Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Focus On Jerusalem ~ (Michael Tarazi's Bad Fences Part IV)

Mutter | 19.09.2003 05:18 | Anti-militarism | Anti-racism | Repression | World

International And Humanitarian Law IS Non-Negotiable;
American tax dollars continue funding.

Fact Sheet:

Israel’s “security” wall around Occupied East Jerusalem is another step in a long-term strategy of confiscating as much Palestinian land as possible, while simultaneously encouraging the Palestinian population to leave the area. Previous steps in this strategy have included the demolition of homes in East Jerusalem, the revocation of Jerusalem residency cards and receipt of significantly less municipal social services than Palestinians contribute as revenue. At the same time, Israel has increased the number of illegal Israeli colonies and Israeli Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem by providing settlers with favorable apartment purchase prices, subsidized mortgages and exemptions from municipal taxes for certain periods. As a result, East Jerusalem settlers comprise an estimated 75-80% of the total increase in Israeli-defined Jerusalem’s Jewish population since 1967.[1]

Although justified as a “security” wall, the wall has little to do with security. If the wall were truly about security, the wall would have been built on Israel’s 1967 pre-occupation border (the “Green Line”). Like the wall surrounding the remainder of the Occupied West Bank, the wall surrounding Occupied East Jerusalem is not being built on the Green Line, but well within Occupied Palestinian Territory.

The Case of Jerusalem – Creating Palestinian Ghettoes, Expanding Israeli Colonies

Following Israel’s occupation of the West Bank in June 1967, Israel unilaterally expanded the borders of Jerusalem, incorporating 64 square kilometers of Occupied Palestinian Territory (also referred to as “East Jerusalem”) into a newly expanded “Jerusalem municipality.” The territory incorporated amounted to 1.1% of the Occupied West Bank. The expansion was internationally condemned as a violation of the international prohibition against acquiring territory by force. The borders were drawn in such a way as to incorporate undeveloped Palestinian land for future Israeli colonies, while leaving Palestinian population centers outside the new borders.

The land illegally incorporated into the Jerusalem municipality was used to build illegal Israeli colonies in an attempt to change the demographic make-up of the area. There are now 12 illegal Israeli colonies in Israeli-Occupied East Jerusalem, with approximately 170,000 Israeli settlers (representing almost half of the Israeli settlers in the Occupied Palestinian Territories).[2]
In 1980, Israel passed the Basic Law on Jerusalem by which it extended Israel’s jurisdiction to Israeli-Occupied East Jerusalem. The attempted annexation was internationally condemned and declared of “no legal validity” by the United Nations Security Council.

There are 19 Palestinian neighborhoods within the Jerusalem municipality, with a total Palestinian population of 249,000.[3] These Palestinians are forced to have residency cards to live in their own city. Israel requires Palestinian (but not Israeli) residents of East Jerusalem to regularly prove that Jerusalem is their “center of life.” If Palestinian residents of Jerusalem live, study or work outside of Jerusalem, they risk losing their residency rights. To date, almost 7,000 Palestinian residents of Jerusalem have lost their residency rights.

An additional 24 Palestinian neighborhoods (in the Occupied West Bank) surround East Jerusalem. These neighborhoods are dependent upon the facilities of Occupied East Jerusalem, including six specialized hospitals and two universities.

Since 1993, Israel has denied Palestinians free access to East Jerusalem. Non-Jerusalemite Palestinians wishing to visit East Jerusalem must obtain a temporary permit rarely granted by Israel. As a result, three million Christian and Muslim Palestinians have been denied access to their holy sites in Jerusalem, even during religious holidays.

Israel continues to expand the colonies and the colony infrastructure around the Jerusalem area.

Facts on the Wall Enclosing Jerusalem

Israel is building a wall on the north, south and east sides of Israeli-Occupied East Jerusalem. When completed, the wall will be more than 40 kilometers long.

Northern Wall

The northern part of the wall enclosing Jerusalem is currently approximately 8 kilometers long and 40-100 meters wide, with an electrified fence, electronic sensors, watchtowers and buffer zones. Israel has confiscated 800 dunums[4] of land for the wall’s construction, 500 of which will be isolated south of the wall and 300 dunums used for the “buffer zone.”
The wall has been built up to 6 kilometers north of the Green Line.

Southern Wall

The constructed portion of the southern wall is currently approximately 14.5 kilometers long and consists of an electrified fence, buffer zones, trenches, barbed wire and electronic sensors.
The wall has been built up to 3 kilometers south of the Green Line cutting off the Palestinian cities of Bethlehem, Beit Sahur and Beit Jala and the Palestinian refugee camps of Deheisheh, Aida and Beit Jibrin (combined population 170,000 Palestinians) from Jerusalem and the central and northern parts of the Occupied West Bank.

The armed Israeli checkpoint will be moved 200 meters south of the existing checkpoint.

Eastern Wall

The wall is being constructed approximately 5 kilometers east of the Green Line – well into Occupied Palestinian Territory.

When completed the eastern wall will be approximately 17.2 kilometers long.
To date, 753 dunums of land have been confiscated for the construction of the eastern wall.

Effects of the Wall enclosing Jerusalem

As a result of the wall:

Jerusalem will be separated from the remainder of the Occupied West Bank.
Approximately 5.6% of the Occupied West Bank (320 km2) in and around Occupied East Jerusalem will be de facto annexed into Israel.

Approximately 249,000 Palestinians residents of Jerusalem will be cut off from the rest of the Occupied West Bank;

Palestinians will be denied access to special medical, educational and religious services that will be west of the wall. These include:

Mukassed Hospital – provides heart care treatment
Augusta Victoria Hospital – the only hospital in the Occupied West Bank that provides kidney dialysis
Al-Quds Open University
Haram al-Sharif and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre – religious sites for Christians and Muslims

The path of the Good Friday Procession will be blocked, thereby infringing upon this long-standing Christian tradition.

The Palestinian cemetery in Eizariya will be divided: the wall will pass directly over the graves of Palestinians.

In the north, Ram/Dahiyat al-Bareed (population 24,119 Palestinians) will become a ghetto. This neighborhood will be entirely enclosed by the wall. In the south, the residents of 37 homes will be cut off from the remainder of Bethlehem, as they will be north of the wall, trapped between the wall and the Green Line.

Given that Qalandia Refugee Camp and Kufr Aqab will be behind the wall, the approximately 15,000 Palestinian residents of Jerusalem living in these areas will be separated from Jerusalem and risk losing their Jerusalem residency rights.

Colony Expansion in Jerusalem

Three new Israeli-only colonies will be created in the Jerusalem area:

In Abu Dis – the colony of Kidmat Sayun will be built (400 housing units).

In Jabal Mukaber – the colony of Nof Zahav will be built (400 housing units).

In the E1 area – the colony will consist of 4,000 housing units, 10 hotels and a commercial area.
To facilitate colony expansion and to connect the colonies, Israel is constructing a “ring road” designed to encircle the Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem:

The ring road follows the line of the wall and connects the colonies in the east, north and south with west Jerusalem, cutting through Palestinian areas. It is projected to be 15.5 kilometers in length.
658 dunums of land will be confiscated from the Palestinian villages of Isawiya, Tur, Eizariya, Abu Dis, Ras al-Amoud, Sur Baher, Zaim, Sheikh Saad and Sawareh.
Approximately 40 Palestinian homes will be demolished.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] PASSIA, 2003 Diary 248 (2002).

[2] There are approximately 370,000 Israeli settlers living in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

[3] Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Mid Year Projected Population in Jerusalem, 2003 (September 2003).

[4] 1 dunum = ¼ acre.

Mutter

Comments

Display the following 2 comments

  1. The wall is necessary to prevent suicide bombers — Rockwell
  2. No. — Z
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech