The Israeli Occupation Grinds On...
Introduction
Jerusalem is a microcosm of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Since the conflict began, conditions in the Holy City have always reflected wider relations between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs. Jerusalem will not, for good or ill, escape this role in the future. The justice and stability of the peace now being negotiated by Palestinian and Israelis will inevitably be mirrored in Jerusalem. An agreement on Jerusalem that can command broad assent among Israelis and Palestinians is essential to a lasting peace.
Excerpted from A Joint Statement of the Friends Committee on National Legislation and the American Friends Service Committee
In a January 20 article in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, it was reported that the Israeli cabinet adopted a resolution in July, 2004 to enforce Israel’s Absentee Property Law to properties in East Jerusalem. The Absentee Property Law was enacted in 1950 to legalize Israel’s control over Palestinian land within the state’s borders that Israel claimed to be abandoned following the establishment of the state in 1948. While the law has historically been used to confiscate Palestinian land in regions of Israel with large Arab communities, successive Israeli governments have refused to apply this law to Jerusalem. Following international uproar over Israel’s decision to alter application of the law, the Israeli Attorney General announced on February 1 that he was overturning the decision to apply the Absentee Property Law to Jerusalem. Although it appears at this time that the law will not be applied to Jerusalem, this recent disclosure was consistent with other recent Israeli actions to expand its sovereignty over occupied East Jerusalem. The ongoing construction of the Separation Wall and Israeli settlements in Jerusalem have worked to separate Palestinians from their land while expanding Israeli legal jurisdiction and augmenting the Jewish population in the occupied territory. Below is a report from the Jerusalem Quaker International Affairs Representative on life in Israel and Palestine following the recent Palestinian elections and an AFSC resource on East Jerusalem.
The Israeli Occupation Grinds On…
By Paul D. Pierce, Jerusalem Quaker International Affairs Representative
While observers around the world are wondering if the new Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, (Abu Mazen) can stop terrorism, the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza grinds on with increased home demolitions, land confiscation and limits on Palestinian freedom of movement.
Last week 4 Palestinian houses and several other farm structures were demolished by the Israeli military in the Palestinian village of al-Walaja, all of them within the Jerusalem municipal boundary. In addition to those demolitions, 17 Palestinian houses have been demolished in the area in the past two years and 53 Palestinian homes have been issued demolition orders. These actions take place while illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank continue to expand.
After Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967, it annexed nearly 50% of Al-Walaja’s 7,000 dunums (1,750 acres) and included it in the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem. However, Palestinian civilians residing in this Ain Jawaizeh area of Al-Walaja village were not issued Jerusalem identity cards and were denied residency rights in Jerusalem. The Israeli military regards the homeowners of the area “illegally” in Jerusalem and harasses them on a regular basis.
Also revealed last week, the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon secretly decided last July to implement the Absentee Property Law in East Jerusalem. According to an article in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, “the Absentee Property law of 1950 stipulates that an absentee is anyone who at the time of the War of Independence ‘was in any part of the land of Israel that is outside the area of Israel’ – that is the West Bank and Gaza.”
Implementation of the Absentee Property Law means that thousands and thousands of Palestinians will lose ownership of their property in East Jerusalem simply because they were absent from it during the 1948 war. Even in a case where the Palestinian owners of the land now live right next door to their property and worked the land for many years, they will lose it, be ineligible for compensation and have no right to appeal the decision.
The resulting loss of land may amount to half of East Jerusalem. The loss could total thousands of dunams of property, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, as Jerusalem is prime real estate.
It was also announced last week that starting in July, East Jerusalemites will need special permits to visit Ramallah. The completion of the Separation Wall in the A-Ram section of Jerusalem will require Palestinians to seek permission at the Qalandia checkpoint in order to travel to Ramallah. Starting the last week in January, soldiers at the Qalandiya checkpoint were refusing Palestinians with blue Jerusalem ID cards from traveling to Ramallah, cutting off residents from schools, business, hospitals, and places of worship in the Palestinian city.
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