, the
geographic position of the settlements “cuts off Jerusalem from the rest of the
West Bank and divides into separate northern and southern parts, thus impacting
severely on the contiguity of a future Palestinian state and Jerusalem’s
potential as a future capital of two states”
There are currently some 133 settlements in the West Bank,
of which 10% is in East Jerusalem. (This
is following Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from all of the settlements in Gaza and
four settlements in a portion of the northern West Bank). In addition to the
settlements, roughly 100 “illegal outposts” exist in the West Bank, many of
which lack formal government and planning approval, but which nevertheless have
been established with some degree of Israeli governmental support. There are
approximately 250,000 settlers living in the West Bank, excluding those in East
Jerusalem. This is roughly twice the 126,900 settlers who lived in the West
Bank at the time of the Oslo Accords. Civil Administration, estimates that
nearly one-third of the land incorporated into the settlement jurisdictions is
private land owned by Palestinians.There are an estimated 210,000 Israeli settlers living in East Jerusalem, alongside 300,000 Palestinians. The Israeli presence in East Jerusalem is spread over the following settelelmtns and areas in East Jerusalem:
Year
|
Settlers
|
Location
|
|
Talpiot (East)
|
1967
|
13,660
|
Settlement
in E. Jerusalem
|
French Hill (Giv'at Shapira)
|
1969
|
6,090
|
Settlement
in E. Jerusalem
|
Gilo
|
1973
|
29,420
|
Settlement
in E. Jerusalem
|
Giv'at Hamivtar
|
1970
|
2,958
|
Settlement
in E. Jerusalem
|
Giv'at Hamatos
|
1997
|
Settlement
in E. Jerusalem
|
|
Har Homa
|
1997
|
16,470
|
Settlement
in E. Jerusalem
|
Ma'alot Dafna
|
1972
|
2,940
|
Settlement
in E. Jerusalem
|
Neve Ya'akov / Atarot
|
1972
|
20,380
|
Settlement
in E. Jerusalem
|
Pisgat
Ze'ev
|
1985
|
40,240
|
Settlement
in E. Jerusalem
|
Ramat EshkolS
|
1970
|
6,770
|
Settlement
in E. Jerusalem
|
Ramat Shlomo
|
1995
|
15,140
|
Settlement
in E. Jerusalem
|
Jewish Quarter
|
3,350
|
Settlement
in E. Jerusalem
|
|
Ramot
Alon
|
42,430
|
Settlement
in E. Jerusalem
|
|
City of David
|
10,000
|
Settlement
in E. Jerusalem
|
|
Total
|
209,848
|
Source: http://www.btselem.org/settlements/statistics
During 2014 alone, the Israeli government approved the
building of 2610 housing units in Givat Hamatos, the first new Israeli settlement
in East Jerusalem since construction of Har Homa settlement in the 1990s. The Municipality also approved building
permits for 186 housing units in Pisgat Zeev and in Har Homa C. Tenders were issued for 708 units at
Gilo. The year also witnessed a number
of Palestinian homes take over by Israeli colonial settlers in Silwan, where
500 heavily protected Israeli illegal settlers intimidate and antagonize 20,000
Palestinians live there. Silwan is today slated for the extension of the Jewish
Quarter of the Old City.
Another dangerous development in the settlement policies
of Israel in Jerusalem are the plans for Palestinian population transfer from
the area known as E1 to the town of Nuweima north of Jericho. The government of Israel is currently studying
several plans submitted for the construction of Nuweima. E1 plan
“would effectively complete a crescent of Israeli settlements around East
Jerusalem dividing it from the rest of the West Bank and its Palestinian
population centres, and create a continuous Jewish population between Jerusalem
and Ma'ale Adumim. It would also nearly bisect the West Bank jeopardizing the
prospects of a contiguous Palestinian state.”[21]
During the “Conference of High Contracting Parties To The
Fourth Geneva Convention”, UNRWA expressed concern at the ”The threatened forcible displacement E1 of approximately 7,000 Palestinians in the
Jerusalem periphery, many of whom are Bedouin registered as UNRWA refugees. In
addition to threatening traditional livelihoods and culture, forcible transfer
of protected persons from land under occupation would represent a breach of
international humanitarian law.[22] Incidentally Israel and USA exerted pressure
on Switzerland not to hold this Summit on Palestinians.[23]
Expropriation of
Palestinian land:
Israel
has expropriated 35 percent of East Jerusalem’s surface territory (about 24.5
km2), targeted for Jewish settlements and neighborhoods expansion. Today more than 86% of the land area of (expanded)
East Jerusalem, as defined by the City’s municipal boundaries has been
expropriated without compensation.
In
addition to land expropriation, the Israeli Municipality of Jerusalem uses
urban planning as a tool for Judaizing Jerusalem and for achieving its geopolitical
objectives. Only 13 percent of Palestinian lands in East Jerusalem is allocated
for Palestinian use. 35 percent is expropriated for Israeli settlements, 22
percent is zoned as Green Areas for public use (Which almost always means
reserved for settlement building), and 30 percent is entirely without a plan.[24]
Demolition of Palestinian
homes:
Demolition of
homes and buildings by an Occupying Power is illegal. Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention[25]
states:
“Any
destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging
individually or collectively to private persons, or to the State, or to other
public authorities, or to social or cooperative organizations, is prohibited,
except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military
operations.”
Demolitions in Jerusalem
are carried out under various pretexts.
They are one of the main tools applied to drive the Palestinians out of
Jerusalem. Demolitions are usually
carried out for lack of Israeli building permits, or as a punitive measure as
part of an illegal collective punishment tactics. In many cases, Palestinian homeowners opt to carry
out the demolitions themselves in order to avoid paying exorbitant costs of the
demolish.
According to late
Rawhi Khatib, the last Palestinian mayor of East Jerusalem before its illegal
occupation by Israel in 1967, less than a week after the occupation of East
Jerusalem in 1967, Israel started systemized demolitions of Palestinian homes
inside and outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. Israel was quick to
demolish the Moroccan Quarter or neighborhood in the Old City, which at the
time included 2 mosques, 135 homes inhabited by 650 Palestinians. A Plastics
factory near the Armenian Quarter was demolished, leaving 200 of its workers
out of work. Around 200 hundred homes
were also razed in the vicinity of the Noble Sanctuary.[26] The illegal measure of punitive demolitions
was also at work around that time with the Israeli military demolishing
24 homes under the pretext of punishing members of Palestinian resistance
movements. In 1969, Israel civil
authorities demolished 14 worship and antiquity homes, including a mosque near
the Bab Maghribeh, and the Zawiyya Fakhriyya, for the sake of exploration
around the “Buraq Wall” or what is known as the Western Wall.[27]
All of these demolitions resulted in the displacement of at least 1,000
Palestinians during the late 1960s. Many
of the residents of the Moroccan Neighborhood had ties with Morocco and they
went back there. Others ended up in
Shu‘fat Refugee Camp and elsewhere in Jerusalem.
Since 1967 the number of Palestinian homes that have been
demolished exceeds 2000 homes. This means an average of 45 homes per year, 4
homes per month, and one home per week.
According to UN (OCHAOPT ) at least a third of the Palestinian homes in
East Jerusalem lack Israeli-issued building permits, potentially placing over
90,000 residents at risk of displacement.
Revocation of Palestinian residency rights:
Palestinian East Jerusalemites are issued residency status
in Jerusalem which gives them a different status form the rest of the
Palestinians in the West Bank.
Since 1967 at least 14,000 Palestinians had their
Jerusalem residency revoked by the Israeli authorities. The Israeli authorities
may revoke Palestinian identity cards if its holder fails to prove that Jerusalem
is his/her “Center of Life”, a highly subjective and non-transparent criteria
that Palestinians are subjected to in fending for their residency rights in
Jerusalem. Other pretexts for stripping
Jerusalemites of their identity cards include living outside Jerusalem for seven consecutive
years, obtaining another nationality,
and or registering as a resident of another country. “According to these cases, various studies
estimate that the number of Palestinian Jerusalemites who have lost their
identity cards has now reached about 50,000-60,000. All are either deported
from the city of Jerusalem or kept out of it.”[28] The official figure of the Israeli Ministry
of Interior show that between 1967 and 2013 Israel revoked the residency status
of 14,309 Palestinians from East Jerusalem.
In 2013 alone, Israel revoked the residency of 106 East Jerusalemites.
Israel plans to introduce electronic-biometric
cards as well as expiry dates on the ID cards. These measures are seen by many Palestinians
as an attempt by Israel to drive even more Palestinians out of Jerusalem.
The “Apartheid Wall”.
The Fence. The Wall. Israel’s Separation
Barrier. The “Berlin Wall”:
The plan to build a “separation fence” (Apartheid Wall
hereinafter) in the West Bank (with Israel) was announced by Ariel Sharon then
Prime Minister of Israel on April 14, 2002. The Apartheid Wall is best described as a
link in a chain of colonial measures whose aim, to borrow Peter Beinart’s words, is to create:
“a relentless assault on the lives of Palestinians to immiserate them to such
an extent that they flee.”
The entire route of the wall is more than twice the size of
the Green line and is approximately 700 kilometers, out of which more than 500
kilometers have been built. Its total
cost so far is estimated at $2.6 billion, with $260 the cost of annual
maintenance.
In the Jerusalem area the Apartheid Wall is 168 kilometers
long. The overriding consideration in
planning its route was settlement expansion.
As it stands today, the Wall integrates 12 Israeli settlements into
Jerusalem’s unilaterally defined municipal boundaries as well as the Jewish settlements
beyond the municipal boundary such as Ma’ale Adumim (located in the West Bank). On the other hand, the route of the Apartheid
Wall has left a number of Palestinian communities considered within East
Jerusalem municipal boundaries at the side of the West Bank of the border, with
serious negative impacts on the lives of at least 70,000 Palestinian residents
of Jerusalem (out of the estimated 300,000) Palestinians living there. The wall in effect has managed to physically
alienate 30% of Jerusalem’s Palestinian constituency, leading to its final
Judization.
In July 2004, the International Court of
Justice ruled in an advisory opinion that the construction of the wall
violates international law. This ruling must
now be added to Israel’s list of voluminous violations of international laws
and human right conventions.
Haim Ramon, an ex minister
and member of the Israeli Knesset stated, “[The Wall] also makes [Jerusalem]
more Jewish. The safer and more Jewish Jerusalem will be, it can serve as a
true capital of the state of Israel.” Asked about the Palestinian neighborhoods
that would be isolated by the Wall, Mr. Ramon said: “I don’t think anybody is
sorry about this.”[29]
Isolation of Jerusalem:
Between the Apartheid Wall and the ring of
settlements that is carefully built around Jerusalem, the City is now geographically
severed from its natural West Bank hinterland.
A trip between Jerusalem and Bethlehem that would normally take fifteen
minutes is now undertaken through a network of make do roads and the infamous dangerous
road known as “Wadi Nar”. The
traditional metropolitan area of Jerusalem, a corridor of 30 kilometers running
from Ramallah in the north to Bethlehem in the south, has been completely
disrupted by the settlements and the Wall. This corridor has traditionally
accounted for 35% of the Palestinian national economy.[30]
Approximately
four million Palestinians from the Occupied Palestinian Territory are prohibited
from entering Jerusalem without Israeli-issued permits, which are difficult to
obtain. Since the early days of the Israeli military occupation of East
Jerusalem, Israel controlled entry to Jerusalem through military and police
checkpoints at all access points to Jerusalem.
Today there are 16 wall check points controlling every entrance point to
Jerusalem. For Palestinian residents of
the West Bank access to Jerusalem is restricted to four checkpoints: Gilo,
Qalandiya, Shufat, and Zeytoun.
The isolation of
Jerusalem affects the access of Palestinians to Christian and Moslem religious
sites. The Israeli hasbara
loves to show and even romanticize how the City of Jerusalem is a place of religious
freedom and diversity with unhindered access to the different holy places,
while in fact it is the embodiment of Israel’s colonial separatist policies
aiming at achieving Jewish theological dominance over the City of Jerusalem. Two million West Bank Palestinians living under
Israeli military rule need special and hard-to-get permits to enter Jerusalem, let
alone the Aqsa compound or any of the quarters of the Old City. Entrance to the Al-Aqsa compound is often
restricted to all Palestinians, residents and non-residents of Jerusalem. In
addition police and settlers have a heavy presence in the Old City, turning it into
a place of heightened tension and intimidation.
Encroachment of the Hebrew Language on East
Jerusalem:
In December 2010, the
municipality of Jerusalem issued a municipal decision forcing shop-owners in
East Jerusalem to add Hebrew text to their shop signs, and mandating that the
Hebrew text should take up at least half of the total space of the sign. Given the importance of language in asserting
a narrative over another, streets names in East Jerusalem were also altered
from their original Arabic names to Jewish / Hebrew ones. In light of all of Israel’s violations and
abuses of international law, this hebraization and Judaization of names might
seem trivial. However, it is probably one
of the most important aspects of erasing the memory of the place, and in
disconnecting the past from the present.
Judaizing names validates Israel’s narrative that weaves a concocted
reality aimed at monopolizing its presence in Jerusalem while excluding all
other residents there.
In a show that
cannot be described but one of arrogance and contempt, and in the midst of
heightened tensions between Palestinians and Jews in Jerusalem, the Jerusalem
City Council, approved
in September 2015 the decision to name 30 roads in East Jerusalem’s Palestinian
neighborhoods with Hebrew names. “The Hebrew
street names will appear in Silwan, Sheikh Jarrah, A-Tur, Ras al-Amud and the area around Damascus Gate. The names will include Biblical
references and names highlighting Jewish connections to the area.
Conclusion:
It may be called the holy city, but over the past few
decades, Zionists have desecrated Jerusalem in the name of this very
sanctity. The city of peace is now the
city of the colonized, dispossessed and occupied. Over the past seven decades Jerusalem has
been subject to a systematic, ruthless and audacious Judaization process, which
started in earnest in 1948 with one end in mind: to alter the demographic and
geographic character of the city. The ultimate
objective of this alteration was, and still is, to establish demographic
superiority of Jews over Palestinians, and to keep Jerusalem as one single and
indivisible administration unit governed by Israel.
Over the past thousands of
years Jerusalem changed hands more than 25 times, suffered more than 20
sieges, was destroyed seventeen times, and its inhabitants were massacred on
several occasions. Imagine the absurdity
if all of those who once conquered Jerusalem went back claiming title by virtue of their presence there once upon thousands of years ago. Well,
this is exactly what Israel is doing.
Even though the Jewish rule in
Jerusalem ended in 587 BCE (when the Babylonians destroyed the Kingdom of Judah), the Jews today cite biblical arguments to justify their presence there. They use their rule over Jerusalem two thousand and five hundred years ago as an absurd pretext to “exhume a Jewish state from the dust of history".
As Henry Cattan explains “Israel’s
claim of an historic right to Jerusalem is nothing but a gigantic bluff by
which the Zionist Jews have succeeded in deceiving world opinion”. Over the past several decades, all Judaization measures taken in Jerusalem
fall at the heart of creating new facts on the ground aimed at justifying this 'bluff'.
Apart from the absurdity of Israel's divine and biblical claim to Jerusalem, Israel is violating a slew of international laws and human rights conventions in forcing its illegal presence in and control over Jerusalem. The most obvious violations are those concerning the "Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict", the 4th Geneva Convention, and a number of UN resolutions addressing the "Question of Jerusalem". Annual reports by Heads Of European Missions
on East Jerusalem repeatedly allude to these violations and warn that “The increasing integration of East
Jerusalem into Israel has left Palestinian neighbourhoods ever more isolated.
Israel is, by legal and practical means, actively pursuing its annexation by
systematically undermining the Palestinian presence in the city”.
Finally, I strongly believe that in order to
have any meaningful discussion of the status of Jerusalem, it must cover all matters pertaining to the modern conquest of the entire city, east and
west. Confining the talk to East
Jerusalem only serves at ignoring the wrongs that have led to Israel’s de facto
occupation and annexation of West Jerusalem in 1948. Moreover, one must remain mindful of the fact that the distinction between East and West Jerusalem is as artificial
as Israel’s claims of sovereignty over the City. Today, all of Jerusalem, East and West, is
illegally occupied and annexed. As Henry Cattan puts it in
his book “The Question Of Jerusalem”:
"Although the [UN] Security Council and the General Assembly became more vocal since 1967 in condemning the measures taken by Israel to change the legal status of Jerusalem and in proclaiming their invalidity, there can be no doubt that on legal or logical grounds there exists no difference, in regard to their illegality and invalidity, between the measures taken by Israel in modern Jerusalem in 1948 and those [taken] in the Old City in 1967”
N.B.
In the course of writing this essay it occurred to me how much we need to be reminded of the idea, for sure promulgated by the Zionists, that “The old (Palestinians) will die and the young will forget” (The origin of this quote is unknown – falsely attributed to Ben Gurion). It is the moral and ethical duty of every caring and responsible Palestinian and human being to never forget, and to work in whatever capacity there is to support the Palestinian cause. There are countless ways in which one could support ending the illegal presence of the Zionist colonial occupation and presence in Palestine. I would suggest supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. I would also suggest seriously looking into supporting (and subscribing to) all the institutions that are working on preserving our history and heritage such as the Institute of Palestine Studies, or the Jerusalem Quarterly publication, the soon to be opened Palestinian Museum, or performing art organisations teaching music and dance such as Edward Said National Conservatory of Music, and Ibda Cultural Center…The list is endless. And of course the simplest way of all is by educating ourselves about the history of Palestine, and by never ceasing to remind the world, through talking, writing, photographing, filming, singing, cooking, baking, whatever it takes, of the truth about the injustices being committed in Palestine, and the misery of the Palestinian people in their own homeland.
"Although the [UN] Security Council and the General Assembly became more vocal since 1967 in condemning the measures taken by Israel to change the legal status of Jerusalem and in proclaiming their invalidity, there can be no doubt that on legal or logical grounds there exists no difference, in regard to their illegality and invalidity, between the measures taken by Israel in modern Jerusalem in 1948 and those [taken] in the Old City in 1967”
N.B.
In the course of writing this essay it occurred to me how much we need to be reminded of the idea, for sure promulgated by the Zionists, that “The old (Palestinians) will die and the young will forget” (The origin of this quote is unknown – falsely attributed to Ben Gurion). It is the moral and ethical duty of every caring and responsible Palestinian and human being to never forget, and to work in whatever capacity there is to support the Palestinian cause. There are countless ways in which one could support ending the illegal presence of the Zionist colonial occupation and presence in Palestine. I would suggest supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. I would also suggest seriously looking into supporting (and subscribing to) all the institutions that are working on preserving our history and heritage such as the Institute of Palestine Studies, or the Jerusalem Quarterly publication, the soon to be opened Palestinian Museum, or performing art organisations teaching music and dance such as Edward Said National Conservatory of Music, and Ibda Cultural Center…The list is endless. And of course the simplest way of all is by educating ourselves about the history of Palestine, and by never ceasing to remind the world, through talking, writing, photographing, filming, singing, cooking, baking, whatever it takes, of the truth about the injustices being committed in Palestine, and the misery of the Palestinian people in their own homeland.
[2] United Nations Resolution 181. The boundaries were
restated in article 8 of UN Resolution 194 of December 11, 1948, as well as
other UN documents such as UN Doc. A11245, December 10, 1949.
[3] Annex B of UN resolution 181 explicitly states
that: “The City of Jerusalem shall include the present municipality of
Jerusalem plus the surrounding villages and towns, the most eastern of which shall
bebe Abu Dis; the most southern, Bethlehem; the most western, Ein Karim
(including also the built-up area of Motsa); and the most northern Shu'fat,
(annex B).
[5] Between 1922 and 1936 the Jewish population in
Palestine grew from about 86,000 to 400,000.
[6] In 2011 Jerusalem’s population was estimated at 800,000 of which 64% were Jews and
36% were Arabs.
[7] Journal of Palestine Studies Vol 21, no. 1 (Aut.
91): pp. 5–16. Khalidi, Walid "The Palestine Problem: An Overview"
[9] In 1948 and at the time of the official cease-fire,
Moshe Dayan sat with Abdallah Tell and UN mediators, slicing up Jerusalem.
Using a map scaled at 1:20,000, each side used a different coloured wax pen to
delineate the furthest point under its control. Israel drew a red line and
Jordan a green line. This is the origin of the phrase used to describe land
that is “behind the green line.” In many places the two lines converged. In
addition, as the wax of the China graphic pens dried, the coloured ink lines
spread out until they coved two millimetres of the map which equaled 200
meters. The drying ink caused a delicate problem as to where the exact boundaries
were. For example, part of the neighbourhood of Musrara remained in a deadlock
until an agreement was reached in July 1951.
(http://www.jewishpress.com/sections/travel/jerusalem-walking-tour-along-part-of-the-1948-armistice-line/2012/09/28/0/?print)
[10] According to Merriam Webster online dictionary the
meaning of armistice is “a temporary suspension of hostilities by agreement
between the opponents: A truce."
[11] Flapan, Simha, 1987, The
Birth of Israel: Myths And Realities; Pantheon Books, New York, page
150
[12] Journal of Palestine Studies Vol. 1, no. 1 (August
91): pp. 5–16. Khalidi, Walid "The Palestine Problem: An Overview".
[14] “The Status of Jerusalem in International
Law - http://www.nad-plo.org/etemplate.php?id=33
[20] Journal of Palestine Studies Issue 38 p. 17. Eyal
Weizman"Demographic architecture".
[25] The Geneva Convention
relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, commonly
referred to as the Fourth Geneva Convention, is one of the four treaties of the Geneva Conventions. It was adopted in August 1949,
and defines humanitarian protections for civilians in a war zone.
[26] Al-Aqsa Mosque
Compound, sometimes
referred to as the Noble Sanctuary (“Haram al-Sharif” in Arabic), is the
compound that contains Al Aqsa building itself, ablution fountains, open spaces
for prayer, monuments and the Dome of the Rock building. This entire area
enclosed by the walls which spans 144 dunums (almost 36 acres), forms the
Mosque. Sacred to approximately 1.6
billion Muslims around the world, and a symbol for all Palestinians, the
Mosque has been under exclusive Muslim sovereignty and control since the
construction of the Dome of the Rock in 692 CE. As such, any entrance to the Al
Aqsa Mosque must be agreed and coordinated by the Muslim Waqf.
[27] A report
published in December 1930 by the Commission appointed by the United Kingdom
government to determine the rights and claims of Moslems and Jews in connection
with the Western or Wailing Wall at Jerusalem found that “it [The Wall] is
legally the absolute property of the Moslem community and the strip of pavement
facing it is Waqf property, as is shown by documents preserved by the Guardian
of the Waqf.” (UN General Assembly S/8427/Add.1 23 February 1968)
[28] https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/articles/middle-east/9223-israels-silent-expulsion-of-jerusalemites
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