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Fact-Finding Mission in East Jerusalem
On
Second Half of Dec, 2008
C.A. DROITS HUMAINS
5 Rue Gambetta - 92240 Malakoff - France
Phone: (33-1) 4092-1588 * Fax: (33-1)
4654-1913
E. mail
achr@noos.fr
www.achr.nu
www.achr.eu
Prelude
Judaizing Jerusalem
refers to the process of deleting all non-Jewish features of the
city of Jerusalem. The Arab Commission for Human Rights issues
this report in the midst of a new Jewish extremist attack on Al
Aqsa mosque known as Al-Haram Al-Sharif, the second holy place
for all Muslims after Mecca. The Arabs of Jerusalem were holding
demonstrations in protest against the Jewish settlers’ plans to
storm the Aqsa Mosque. This brought to memory Ariel Sharon, the
former prime minister of Israel, when he stormed the Aqsa Mosque
and triggered the second Intifadah in Palestine. At the same
time preparations were ongoing for the Durban II Review
Conference, which is held by the United Nations in Geneva. The
conference will evaluate the current global developments in the
fight against racism. This conference is attended by 350
nongovernmental organizations (NGO) from all over the world. The
US and Israel are organizing fierce opposition to the
overwhelming Arab presence in the conference. They aim to change
the language adopted during the first conference in Durban,
South Africa. The language condemned Israeli racist policies
against the Palestinian people and declared the Palestinian
people as victims of discrimination and apartheid-like policies.
The US and Israel are trying to prevent the Palestinians and
other international organizations supporting rights of the
Palestinian people from holding events on the sidelines of this
conference to condemn Israel as an apartheid regime.
Our report aims to
uncover the Israeli efforts to Judaize the city of Jerusalem by
destroying the Arab and Islamic features in the city. These
efforts have been recently intensified; the process has been
recently accelerated. This report is the last wakeup call to the
world to rescue this iconic city from the intolerant and hateful
ideology adopted by Israel against all non-Jewish in the city of
Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory.
Israel is using military supremacy to systematically erase all
non-Jewish characteristics of the city, especially Arab and
Islamic features.
Background:
This was not my first
visit to the Palestinian territories and it was not my first
contact with people whose homeland was fragmented sixty years
ago. These parts used to be Palestine, the historic homeland of
the Palestinian people. As expected my freedom to move about and
to witness the suffering of the people was restricted. The
government prohibits Arabs from visiting the occupied
territories under the pretext of preventing the normalization of
relations with Israel. Arabs on their way to visit Palestine are
subjected to humiliation and interrogation by the boarder
officials. This is especially true if you are a human rights
activist. I usually avoid entering Palestine through Ben Gurion
Airport; I cross from Egypt to Gaza Strip through Rafah
Crossing. The Egyptian border guards treat us with disrespect,
not expected from a sister Arab country. Israelis crossing to
Egypt deal with the Egyptian guards arrogantly and roughly. Many
Israelis go to Egypt for relaxation or for more serious
political or economic issues.
I wanted to get the
full picture about the human rights conditions in the occupied
Palestinian territories and what was happening to the city of
Jerusalem, the future capital of Palestine. The latest attack
against the Palestinian civil society was closing Al-Aqsa
Foundation for the Construction of Islamic Sanctuaries.
Jerusalem was the cradle of monotheistic religions and was
mentioned several times in the Holy Quran. It is one of the
world's oldest cities. It was first inhabited by the Canaanite
Arabs then the Yabous people then the Palestinians.
The city seemed
gloomier this time, its residents sterner than a visitor
expects. The streets became deserted by sunset as people hurried
home as if worried for their safety in the dark. The taxi driver
who drove me from the airport to my temporary residence said
that he does not normally travel this trip because taxis from
West Jerusalem do not usually venture to East Jerusalem, but he
made an exception this time fearing that I might be in danger
trying to get transportation at night. We traveled a long
distance, which allowed me to see the huge scandalous
differences between a beautiful wealthy and well-cared-for West
Jerusalem, and slum-like and neglected East Jerusalem.
The latest Gaza
aggression started soon after my visit to Jerusalem. The war on
Gaza lasted 22 days; balls of fire were pounding the strip from
air, land and sea. Conditions in Gaza were already dire due to
the one-and-a-half-year Israeli siege. The siege meant to punish
the people in Gaza for democratically electing representatives
who did not meet Israeli approval. This latest aggression aimed
to break the well of resistance in the Palestinian people and
impose the well of occupying power and its supporters and
collaborators. Gaza Strip has turned into a big open-sky prison.
I had previously described the miserable conditions in Gaza
after I lead a fact-finding delegation to Gaza a few years ago.
As the blockade was maintained, the conditions in Gaza were
getting tougher. The siege of Gaza was more or less undeclared
war against the people.
Article 33 of the
Geneva Convention bans any means of mass punishment; despite
this, the Middle East Quartet agreed to the siege imposed by
Israel on millions of Palestinian civilians. Israel, as an
occupying authority, did not meet its obligations under the
international law to provide safety, food, water, education, and
freedom of religion to the occupied Palestinian people. Because
the occupying authority did not meet its obligations, it became
incumbent upon the international community to protect the
Palestinians. Israel refused to apply the Security Council
decision number 1860; the prime minister of Israel said, “Israel
has the right to defend its citizens.” Israel proved once again
that it does not respect the international law or the United
Nations decision, despite that the establishment of the State of
Israel was decided by the UN General Assembly.
Gaza Strip is a
densely populated area, 80% of the population composed of
refugees of which more than half are children. The people of
Gaza are caught between security fences and closed border
crossings without any escape exits out of this hell on earth.
Gaza residents are
gradually stripped of all means of existence. Patients are left
without medications for certain death on occasion; children grow
up without experiencing real childhood. At least 350 persons
died during the blockade because they were not allowed by the
Israeli authorities to leave the Gaza Strip to receive treatment
in neighboring Jordan or Egypt. The destruction was
unprecedented; thousands of people were made handicapped by
internationally banned weapons used by the Israeli army. It is
reported that the Israeli army tested some of its new ammunition
on the Palestinian people during the latest Gaza aggression.
Egyptian and Israeli
scientists declared that Israel used fusion bombs containing
heavy metals, which can cause among other things damage to
fetuses, renal failure, and other deadly illnesses. The world
was watching on television when Israel used white phosphorus
bombs, which melted the human flesh and mutilated the human body
especially around the jaw of the victim. Israel used the
infamous depleted uranium, which will cause congenital defects,
accelerated aging, and high cancer rates among children for
years to come.
According to Al Mezan
Human Rights Center, the latest aggression on the Gaza Strip
left 1,342 dead, including 109 women and 318 children. The
aggression killed 1,107 civilians and 235 (15.5% of the total
death toll) resistance fighters. The war against the people of
the Gaza Strip is still waged in various forms. After all the
carnage the Israeli occupation forces did not achieve its
declared targets: the elimination of Hamas movement, putting an
end to missile fired into Israel, and imposing a new security
agreement on unarmed people. The people of the Gaza Strip are
facing with stones and homemade missiles the forth strongest
military power in the world, which in addition to its
conventional weapons has 250 nuclear heads. Israel, with the
help of the United States, Europe and some Arab countries, is
still trying to achieve by political means what it could not
achieve by war.
What happened in Gaza
is part of what is happening in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and
even what is recently happening to the Palestinians inside the
green line. What happens in these three different areas should
be linked because the offender is the same although the crimes
are different. There is a link between the offensive on Gaza
Strip called Operation Cast Lead and the scheme of judaizing
Jerusalem. Olmert, the immediate past prime minister of Israel,
toured the apartheid separation wall three days before the
aggression began, stressing the plans to finish the construction
in the separation wall early in the year 2009. The separation
wall imposes de facto annexation of 85% of the holy city's
Eastern part of Jerusalem.
What is happening in
the Palestinian territories aims to perpetuate the Israeli
occupation and prevent the emergence of a viable Palestinian
State. Israel is fragmenting the Palestinian territories and
planting settlements. Jewish settlers come from all over the
world to outposts and settlements in the Palestinian
territories, while the Palestinians are forced to leave by
policies aimed to make their lives miserable. Israel is trying
to force neighboring countries and other countries to host the
Palestinian refugees who are denied the right to return. These
illegal Israeli policies are increasing despite all the
negotiations, talks and agreements. The independent Palestinian
state has not yet emerged. The number of settlers in the West
Bank, since the Oslo Agreement of 1993, jumped from 190 thousand
to half a million today. 25 % of the Palestinian lands have been
swallowed inside the separation wall; the wall expanded the
Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The
Palestinians are left with 22% of historic Palestine to
establish their own state. The separation wall, fragmentation,
and Jewish settlements are making the establishment of a viable
Palestinian State more and more difficult.
The Hebrew State is
the only UN member who has no declared borders, hence allowing
it to continue seizing more Palestinian territories without any
restriction. It is also the only country that does not have a
constitution and considers itself a home to every Jew all over
the world. The United Nations’ conditions to recognize Israel
were to accept the return of the Palestinian refugees and the
establishment of a Palestinian State. Israel has not fulfilled
these conditions 61 years after it was recognized by the UN.
Israel is the only country that considers religion and ideology
as reasons to expel people out of their land and replace them
with anyone declaring himself Jewish. Israel has not agreed to
the return of the six million Palestinian refugees from all over
the world to their villages and towns. The United Nations
recognize the rights of the Palestinian refugees to return and
receive compensation for their losses.
The chairman of the 63rd
UN General Assembly in his speech before the General assembly
echoed Mr. John Dugard, the special Rapporteur on the situation
of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied by
Israel since 1967, when he said, “In 2004 the UN judicial
institution confirmed that Israel’s actions in the Occupied
Territory, do indeed violate fundamental norms of human rights
and humanitarian law and cannot be justified on grounds of
self-defense or necessity, he then stressed that if the United
Nations is serious about human rights it cannot afford to ignore
this legal opinion in the deliberations of the Middle East
Quartet. Failure to acknowledge and implement the legal finding
of the UN on the Palestinian situation brings the very
commitment of the United Nations to human rights into question.”
Judaization of
Jerusalem
Since resolution 303
was issued by the UN General Assembly on the 9th of December
1949 the city of the three major monotheistic religions was
granted a special international status, with protection for all
sacred places and respect for religious, cultural and social
diversity of all the citizens in the city, this UN resolution
could have been the base for peaceful final status; however, the
Israeli occupation did not abide by this resolution. The Israeli
authority prevents Muslim men younger than 50 years old from
reaching Al-Aqsa mosque to pray. The Christian community is not
spared these human rights violations by the Israeli authority.
The Christian in Jerusalem are subjected to same martial laws
imposed since the occupation of the city in 1967.
The UN formed a
supervising body of the five permanent UN Security Council
members to oversee the implementation of the UN resolutions
about Jerusalem; this UN supervising body has been dissolved
since the 1994 Oslo agreement took effect. Israel did not allow
the United Nations to practice any administrative authority over
Jerusalem. Israel annexed Jerusalem by military force against
all the UN resolutions including resolution 181 and 242 issued
by the Security Council. The annexation of the Holly City is
also in contravention to the UN General Assembly resolution 303
stipulating that any measure that an occupying government takes
cannot prevent the UN supervising body from maintaining the
status of Jerusalem city as it is adopted by the UN general
assembly. This issue undermined the United Nations’ credibility
with the Arab countries and internationally.
Israel annexed East
Jerusalem in 1980 after having occupied the city since 1967.
Israel refuses to recognize 19 UN resolutions that consider
Jerusalem an occupied land. The Israeli Knesset ratified a
decision in late 2007 preventing any future concession of East
Jerusalem unless it is approved by a two-third majority, i.e. 80
out of 120 representatives. This seems very difficult especially
today with ultra rightwing government at the helm. Although some
Palestinian civil institutions are still operating in East
Jerusalem, the Palestinian Authority is banned from taking
charge of the city or running the local government. The Israelis
closed the Orient House years ago under the pretext that the
Palestinian Authority practiced some influence over the center.
Even Palestinians living in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip
need special permit to enter East Jerusalem.
Israel started the
process of Judaizing Jerusalem shortly after it captured the
city during the 6 day war in 1967. Demolishing Arab homes was
one of the means used to simply delete all features of Arab life
in the city. One month after the 1967 war, the Israeli occupying
forces demolished 5000 Arab houses; complete districts were
fully destroyed, like Al-Magharba district, which was
established during the era of Saladin at Al-Buraq squire. Some
mosques were changed into Jewish synagogues, tourist and
commercial attractions, and camel pens. Some Islamic cemeteries
were destroyed, graves of some holy Islamic figures were
demolished and their remains were moved to undisclosed places.
The archive of the Islamic Sharia Court was confiscated and the
Supreme Islamic Council building was demolished, although these
building were considered Waqf (endowment) for so many years. The
Israelis forged documents to falsely claim ownership over 120
pieces of land around the Aqsa Mosque. Israel continues to carry
excavations under the foundation of the Aqsa Mosque building,
which endangers the integrity of the historic and symbolic
building. The Israeli occupation authorities claimed control
over more than 60 thousand donum of lands and confiscated more
than 100 buildings and houses in the vicinity of the Aqsa
Mosque; they turned these confiscated properties into settlement
outposts and built more than 50 synagogues on parts of these
lands. The judaizing operation is still ongoing as dozens of
other synagogues are opening. Construction on the world's
largest synagogue has just recently begun.
According to Arab
Knnest member Ahmed Abu Halabiya 90 % of the Arab lands are put
under control of the occupation authorities, of these 34 % were
illegally confiscated, 40 % are natural reserves, 10 % suspended
lands, and 6 % infrastructures and roads. Only 5-10% of
Jerusalem's city budget is spent on the Palestinian
neighborhoods; although the Palestinian population is 34 % of
the total city population, the Palestinian neighborhoods lack
basic services and infrastructure. Two thirds of the
Palestinians live under the poverty line.
More than 2,200
buildings and houses, and thousands of donum are under threat of
confiscation by the Israeli occupying authority. Al Ansari
Public Library, the oldest and on of the most important cultural
centers in Jerusalem is threatened with evacuation and
demolition. The occupation authorities are ramping up measures
of annexation and confiscation of thousands of donums of Arab
lands and hundreds of buildings under various pretexts, by
executive orders. The Israelis enacted more than twenty laws,
the most prominent of which are Imminent Domain over absentee
properties, natural sanctuaries, forests, etc. These Israeli
policies aim at displacing the Arab residents of Jerusalem to
decrease the Arab population by 88%, i.e. a quarter of million,
while raising the Jewish population to one million in the next
decade.
Al Aqsa Mosque
buildings and landmarks sit on an area of 144 Donum. The mosque
was subject to attacks by Jewish extremists, the Israeli
occupying authority seized Al-Buraq Wall; they claim the wall is
the same famous Wailing Wall. The Israeli occupying authority
demolished Al-Magharbeh Gate in early 2007 and built a bridge in
the place where the gate stood in the past. What Israel is
building in place of the demolished Islamic structures aims at
changing the Islamic identity of the place. The occupation
authorities intensified diggings under the foundation of Al Aqsa
mosque and its courtyard. The massive digging is stretching from
under the southern wall to reach below the Rock Mosque in the
northern part, and from the east side to the west side. The
operation includes digging tunnels for dump trucks and other
heavy machines. These tunnels further weaken the foundation
under the Aqsa Mosque and all other Islamic structures in the
area. Israel claims that the Temple Mound is buried under Al
Aqsa Mosque. The digging poses dangers to the foundations of the
mosque and too many other buildings and private homes around the
mosque. The occupation authority refused to grant the Islamic
Endowments Department permits to repair cracks and collapses in
the western and southern walls of the Aqsa Mosque, the mosque
courtyard, Al-Buraq mosque, the Old Al Aqsa Mosque, and the
Marwani mosque and affiliated schools.
A fire demolished a
part of the Aqsa Mosque in 1969, two years after the city of
Jerusalem fell under the Israeli occupation, and there were
repeated attempts to burn the mosque down. Jewish extremists
stormed the mosque several times and on occasion opened gun fire
on the Muslim worshippers killing and injuring many. One attack
against the mosque was carried out by Ariel Sharon, the ex prime
minister of Israel, when he stormed the mosque with his security
guards in 2000; this ignited the Second Intifadah (popular
uprising). The mosque guards were repeatedly attacked and
prevented from doing their jobs. Palestinians living in Gaza
Strip and the West Bank were denied access to pray in the
mosque. Only certain age groups among the Arab residents of
Jerusalem and inside the green line are given access to the
mosque if they can produce an administrative permit from the
local authorities in their place of residence.
In contravention to
the demands of the international community and the commitments
of the road map, Israel is speeding up its illegal seizure of
East Jerusalem, through building settlements and demolishing
Palestinian houses and buildings. The new Separation Barrier
divided East Jerusalem and worsened the economic conditions of
for the Arab residents; it is almost impossible for a
Palestinian to receive building licenses in Jerusalem, even the
Palestinian residents of Jerusalem are prevented from vertical
or horizontal expansion in their homes. If a Palestinian is
given a building permit, he or she must pay $25,000 Dollars
licensing fees for residential apartment; meanwhile, Jews are
given all required licenses and facilitations for a very small
fee. Some Palestinians were forced to build their houses without
these licenses. The Israeli authority was fast to demolish these
houses. More than 400 Palestinian houses have been demolished
since 2004, and more than 1000 houses are waiting demolition
orders. Often the Israeli authorities evict Palestinian
residents to replace them with Jewish ones.
Al- Kurd family is one
of the families evicted from their homes in north Jerusalem's
Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. We visited the family in their tent
near what used to be their house. The tent became a symbol for
the Palestinian resistance, and they called it the
"Steadfastness Tent". The land for the tent was donated by a
Palestinian neighbor as a temporary solution while Al-Kurd
family awaited justice. I was informed that Israeli bulldozers
demolished the tent two days after our visit. The family and
their friends rebuilt the tent again. They preferred to endure
the tough living in the tent during the hard winter over giving
up their hope to rebuild their home again. Living in a tent was
this family’s only option. Despite the harshness of this
reality, they were luckier than most of the 1,500 Palestinian
residents evicted from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah
neighborhood alone. The aim of the Israeli policies was to
break the spirit of resistance among the Palestinian people. The
Palestinians would rather endure living in a tent over giving
away what is their inalienable right to their land.
Other people we met in
the old parts of Jerusalem city were very concerned over the
threats they had been receiving. They fear that one day they
will loose their houses and properties because of alleged lack
of building license. They may even pay costly fines for their
alleged violations. In spite of all hardships and suffering,
they insist on staying in their land to maintain and defend
their rights and keep the real identity of the city of
Jerusalem. There were 28 houses under eviction orders in Sheikh
Jarrah neighborhood, 36 in the Abbasiya neighborhood and 55 in
Ras Khamis neighborhood near Shufat Camp north of the Old Town.
Shufat town itself lacks Arab schools, which force half the
students in town to travel to neighboring towns. This overwhelms
the classrooms in the neighboring towns; some classrooms have
more than 50 students. The Israeli authorities deny equal
educational opportunities to the Arab children in Jerusalem in
an attempt to force their families to leave the city. The
Israeli occupation authority facilitates the spreading of
illegal addictive drugs among the Palestinian youth to undermine
the most vibrant sections in the Palestinian communities to
eventually break the people resistance.
The town of Sulwan
south of Al Aqsa Mosque is owned by the Islamic Endowments
Department. The town area is about 5,700 donum. The area is rich
with natural wells, which the Israelis have seized. The water
from Sulwan Well runs in a tunnel between the rocks. The tunnel
attracted tourists from all over the world. The Israeli
occupation authorities closed the well in 1988 and altered the
flow of the water to run toward Israeli land. The Israeli charge
visitors to the well 10 dollars each. The Israeli changed other
wells and water reservoirs in the area like the seasonal Louza
well and Ayoub water reservoir, both of which were under
supervision of Jordanian army before the occupation in 1967. The
Israelis pumped the water reservoir from Al Rabab Valley in al
Shama'a region. The Sulwan town is very densely populated
with78,000 residents living inside an area of only hundreds of
donums. The lack of land made the people seek vertical
expansion.
The residents of
Al-Bustan district challenged the Israeli eviction orders. The
district land area is only 70 donum, all owned by Palestinian
citizens. The Israeli authority in Jerusalem handed eviction
orders to about 134 families, 1500 Palestinians living in 88
buildings on Feb, 21st, 2009. The evacuations were
ordered in preparation to demolish the building under the
pretext of building a park. The residents were previously forced
to pay high fines to the Israeli authorities for building
violations. The Israelis attempted to evacuate the Palestinian
residents in late 2004, but they had to back down because of
growing international pressure.
The local Israeli
authorities backpedaled on their previous offer to give the
displaced Palestinian residents houses in Bait Hanina in
Jerusalem. The Palestinian residents refused other offers of
compensations including replacement land because the Israeli
plan would isolate them from Jerusalem and make them part of the
West Bank. The Israeli occupying authority is trying to encircle
Al Aqsa Mosque with Jewish parks and settlements in order to
change the demographics in Jerusalem; the Israeli authority is
trying to Judaize Sulwan district, Jebel Tur and Ras Al-Amoud.
After changing the Arab demographics of these old Arab towns,
the Israeli will link the towns by Jewish settlements. To help
in their efforts to erase the Palestinian identity from
Jerusalem, the Israelis are trying to replace the Islamic
Endowments Department with different organizations where they
have more control over the Islamic Endowments Department, which
runs Al-Aqsa Mosque affairs.
Some Palestinian
residents quit their jobs and stayed in their homes willing to
die under the rubble over losing their rights to the lands and
homes of their ancestors. The Palestinians wanted to protect the
city of Jerusalem against the Israeli plans to erase the Arab
and Muslim features from the city. After the Israeli authority
issued the eviction orders, the Arab residents filed a complaint
with the Israeli courts; the Jerusalem Israeli municipality
informed them that they have to prepare a city building plan to
avoid demolition. The residents spent $70,000 US Dollars on the
city building plans. When they submitted the plan to the
committee in charge, the committee chairman still decided that
King David Park will be built on the rubble of the Arab houses.
The former mufti of Palestine gave a fatwa (religious edict),
which prohibits the rightful owners from accepting any financial
or material compensation for buildings, lands or houses. He saw
that accepting any compensation is considered selling the land
building or house to the Israeli authorities, which is banned by
Sharia (Islamic law).
The district residents
have previously presented a plan to organize their
neighborhoods; they resorted to all legal methods and peaceful
protests to prevent the demolition, but the occupation
authorities did not give building licenses to the Arab residents
of Jerusalem. If ever an exception made, the fees are cost
prohibitive. They could be more than $25,000 dollars for a
residential apartment. Jerusalem local municipality used to
manage these issues, but nowadays, licenses are only issued by
Israeli central authority in Tel Aviv. West Jerusalem Mayor Nir
Barakat is more bent on building more settlements to change the
demographic distribution in Jerusalem; he wants to replace the
Arabs with Jews.
A visitor to Sulwan
can see the Israeli flags over some houses. These houses are
occupied by extremist colonialist settlers. The settlers’ houses
formed some sort of fortresses guarded by the Israeli army
around the clock. The armed settlers attack and beat the unarmed
Arab citizens, and throw garbage at Arab houses. The
well-funded settlers’ organizations seize the Arab houses by
covert buyers, who pose as Westerners buying homes for western
companies; in reality, they were buying the homes for extremist
Zionist movements. The final purpose is to "clean King David's
city" of Arabs. When Arab families resort to the Courts to
protest the demolition orders and present the deeds and licenses
issued before the occupation of city, the Israeli judge will
temporarily stop the demolition order, but the judges will
eventually introduce a provision allowing the demolition for
imminent domain reasons.
The occupation
authorities have completed the bigger part of the so-called
historical "David City" in Wadi Hulwa in the district of Sulwan,
in addition to Jewish settlements built on Palestinian land
surrounding Al Aqsa Mosque. The numerous Israeli army
checkpoints and the separation barrier are isolating the
Palestinian districts around the Old Town and Al Aqsa Mosque
from the rest of the city of Jerusalem, and preventing the
Palestinian residents of these districts from using large
numbers of roads and streets. The budget for the Judaization
project is about 150 million dollars over the next few years.
The authorities implementing these projects are Jerusalem
Municipality, Jerusalem Development Authority and Israel
Antiquities Authority.
The shrines and
Talmudic themed tunnels in this emerging city were dug as part
of a plan that includes the so-called "the Sacred Basin", which
includes the Old Towns and large parts of the districts
surrounding the Old Town like Sheikh Jarrah district, Wadi
Al-Gouz in the North, Tur suburb in the East, and Sulwan suburb
in the south. Sheikh Raed Salah believes that what happens at
the Bustan district, "is not arbitrary because there is a plan
to remove all Palestinian presence in this area by 2050”.
More than ten thousand
Palestinians are living in tough conditions in Al Issawiya
district, east of Jerusalem; they are denied schools and parks
and even postal services. The residents resorted to using
addresses of the available shops to receive their mail. They are
subjected to inspection and interrogations at checkpoints, which
prevent students from getting to their schools and workers from
getting to work.
Jabal Al-Mukabber is
densely populated by Arab residents who have no place to start
families for Arab youth and are living in bad health conditions
with no sewage network, schools, streets, or health clinics. The
municipal authority refused to link the Arab houses with the
sewage network, which was built exclusively for the new Jewish
settlements. The municipal authority seized olive orchards owned
by some residents of Jabal Al-Mukabber and plan to build a Nof
Zion settlement on the orchard land.
The occupying
authority is helping Jewish institutions like Otairet Kohanim,
Ilad and other settlement institutions to buy or annex the
ancient buildings around Al Aqsa Mosque. More than 100 buildings
were annexed so far, at the same time the occupying authority is
doing its best to make life for the Arab citizens as tough as
possible, and to seize thousands of the Arab properties. The
Jewish institutions are conducting excavations; they are digging
wide and long tunnels under the old Arab houses in the ancient
city of Jerusalem and under lands of the Arab city of Sulwan.
These tunnels are dug secretly; they usually start from a
settler house with a middle-sized opening and then expand
gradually in long and convoluted paths, some of the tunnels
reaching as much as 8 meters in width.
Ilad extremist
settlers directly or indirectly seize old Arab homes in the old
town in preparation for digging a tunnel under the town. These
activities are especially concentrated in Sulwan city. The
Shitah tunnel under Sulwan city runs in two directions: one
towards Ancient Jerusalem and the other towards Mount Zion. Work
on this tunnel has been temporarily suspended due to the sudden
landslides resulting from the digging. Palestine Chief Justice
and chairman of the Sharia Supreme Judicial Council sheikh
Taysir Al Tamimi warned of the danger of digging under Al Aqsa
Mosque, which may lead to the collapse of this historic shrine
of Islam.
Most of the tunnels
move towards the Old Town to meet under the Mosque and near
Al-Buraq Wall. Ironically the Israelis are trying to control the
city by literally controlling the foundations of the Arab
buildings in Jerusalem; as a result many Arab homes may
collapse. In Old Jerusalem, we witnessed houses with cracked
walls and we were able to hear the digging and excavation
operations despite the noisy streets. We saw old stairs used by
the Israeli Antiquities Authority to access the underground
digging operations. Seventeen Palestinian girls were injured
because of a landslide under the floor of their classroom at
Qods primary School, which is operated by the Palestinian United
Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees (UNRWA). This
school is very close to Al Aqsa Mosque.
The latest project to
deeply alter the city of Jerusalem according to Al Aqsa
Foundation is Kikar Tzahal in the north west side of the wall of
Old Jerusalem. Part of the areas surrounding Old Jerusalem walls
were converted into parks. The annexation of Islamic and Arab
buildings in Old Jerusalem city is persistent, especially in
Sharaf Neighborhood, west of Magharba district, at the end of Al
Wad street, near Al-Naby Dawoud mosque and Al Dagani family
endowment land. The Arab street names are replaced with Hebrew
ones. There are plans to rebuild Old Jerusalem gates, walls and
some historical sites and districts; the work has started in Al
Khalil gate in the western side. Al Aqsa Foundation for
Endowment and Heritage has recently revealed that the occupation
authorities plan to dig two tunnels 56 meters and 22 meters
long. They will install electric elevators and create passages
to link the Sharaf district in the old town to Al-Buraq Wall and
Al Aqsa Mosque to facilitate settlers’ and tourists’ movements.
Of note is that the Sharaf Arab district was demolished after
the occupation of Jerusalem in 1967, the Arab residents were
pushed out and the district was named the Jewish Neighborhood.
Israel's targets are
not limited to changing the political and demographic aspects of
Jerusalem, but they include also changing the cultural and
religious aspects of the city by removing the Arab and Islamic
identity and replacing it with a Jewish identity, and isolating
Al Aqsa Mosque from Palestinian Arab districts. Israel plans to
deport large numbers of the Arab and Muslim population from
Jerusalem and to establish geographical links between Jewish
settlements in and around the Old Jerusalem, like the French
Hill settlement in the north, the settlement of Eastern Tal
Biyot in the south, and another settlement in the east. This
will permanently change the city of Jerusalem and create the
conditions that prejudge any future final status negotiations.
Israel is working on
these plans feverishly; we noticed that the construction work on
the subway system continues even on official holidays. The
subway is scheduled to start operating in 2010. It is worth
noting that digging uncovered the remains of an old city from
the Roman empire era, which consisted of well-designed houses
with two public baths. The subway construction plan includes
digging a 15-kilometer long tunnel, swallowing key parts of East
Jerusalem lands. The subway will link settlements in the eastern
part with the western part of Jerusalem. French companies like
Stom and Viola are part of a Consortium working on the project.
They signed the contracts in late 2004 with Sharon government.
They continue the work despite protests, lawsuits, and the
illegality of the contracts. Stom company is making 46 train
compartments with bullet proof glass to protect the passengers
against "terrorist acts". Some of the company workers and their
union voiced their protests against working on the project,
because the project is against international laws that do not
allow building operations under illegal occupation.
Israel had signed the
Geneva Convention but never abided by it when it came to the
treatment of the Palestinian population. Israel blatantly
ignores most of the UN resolutions including resolution 446
dated 22nd March 1979, that rejects Israeli policies
of building settlements in Arab and Palestinian territories
occupied in 1967. Building settlements illegally in the occupied
territories is undermining the peace process in the Middle East.
Israel has always ignored such conventions and resolutions.
Israel was condemned by the Security Council and the
International Court of Justice in The Hague because of these
illegal practices against the Arab population. The tramway and
subway projects led to the demolition of Palestinian houses and
the annexation of Palestinian lands. These projects facilitate
the annexation of East Jerusalem and settlement building. Human
rights societies in France filed lawsuits against both French
companies involved in the Subway project in 2007. The lawsuit
called for canceling the contracts with the Israeli government.
The companies affirmed their commitment to respecting human
rights, and denied the existence of any contract with the
Israeli government. The uproar, caused by the human rights
societies in several European countries especially the Swedish
society of Diaconya, made the company Viola lose a $3.5billion
contract in Sweden, which went to a Hong Kong based company. A
Dutch bank stopped financing Viola company for the same reasons.
Evicted Palestinians
usually take refuge with their relatives using tents donated by
the Red Cross. The Palestinians are forced to leave their places
and immigrate away from their homeland because they have no more
options. The occupation authorities make any excuse to withdraw
the identity (ID) cards of the Arab residents of Jerusalem; life
and movement in Jerusalem without the identity card is almost
impossible for an Arab. Israel withdrew more than 40,000 ID
cards from Palestinian residents. The Interior Ministry in
Israel grant special blue ID cards. For a Palestinian to obtain
a blue ID card, he or she must go through long bureaucratic
processes with multiple layers of paper work, including
difficult conditions to prove one’s residency in Jerusalem.
Israel uses multiple excuses to deny the Palestinians the right
of living in Jerusalem; these excuses include but are not
limited to amending the entry laws, denying residence to
Palestinians who travel away or obtain another nationality. The
occupation authorities even close Palestinian houses in
Jerusalem because they claim that they are not inhabited for
long periods despite evidence to the contrary. Palestinians
with foreign passports are denied residence in Jerusalem and are
treated like tourists in their own country; they have to get a
visitor visa, which has to be renewed every three months.
Palestinian husbands and wives cannot reunite if a spouse is not
from Jerusalem, otherwise the violator faces prison sentence and
the spouse from Jerusalem is subject to fines.
The representative of
the Muslim Scholars (Ulema) Council in Palestine said; Israel is
accompanying its crusade to displace the Palestinians out of
Jerusalem with raising Arnona municipal tax, which is higher
than other places including Tel Aviv. At the same time the
Palestinians do not receive municipal services in return. Road
maintenance, new schools, health facilities and public buildings
are lacking in the Palestinian areas. The occupation authorities
demanded fines for traffic violations, not even known to those
being fined; these fines were increased ten times recently.
Objections were not accepted and lawsuits before the courts were
useless except in very few cases. Arabs are not granted proper
hearing in the courts by Israeli judges, who issue their rulings
mostly against Arabs in Jerusalem even before hearing the
lawyers’ argument.
the Israeli government
has recently closed the last gate linking Jerusalem city with
the Ram town and Al-Barid suburb. The Gate of Al-Barid Suburb
was the only link between North and South Jerusalem. The city
became like a prison separated from the West Bank after closing
the gate. The residents were packed inside high security fences
under Israeli control with no freedom to move around the city.
The freedom of movement is subject to the Israeli soldiers’
moods; the soldiers decide who gets exit or entry permission.
Al-Barid Suburb virtually became a militarized zone with
surveillance cameras monitoring people’s movements. 60,000
Palestinians in Jerusalem are living in the isolated region
under the threat of losing their blue Israeli ID cards. Their
daily lives became constant suffering to get to work, schools,
or other places. The population of the town of Ram is about
58,000; more than half of them have an Israeli ID card, but the
town lacks health centers and schools. Because of these
measures, the town Palestinian residents have to pass through
Kalandia and Hazma Israeli military checkpoints daily. Most of
the shops in their town have closed after their business
dwindled down because of the security wall built by Israel.
Demolitions and
evictions have been accelerated in order to turn Jerusalem into
a Jewish city and empty its Arab residents by 2020. About
260,000 Arabs and more than 182,000 Jews are living in East
Jerusalem. The separation wall caused the eviction of 1,635 Arab
families, about 100 thousand Arab citizens, out of Jerusalem.
Israel is building a new Greater Jerusalem with new imposed
demographics to guarantee the domination of Jewish colonists in
this sacred city. The demolition of houses was one of the first
acts of the the Israeli occupation in 1967, followed by imposing
a military system, ethnic cleansing, detention, deportation and
denial of citizenship rights to Palestinians.
Demographic and
geographic aspects of Jerusalem are forcefully changed to
prejudge any final status negotiations and force the
Palestinians and the world to accept the illegal domination of
Israelis over Jerusalem and to make it the capital of Israel.
Settlement building has increased in the first half of 2008 by
1.8%, twice as much as the previous year according to the
Central Bureau of Statistics. The Israeli occupation authorities
work to remove the so-called green line by intensive settlements
building (the green line marks the border line of Israel before
the six day war started on the 5th of June 1967).
There are more than 192 thousand settlers living in 12 illegal
settlements in East Jerusalem; these include agricultural,
industrial, and military settlements. The occupation authorities
facilitate settlement expansion through tax breaks and financial
incentives.
What is taking place
in Jerusalem applies also to the occupied West Bank. A study
issued by the National Security Studies Institute in Tel Aviv
University covering the settlement building in the occupied
territories in the span of four decades, concluded that
settlement building did not stop despite the peace process. The
settlements are a serious obstacle in the way of the two-state
solution. The study points to the presence of more than 100
illegal settlement outposts; more than half of them were built
after Sharon assumed office and after the United States proposed
the road map in March 2001. The authority demolished only three
settlements outposts so far. The Israeli occupation authority is
providing the means to increase the Jewish settlers’ population
in the Palestinian occupied land; the Israeli governments has
always catered to the ultra orthodox right wing Jewish movements
by supporting settlements building.
According to Mahdi
Abdul Hadi, the demographic, geographical, social, and economic
changes imposed on Jerusalem by the Israeli occupation authority
were met only by individual and small protests in the absence of
a strategy to stop the Israeli campaign to change the
multicultural face of the city. There are no organized actions
by the Arab, Palestinian, Islamic or Christian communities to
stop the Israeli plans to alter the city of Jerusalem. Few
actions were partially and temporarily fruitful; the local
affairs court in Jerusalem recently issued a ruling to freeze
demolition orders of 55 Palestinian apartments in Ras Khamis
district in central Jerusalem, pending further hearings by the
court. Some see this as an important legal breakthrough, which
buys some time for the lawyers to work to cancel the
administrative orders of demolition. The Israeli Committee
Against House Demolitions sent a petition to the United Nations
demanding the enforcement of resolution 252 adopted by the
Security Council after the Magharba District was illegally
demolished by the Israeli occupation authority; the resolution
called to immediately stop any measures that may change the
situation of Jerusalem. The committee promised to launch a
campaign to rebuild the demolished Palestinian houses (about 300
houses every year).
The Documentation and
Research Department at Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic
Rights documented more than 200 demolition orders for
Palestinian houses in Jerusalem and its suburbs since the
beginning of 2009. The occupation authorities have already
demolished about 30 houses this year, at a rate of 1-3 houses
every day. The Palestinian life in East Jerusalem is very
difficult because of the Israeli restrictions. The Israeli
municipality grants only between 150 and 350 building licenses
every year to Palestinians, at the same time they demolish more
than 150 Palestinian houses every year. This leads to the
displacement of thousands of Palestinians and the withdrawal of
their residence rights in their city. The Israeli actions are
causing the biggest mass displacement operation of Palestinians
in Jerusalem since 1967.
The irony is that the
Palestinian Authority (PA) has no mechanisms to protect the city
of Jerusalem. There is no clear policy to confront the projects
of settlement building and Judaization. Many say that the PA
acts as if it has no relation to Jerusalem residents with no
clear policies to protect the city. Israeli Interior Ministry
officers have free rain to do whatever they want against the
Arab residents of Jerusalem: they storm the Arab houses at night
under the pretext of holding a census; they even interrogate the
Arabs about attendees and absentees at the house. When we asked
the ministry about this alleged census, we did not receive any
answers.
Muslim scholars (Ulema)
Council in Palestine has warned in a statement that black days
are coming ahead in Jerusalem, as the city of Jerusalem is
changing overnight. The residents who are asked to stand strong
in the face of the mighty Israeli power have never received any
support. There is a big Israeli plan to quickly change Jerusalem
into a Jewish city. The Israelis are digging under the city and
its surrounding walls; they plan to build synagogues in the Holy
City. The historical Dome of the Rock might disappear in a few
months and be replaced by a giant dome of a synagogue. Israel
carries out secret underground diggings to hide the truth from
the world; they claim that they are performing archeological
work to uncover evidence that they owned the city thousands of
years ago. They are working to uncover the historical Hashmonaim
tunnel, although the Hashmonaim civilization has never existed
in Jerusalem. Scientific inspection of this digging work
uncovered that Israel has used chemicals to dissolve big rocks
on their way to the alleged historical channel. The Israelis are
rewriting the history of Jerusalem and its surroundings; they
allocated huge sums of money and employed tens of historians and
archeologists in the West, to silencing voices that react to
their claims.
Ehud Barak, the
previous primd minister of Israel, said one day to Yasser
Arafat, the late PA chairman: “You own what is above the land in
Jerusalem and we own what is below it.” These claims were
rejected by the PA chairman. Israel is working out of limitless
greed, not even stopping at what was decided during the Oslo
agreement between the Palestinians and the Israeli. Israel acts
as if it owns what is above and what is below the land of
Jerusalem and Palestine, while the Palestinian Authority
continues to negotiate with no tangible results. The Israelis
continue to take over the Palestinian lands illegally, and steal
what is underground including sources of energy, gas, water and
stones to build houses for the Jewish settlers and even historic
artifacts to decorate their houses.
Closing Al-Aqsa
Foundation for Reconstruction of Islamic Sanctuaries
The Israeli occupation
authorities seek by all means to harass Palestinian cultural,
economic, social, health and educational institutions. They
prevent these institutions from doing their work, imposing high
taxes, preventing building or expanding and obstructing
renovations, and even closing some of these institutions. Since
the beginning of the second Intifadah, which embarrassed the
Israeli occupation in the international circles, Israel is
instigating a war against charity organizations in the occupied
territories regardless whether Islamic or secular. Israel’s
campaign against civil society in Palestine is part of the
international campaign against Islamic charitable institutions
in Western and Arab countries. (See our report issued in early
2007 about restrictions on charity and humanitarian groups in
the West Bank and the closing of about 100 humanitarian
institutions).
The Israeli occupation
authorities started the war against the civil society
institutions long before the international campaign against
Islamic charities; they closed the Palestinian Islamic Movement
Institutions in 1996, arrested their leaders, and confiscated
their documents and money. The Israeli occupation authority aims
to keep these institutions under constant pressure with the
threat of arrests and closure. The civil society institutions
are forced to go on the defense, while the occupation attacks Al
Aqsa mosque and other Islamic sanctities. The Israeli occupation
authorities’ actions highlight the ineffectiveness and marginal
defenses of the Arab and Palestinian societies. There is an Arab
and Palestinian defeatist approach against the Israeli
occupation. Israel is imposing emergency laws on the Palestinian
society.
Closing Al Aqsa
Foundation for Reconstruction of Islamic Sanctities was issued
this time by the then Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on the
14th of August 2008, under the pretext of "threatening
stability, coexistence and security of citizens." The storming
of the offices took place at night, using a barbaric,
destructive and intimidating method. In fact, this storming came
after Sheikh Raed Salah held a press conference in which he
revealed the occupation’s plans towards Al Aqsa Mosque, and he
showed documents supporting his accusations. These documents
reveal the planned construction of Jewish synagogues around the
mosque and a military bridge that ends inside Al Aqsa Mosque.
This triggered an Arab and Islamic popular and official uproar.
A myriad of Israeli
police forces stormed the house of the chairman of Al-Aqsa
Foundation in the village of Ara and the offices of Al Aqsa
Foundation in Um Al-Fahm city inside the Green Line. They
confiscated from the former 1/4 million shekels of the
chairman's own money, beat him and one of his sons, barbarically
disheveled and ruined his belongings and tore the Holy Koran. At
the foundation office, the occupation authorities seized the
foundation’s private car, all computers, photographic equipment,
about 1.5 million shekels including about 800 kids’ savings
piggy banks that they collected from their daily pocket money,
in addition to Bayariq saving piggy banks. The occupation
authorities also confiscated all the maps, manuscripts and
documents shown in the press conference held before this
storming.
The confiscation
included tens of thousands of invaluable historical documents
dating back two centuries. The most important of these documents
include documents related to the project of "a comprehensive
survey of Islamic and Christian Waqf" in historical Palestine,
which began in 2000 and was near completion. It includes 3,000
files covering 75% of Palestinian holy places and documented
about 2,500 geographical, historical and engineering sites. Also
confiscated were documents related to Waqf of major cities such
as Jaffa, Haifa, Acre, Ramle and Lod in the past two centuries.
Documents of Ottoman Tabu and the land of Islamic and Christian
Waqfs dating back to the Ottoman Empire were taken from the
Ottoman Archives. Also confiscated were files of prosecutions
concerning the assaulted and seized sanctuaries; architect
designs; a press archive that includes tens of thousands of
pictures, films and documentaries about the Nakba and displaced
villagers and violations of Israeli settlers and intelligence
against Al Aqsa Mosque; and finally oral historical testimonies
and interviews with centenarians who lived in Palestine before
the Nakba and are witnesses to that period.
Al Aqsa Foundation's
only guilt is that it brought to memory the towns and villages
that were nearly forgotten due to systematic Judaization and
elimination of Islamic and Arab identity, such as Sarafand
Haifa, the mosque of Hattin village and Majdal Ashkelon, and the
many villages destroyed by the occupation and sent into historic
oblivion. Israeli political and military establishment saw this
as a grave crime, a crime in the eyes of the Israelis to resist
the revision of history. The Israelis are revising the history
of Palestine to support the Zionist movement’s infamous claim
about Palestine: "a land without a people, for a people without
land". Multiple evidence refute the Israeli claims; uncovered
documents and artifacts studied by Israeli archaeologists and
international political scientists like Finkelstein and others
have shown that the Prophet Abraham did not enter Palestine and
Joshua did not enter Jericho; moreover, they proved that the
Kingdom of David and Solomon and the Temple Mount did not exist
on the land of Palestine.
Because of the lack of
scientific evidence to support the Israeli claims, the
occupation authority resorted to a policy of intimidation,
silencing voices and concealing evidence. The Israeli
authorities closed the Islamic Heritage Commission in Al Aqsa
Mosque in 2002, following this with the closing of the Wifadah
and Rifadah institution and today Al Aqsa Foundation. The
Israeli policies are not restricted to institutions but they are
applied against individuals working to refresh the consciousness
and civil resistance. The Israelis are carrying out a silencing
campaign and media blackout in order to complete their mission
to seize all Islamic sanctuaries.
Officials in Al Aqsa
Foundation see the Israeli actions against them as a serious
escalation in the campaign against Al Aqsa Mosque. This campaign
includes preventing the Muslims living inside the 1948 boarder
from praying in the mosque in order to keep hidden the diggings
carried out under the mosque. The digging is an initial step to
demolish the mosque and to build the alleged Temple Mount. The
Israeli action against Al Aqsa Foundation aims to stop its
activities in preserving the holy sites, and to stop dozens of
claims filed by Muslims and Christians in the court over grave
yards, mosques and holy places. This demonstrates the Israelis’
attempts to obliterate the Palestinian version of history. Al
Aqsa Foundation and Muslim Women for Al Aqsa foundation are
working to revive displaced mosques, cemeteries and villages and
what is left from the homeland by organizing historic site
visits and cultural events like festivals and cultural
exchanges.
Sheikh Raed Salah, the
chairman of the Islamic movement inside the green line, denied
the Israeli allegations about the relationship between Al Aqsa
Foundation and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas): what
Israeli authorities called "terrorist parties" in occupied
Jerusalem. He denied that the "Coalition of Good" is supported
by Hamas. He stressed that he will continue Al Aqsa Foundation’s
mission under another name. Sheikh Salah accused the Israeli
intelligence service of being behind the closure and pointed out
that this action is a part of closing 36 Islamic institutions in
the Arab and Islamic world in only one month. He pointed out
that there is a Jewish edict (fatwa) to kill him and that Jewish
extremists have arrived in his hometown searching for him.
Al Aqsa Foundation
team is working to preserve the city of Jerusalem and keep it
connected to its history and surroundings; the work is done on
behalf of the Arab and Islamic world and the Palestinians.
Courageous individuals continue the struggle to defend the
Palestinian civilians against the Israeli onslaught. These
individuals are targeted by the Israeli police; the media
coordinator of Al Aqsa Foundation was recently arrested in the
courtyard of Al Aqsa Mosque.
The Populous Committee
for the Defense of Freedoms, which is operating inside the Green
Line, linked the closing Al Aqsa Foundation with its effort to
organize the festival of "Al Aqsa in danger" in the city of Umm
al-Fahm. The festival was attended by tens of thousands of 1948
Palestinian refugees. This aggression against Al Aqsa Foundation
came during the holy month of Ramadan, when charity work is very
important and is possibly the only source of joy for tens of
thousands of the Palestinian citizens. According to chairman of
Al-Mezan human rights center, “The emergency law, adopted under
the pretext of confidential materials that the intelligence
services provide to the Ministry of Security, infringe on the
freedom of expression and belief.” Amir Makhoul, the Chairman of
the Committee for the Defense of Freedoms, said that the Israeli
actions constitute a new aggressive phase in the oppression of
the Palestinian people. He declared that it is not only Al Aqsa
in danger but all Arab people as well.
The website Aqsaonline,
which has tracked the Palestinian, Arab and Islamic official
reactions, over four years, found that there was no official and
coordinated effort to save Al Aqsa mosque by more than twenty
Arab countries and more than fifty Muslim states. These nations
act as if the issue is an "internal Israeli matter". The
Israelis aim to close Al Aqsa Foundation and confiscate its
documents to eradicate years of efforts to prove the Arab and
Muslim identity of Al Aqsa mosque. The goal of closing the
Foundation is to silence a voice that leads the ongoing struggle
in defense of the Palestinian land and the Islamic holy sites.
The Israelis want to continue their crimes against the city with
no witnesses. Alquds Institution confirmed that closing Al Aqsa
Foundation aims to block people from going to Al Aqsa Mosque,
because people are a shield that protects the mosque from the
repeated and continued attacks by Jewish extremists.
Furthermore, this was
not the first time Al Aqsa Foundation faced closure; it was
closed before in 2003, when it was stormed by the Israeli
officers. The chairman and a number of the leaders were arrested
and became known as Al Aqsa hostages. This was carried out to
prevent the movement from building institutions for self
maintenance. The Israelis are targeting all effective
institutions, whose work is not limited to empty slogans.
Every national or
religious institution or figure in Jerusalem faced attempts to
be silenced and pressured to prevent their effort against the
occupation authority in defense of the Palestinian people.
Father Atallah Hanna embodies the Muslim-Christian brotherhood
in the holy land. He usually speaks out locally and
internationally against the occupation and gives an accurate
account of what is happening on the ground against the
Palestinian people. He received us during our visit to the city
and detailed the Israeli crimes committed against the
Palestinian people while the world was watching. His statement,
issued after we published this report, stressed that "the attack
on Al Aqsa constitutes an attack on Muslims and Christians alike
and fully rejects religious extremism and racism”. The statement
concluded that the attack on Al Aqsa foundation is inhumane and
immoral. He reiterated his call to "the Christian Palestinians
to enter the Palestinian city of Jerusalem on Thursday and
Friday and to take part in the religious events on Good Friday
and Bright Saturday to voice their protest against the
occupation actions along with their Muslim brothers in
Jerusalem".
Jerusalem is the capital of Arab
culture
One of the key
objectives of the resistance against the occupation and the
Judaization of the Holy City of Jerusalem is to emphasis the
cultural identity of East Jerusalem. This is especially more
important now because of the Arab and Muslim unawareness of what
is being committed by the Israelis against the Arab and Muslim
identity of Jerusalem, and the unprecedented acceleration of the
Judaization measures since the end of the aggression on Gaza
City. Jerusalem was chosen to be celebrated as the capital of
Arab culture in 2009. Jerusalem replaced Baghdad because of the
instability in Baghdad. Hamas movement lobbied the Council of
Arab Ministers of Culture held in Muscat to choose Jerusalem
three years ago. The idea seemed attractive at the time; it was
agreed that the cultural activities would not be confined to
Jerusalem. The Palestinian territories and the Arab states would
actively participate in the celebrations.
Events were scheduled
to be held at the same time in four Palestinian cities besides
Jerusalem. These include Bethlehem in the West Bank, which will
host Palestinian and Arab figures who cannot enter Jerusalem;
the city of Nazareth inside the green line; the city of Gaza, to
highlight the Palestinian unity despite the political and
geographical divisions; and the Rashidieh Palestinian refugees
camp in Lebanon to remind the world of the Palestinians in the
Diaspora since 1948. More celebrations were planned in other
Arab capitals. Jerusalem is currently facing the most serious
measures to change its identity in order to remove its Arab and
Muslim heritage and to dominate it by only Jewish culture, a
process we call Judaization. To face this Israeli attack against
the identity of the city, Jerusalem needed to be named the
capital of Arab culture to highlight its importance to the
heritage of humanity.
The Israeli occupation
is using all means available to target not only Jerusalem’s
glorious history, but also its present and future. The Israeli
occupation targets the language, culture, and religious aspects
of the city. The Israeli occupation confronted those who have
declared Jerusalem the capital of Arab culture for 2009. The
Israeli forces arrested the participants in the celebrations and
dispersed their gatherings during the cultural events. Nachi
Eyal, the Chairman of the Meeting of the Legal Forum for the
Land of Israel, met with Public Security Minister Avi Dichter
and Police Commissioner David Cohen to block the festivities.
They declared the choice of Jerusalem as the Capital of Arab
Culture in the 2009 as an illegal attempt to confirm the
Palestinian sovereignty over Jerusalem. The irony is that the
Palestinian Authority continues to hold peace talks with the
occupation authorities even after blocking the celebration of
Jerusalem as the Capital of the Arab Culture in 2009.
The Israeli Security
Minister issued an order on March 20, 2009 canceling all
festival activities scheduled to start on the following day. Of
note is that the celebration of Jerusalem as the capital of Arab
culture had been delayed earlier for three months due to the
aggression on Gaza. The launch of the celebrations in Jerusalem
was a press conference in a press tent in Sheikh Jarrah
neighborhood. The main celebration was held in Bethlehem. The
press tent was surrounded by a huge number of police, special
forces, and secret intelligence officers. They handed over Um
Kamel an order to disperse assembly inside the tent. Then, they
physically assaulted and detained a number of participants in
the conference, including journalists and cameramen.
The
Israeli authority declared that it will stop the festivity; the
celebration was in an open place continuously watched by the
Israeli forces. The celebrations should have been held either at
Al Aqsa Mosque courtyard during noon prayer while the place is
full of worshipers, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, or
Al-Khalil gate, which is usually crowded with foreign tourists.
The Israeli occupation forces will be avoided using force to
stop the celebration, while western tourists are around to
witness the reality of what is happening in Jerusalem.
Others thought the
celebration should be an opportunity to expose the Israeli
occupation crimes against the Palestinian and Arab people, and
to expose attempts to normalize Arab state’s diplomatic
relations with Israel. Cultural aspects cannot be separated from
the political, historical, and national aspects. The festive
occasion should be dedicated to declare solidarity with
Jerusalem and Palestine, given that 300,000 Palestinian
Jerusalem residents cannot bring success to these events on
their own if Palestinians from outside the city need permits to
enter the city.
Some protested against
holding the celebration, because millions of dollars will be
spent on the celebration while Jerusalem, the capital of Arab
Culture 2009, faces physical and moral negligence and its
various institutions are under occupation, over-taxation and all
other forms of pressure. The cities’ residents are in dire need
of these funds to help them survive the daily attacks against
them. In a sense, what is the benefit of celebrating in a ghost
town as the capital of Arab culture while it is gradually
cleared of its population and its citizens’ IDs withdrawn, while
the officials are doing nothing more than issuing statements of
condemnation?
In addition to the occupation, Jerusalem had to endure more
suffering because of inter-Palestinian schism between two
conflicting political and ideological platforms: the ideology of
occupation resistance versus a policy of settlement giving away
more Palestinian rights. Instead of reaching an understanding to
form a popular and powerful state to protect the Palestinian
cause and the city of Jerusalem from liquidation, Arab
differences contribute to weakening Jerusalem's steadfastness.
Due to this, there is
lack of cultural activity that already suffers from Israeli
practices and lack of support. There are no indoor places in
Jerusalem large enough to hold the expected large gatherings.
The occupation bans assembly and rallies in public squares. The
Palestinian citizens of Jerusalem are facing systematic attempts
to delete their identity; they are living under tremendous
restrictions on their educational and cultural activities. The
Palestinian tourist destinations are also blocked. More than 920
demolition notices have been reported this year; it is projected
to displace 17,000 Palestinians from Jerusalem. The conditions
require an urgent help to Palestinians in Jerusalem through aid
from Arab countries, to strengthen the resistance in the face of
persistent Israeli violations of the Palestinians’ human rights.
Normal Questions
It is difficult to
understand why the global civil society is not doing anything in
face of what is happening in Jerusalem; moreover, the parties
who are supposed to be directly affected by the events in
Jerusalem like the Arab and Muslim world, are not active in
helping the people of East Jerusalem. The process of changing
the city of Jerusalem by Israel is ongoing. The Arabs and the
Palestinians generally did not rise up to the task of defending
the city and its people. The Palestinians of Jerusalem are left
alone to face stressful situations and human rights violations
at all levels. What Israel is committing is building more
obstacles to the peace process. Israel’s actions to derail the
peace process speak louder than its rhetoric about pursuing
peace with the Palestinians. Israel is undermining the peace
talks by denying the Palestinian the right to have East
Jerusalem as the capital of their future state. By this measure,
the Israelis hope to control both West and East Jerusalem.
In light of such
catastrophic situations in the Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem
and in the Palestinian territories, the Palestinian citizens in
Jerusalem are calling on political and human rights activists to
support their steadfastness by starting a fund to help the
evicted and displaced persons and provide them with shelters.
They also call for establishing a special legal committee to
fight the Israeli laws of construction, ownership, and alleged
violations. This legal help is especially needed after the new
Israeli foreign minister announced that Israel is not bound by
the agreement reached in the Annapolis peace conference in
November 2007 regarding establishing a Palestinian state. His
excuse was that the “the Israeli government and the Knesset had
never ratified the Annapolis agreement." The road map is then no
more than a dead letter. The Road Map was laid down in the
summer of 2003 by the international Quartet of the Middle East,
which includes the United States, the European Union, Russia and
the United Nations, stipulating the establishment of the
Palestinian state alongside Israel.
When Israel was
holding ceremonial talks with the Palestinians, the United
States was fighting settlement building with words not with
deeds. Meanwhile, the United States is pressuring the
Palestinian people and the Palestinian resistance to offer more
concessions to Israel. The current US administration stayed
silent after it was humiliated by an Israeli Minister declaring
that Israel does not take orders from the United States and that
“Israel is not the fifty-first state”. The US acts powerless
when the new Israeli prime minister, in contradiction to the US
policy, rejects the two-state solution principle.
The right wing
extremist Israeli government is not going to take the strategic
decisions to end the occupation, dismantle the settlements, and
recognize the right of return for Palestinian refugees. The
question for Palestinian political powers remains: How long will
the Palestinian division last? This division weakens the
Palestinians’ ability to negotiate a lasting peace and to force
Israel to offer more concessions.
The Israelis seek only
a lull to the fighting. They falsely believe that full security
can be achieved by imposing a humiliating peace on humiliated
people. The Israelis are acting with impunity and with no
accountability. The rotating Israeli leaders so far lack
political wisdom and moral courage to acknowledge that their
security will not be achieved as long as it is based on misery
of those whose legitimate right for a state is violated. Israel
is faced with only two options: either giving the Palestinians
an Israeli citizenship, which would mean the end of the Jewish
state, or holding an ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by
displacing them to Jordan, which would mean a moral end of
Israel.
The aggression on Gaza
has undoubtedly returned the Palestinian cause to the global
stage. Today, the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) faces a
very difficult challenge; one is the complacency of the Western
officials, who are backpedaling on defending a solution that may
secure the minimum rights for the Palestinian people, and the
other is the need to impose an isolation on the Jewish state and
those defending its actions. This isolation should increase by
all means, and include boycotting.
The Arab governments
should stop watching without acting and start providing material
and moral support to the residents of Jerusalem to face
settlement building and Judaization processes. The settlement
building and Judaization are well-financed with billions of
dollars and supported by the most ultra extremist Jewish
movements. Any Arab material and moral support will have a
positive impact on the international civil society, whose
effectiveness is reduced because of the Israeli occupation
measures, the western conniving, and the tyranny in the Arab
world. The Arab governments are blocking any popular stance in
support of the Palestinian resistance. The end of last colonial
military occupation of the Palestinian land and the end of the
apartheid system imposed by Israel on the Palestinians are the
biggest challenges facing the peoples of the region and the rest
of humanity around the world.
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