Jerusalem

• History
  • Historical Significance: Linking Past to Present
  • Jerusale throughout the Ages
  • The British Mandate (1917-1948)
  • The 1948 Arab-Israeli War - Al-Nakba
  • Israeli Occupation 1967
  • Israeli Policies Since 1967
• Legal Status
• Jerusalem in Negotiations
• Population
  • Demographic Features
  • Palestinian Neighborhoods in Israeli-Annexed East Jerusalem
  • The PA Jerusalem Governorate
• Residency Rights
• Housing and House Demolitions
• Land and Settlement
  • Israeli Settlements in East Jerusalem
  • Recent settlement activities:
  • Israel’s Separation Barrier around the City - The ‘Jerusalem Envelope’
• The Old City
  • Al-Haram Ash-Sharif
  • Settlers in and around the Old City
• Israeli Municipal Policies
  • Municipal Budget, Taxation and Infrastructure
  • Education

History

Historical Significance: Linking Past to Present

Throughout its 50,000 years of history, Jerusalem has continued to thrive as an important political and cultural center, and a house of faith for the three monotheistic religions. This city has withstood many wars and conflicts, and despite some turbulent events in its past, has still retained a peaceful image of unity and sacredness. However, due to its added importance as a political symbol and a geographic center in the region, it has aroused great struggle over who has the exclusive right of its possession. Its recent history, borne out of the Arab-Israeli conflict, has fueled a long dispute over its future, and has rendered Jerusalem a vital but unresolved question in Middle East politics. Till today, the city remains the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The overruling political powers have employed continuous and well-planned strategies of territorial, demographic, religious, and property claims in order to maintain control over the city’s sovereignty.

Jerusalem throughout the Ages

Throughout the ages, Jerusalem has had its prosperous times of co-existence and justice as well as some dark periods of oppressive rule and bloodshed. It remained under the rule of the Eastern Roman Emperor from 400 AD until it opened its doors to the Caliph Omar Ibn Al-Khattab, to whom the keys of Jerusalem were handed over by the Patriarch Safronios in 638 AD. The Muslim Caliph granted the citizens of the city, the status of “protected people” or dhimis, which gave them the freedom to practice their religion. It was Omar who permitted Jews to return to Jerusalem, five centuries after their expulsion by Hadrian. This was a period in which harmony and tolerance reigned.

A darker period ensued at the beginning of the 11thth Century, when the Egyptian Caliph Al-Hakim persecuted Christians and Jews, and destroyed the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. A later conquest of the city by the Seljuk Turks caused many oppressive reprisals on the inhabitants of the city. The Crusaders (“Al-Firanja”), after capturing Jerusalem in 1099, massacred Muslims and Jews, and turned Jerusalem into a Christian city where non-Christians were not permitted to live. In 1187, Salah Eddin restored Jerusalem’s true role; he left the Holy Sepulcher open to Christians and reopened the city in 1192 for pilgrimage. Again, following the fall of Jerusalem to Fredrick II in 1229 the city was forbidden to Muslims and Jews, and in 1244 the city came under the rule of Egypt.  The Mamluks governed Jerusalem from Cairo (1260-1516) and were followed by the Ottomans (1516-1918). The Mamluks and the Ottomans transformed the city’s physical attributes, endowing it with splendid religious monuments. The Ottomans built the walls and gates of the Old City (1537-1541) and renovated the Dome of the Rock. The city then remained under Islamic-Arab rule until it was captured by the Crusaders in 1099 AD. Christian rule lasted until 1187 AC when Salah Eddin re-conquered the city, which then was ruled by the Ayyubids until being recaptured by the Crusaders in 1129. Some 15 years later, the Muslims under the Turkish Rule, regained Jerusalem and the city remained in their hands until 1917.

The British Mandate (1917-1948)

Following the 1915 Hussein-McMahon correspondence and the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement concerning the future political status of the Arab lands of the Middle East, General Edmund Allenby’s troops and the Arab Revolt defeated the Turks. Jerusalem was captured on 9 Dec. 1917; under the British Mandate (1917-1948), it was recognized as the administrative and political capital of Palestine. A municipality was formed with a balanced share of power between the three monotheistic religions. In April 1920, the San Remo Conference awarded administration of the former Ottoman territories of Syria and Lebanon to France, and Palestine, Transjordan and Mesopotamia (Iraq) to Britain. On 24 July 1922, the League of Nations Council approved the Mandate for Palestine without the consent of Palestinians (the terms of the Mandate became official on 29 Sept. 1923).

Palestinian resistance against British rule created pressure on the Mandate authorities to seek the assistance of the United Nations for an immediate solution. The British issued laws that prevented Jewish immigration to Palestine (White Paper). These laws infuriated the Zionist organizations in Palestine and pressured the British to allow more Jewish immigration. The Arabs also resisted the British, feeling that the British have replaced Turkish oppressive rule, and thus continued uprisings and revolts against the British (1921, 1923, and 1936). The British, however, were not consistent in their restrictions of Jewish immigration, and extensively supported Zionist groups in their attacks against Arabs. As the British prepared to withdraw from Palestine in 1947, the UN Partition Plan (Res. 181), proposed by the UN Special Com­mittee on Palestine (UNSCOP), recommended the partition of

Palestine into an Arab State and a Jewish State, and that "The City of Jerusalem (extending to Bethlehem) shall be established as a corpus separatum under a special international regime and shall be administered by the United Nations.” The city’s boundaries were to include the present (1947) municipality of Jerusalem plus the surrounding villages and towns. [At the time, Jerusalem - the Old City and Palestin­ian neighbor­hoods such as Tal­biyeh, Baq’a, and Katamon southwest of the city - was sur­rounded by 66 Palestinian villages (e.g., Deir Yassin, Lifta, Malha, Ein Ka­rem), while the mainly ultra-orthodox Jewish population was concentrated in part of the Old City and neighborhoods north-west of it.] However, this plan was never implemented and at the end of the 1948-49 war, Jerusalem found itself divided between Israel and Transjordan.

Prior to the 1948 War, Pales­tinians formed the over­whelming majority in the Jerusalem district and owned most of the land. The last British Sur­vey of Palestine (Dec. 1946) made the following demo­graphic esti­mates:

UN Partition Plan, 29 Nov. 1947 (Res. 181)

Property Ownership 1948:

       West Jerusalem                        Jerusalem Sub-District                             Western Villages

The Palestinians rejected the Partition reso­lution. On 14 May 1948 the Jewish Agency declared the estab­lishment of the State of Israel in the part of Palestine allo­cated to the Jews in UN Res. 181.These events culminated in the first Arab-Israeli War. The balance of power was very unequal with a well-equipped and trained Zion­ist army fight­ing against poorly armed Palestinian re­sis­tance groups, and many Pales­tinian civil­ians fled in panic after Jewish forces com­mitted a series of massacres in their vil­lages.

Before the entry of the Arab armies, the Zionist forces launched two offensives - one from Tel Aviv and one from Jerusalem itself (Dec. 1947-May 1948) - which resulted in the conquest of West Jerusalem and the corridor leading to the coast - in violation of the UN Partition Resolution. Until today the international community, incl. the US, has never explicitly recognized Israeli sovereignty over even West Jerusalem.

The 1948 Arab-Israeli War - Al-Nakba

While Arabs refer to the 1948 War as Al-Nakba (“the catastrophe”), Israelis call it the War of Independence.

During the course of the War of 1948, Jewish forces captured much of the territory as­signed to the proposed Arab state, incl. 85% of Jerusalem (mainly in the city’s western part and surrounding neighborhoods). The Jordanian Arab Legion took control of the West Bank, in­cl. 11% of the eastern part of Jerusalem (in­cl. the Old City and adjacent villages).The remaining 4% of the Jerusalem area was considered no-man's land in which the UN headquarters were established. Some 64,000-80,000 Palestinians were forcibly driven out of the west part of Je­ru­salem and the villages in the immedi­ate vicinity. In June 1948, their property (incl. 10,000 homes, furniture and busi­nesses) came under the control of the Israeli ‘Cus­todian of Absentee Property’ (Cat­tan, H. Jeru­salem, New York, 1981). Some 40 Pal­es­tinian villages in and around Jerusa­lem were depopulated and many of them destroyed.

Israeli Occupation 1967:

Israel occupied the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, incl. East Jerusalem, in the course of the June War of 1967. Ever since, Israeli objec­tives and policies re­garding Jerusalem have followed a clear pattern: to establish irre­versi­ble facts in the city that allow Israel to secure and maintain exclusive control. Im­medi­ately after the June War of 1967, the Israeli government began to redefine the municipal boundaries of both parts of Jerusalem. The Arab East Jerusalem mu­nici­pal bounda­ries, comprising 6.5 km2, were expanded through the annexation of an ad­ditional 70 km2 (70,000 dunums) of East Jeru­salem and some 28 sur­round­ing vil­lages into the State of Israel's ter­ritory (added to the 38,000 dunums of West Jeru­sa­lem at the time) (B’Tselem. A Policy of Discrimination. Jerusalem, 1995)

The new mu­nicipal boundaries, now em­bracing 108 km2 (East and West Jerusalem) and represent­ing an area of 28% of the West Bank, were de­signed to se­cure geo­graphic in­tegrity and a demo­graphic Jewish majority in both parts of the city. Thus, many Pal­es­tin­ian populated areas such as Ar-Ram, Abu Dis, Izzariya and Qalandia Camp were ex­cluded. On 28 June 1967, the Knesset amended the Law of 1950, which pro­claimed Jerusa­lem as Israel's capital, to extend illegally Israeli jurisdiction to the eastern part of the city. One of the first moves after the war was the forceful eviction of over 6,000 Palestini­ans from the Old City’s Mughrabi Quarter and the de­struction of their houses (num­bering at least 135) in order to create a plaza in front of Al-Buraq (Western Wall). On 4 July 1967, UN General Assembly Res. 2253 called upon Israel to “rescind all meas­ures taken (and) to desist forthwith from taking any action which would alter the status of Jeru­salem.” In total disregard of the reso­lution, Israel confiscated over 25,870 dunums of Pales­tinian land in Jerusa­lem in the first three years of occupation alone (UN. Report of the Security Council Commission, Nov. 1980 – S-14268).

Israeli Policies Since 1967

Israel’s strategies regarding Jerusalem, enacted at municipal level with the uncon­ditional sup­port of the na­tional govern­ment, were mas­terminded by former mayor Teddy Kollek whose plans and poli­cies, which are enthusi­astically carried out until this day, were driven by the idea of cutting ‘Greater Jeru­salem' off from the West Bank and facilitating its an­nexa­tion to Israel proper. The Israeli strategy of 'Judaization' has involved colonization of the Old City and its immediate and extended sur­roundings, and the building of sub­urbs with new road links in order to popu­late heavily the met­ropoli­tan area of annexed East Jerusalem. Pal­es­tin­ian-owned land was referred to as va­cant or unused in order to jus­tify expro­priation and to block Pal­es­tinian develop­ment and hous­ing to drive Pales­tinians out of the city. As stipu­lated in the Land Or­di­nance; Acqui­si­tion Public Pur­poses of 1943, the Israeli Finance Minister was au­thorized to issue ex­propria­tion orders for pri­vately owned land if a ‘public pur­pose’ existed, which had sim­ply to be defined as such by the Finance Minis­ter.

Between 1967-1996 some 23,500 dunums were ex­propri­ated from Pales­tini­ans in Jerusalem under this ordi­nance (B’Tse-lem. A Policy of Discrimination. Jerusalem, 1995).

On 30 July 1980, the Israeli govt. reaf­firmed the 1967 de facto annexation and de­clared Jerusa­lem the ‘eternal undivided capital’ of Israel through its Basic Law on Jerusalem. Constituting a harsh vio­lation of in­terna­tional law and the Fourth Geneva Conven­tion, it was con­demned by UNSC Res. 478 (20 Aug. 1980), which declared “that all legislative and ad­ministrative meas­ures and actions taken by Israel, the occu­pying power, which have altered or purport to alter the character and status of the Holy City of Jerusa­lem, and, in particular, the recent ‘Basic Law’ on Jerusalem, are null and void and must be rescinded forth­with.”

Legal Status

Under international law, East Jerusalem is occupied territory, which means that the Fourth Geneva Convention is applicable and Israel has no claim to East Jerusalem by virtue of having taken control of it militarily. The international community rejects Israel’s claim to both West and East Jerusalem as its “eternal undivided capital” and has consistently denounced Israeli attempts to change the status of the city.

Those attempts and Israel’s ongoing policies and practices in the city violate the Fourth Geneva Convention as well as International Covenants and Conventions (e.g., the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Right, the Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination).

In dozens of resolutions the UN has repeatedly emphasized the illegitimacy of Jerusalem’s annexation and that Jerusalem is an integral part of the Occupied Territories.

Under Israeli law, the legal status of East Jerusalem is different from that of the rest of the territories occupied in 1967, which are under military occupation. As permanent residents, Jerusalem Palestinians are entitled to certain benefits denied to Palestinians from the rest of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They are not subjected to the same restrictions on movement as imposed on other Palestinians. They are also entitled to health insurance and other social welfare benefits as all other Israeli residents. However, they are subject to discriminatory laws and policies intended to reduce the Palestinian population in Jerusalem.

The Jerusalem ID: The Jerusalem ID was issued to Palestinian Jerusalemites in 1967 who had refused the offer of the Israeli citizenship after the annexation of East Jerusalem. Acceptance of citizenship in Israel would have required Palestinians to take an oath of allegiance to the Israeli state. Most Palestinians refused and opposed this “annexation policy”. Upon this refusal, the Israeli authorities decided to acknowledge Palestinians living in Jerusalem as residents and issue “Jerusalem Identity Cards” for them. The meaning of the cards remained unclear until the term “permanent residents” was used in reference to Palestinian Jerusalemites. (see also Chapter on Residency Rights below).

Jerusalem in Negotiations

Peace Talks in Madrid in Oct. 1991 delayed settling the issue of Jerusalem to “the final status negotiations”, because Israel refused to accept it on the agenda of the negotiations. Furthermore, Israel also demanded that the Palestinian delegation to the peace talks not include representatives from Jerusalem. Neither the “official” talks in Washington during 1992-93 nor the Sept. 1993 Declaration of Principles, resulting from the secret Oslo talks, or any of the subsequent Oslo Accords (of May 1994 and Sept. 1995) added any significant momentum to the issue of Jerusalem. Only “The Framework for the Conclusion of a Final Status Agreement” (better known as Abu Mazen-Beilin Agreement), which was drawn up by then PLO Sec.-Gen. Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Deputy FM Yossi Beilin in Oct. 1995 (but was denied its existence for five years) dared to draft concrete proposals for the solution of the Jerusalem Question, incl. dividing the city, with Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem becoming part of the Palestinian state, the capital of which would be Abu Dis, and Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem being part of Israel.

The first time the issue of Jerusalem was officially tackled in negotiations, however, was only in the July 2000 Camp David Summit, where the Israeli side, led by PM Ehud Barak, “offered” the Palestinians, led by Pres. Yasser Arafat, re­sponsibilities over some neighborhoods in Jerusalem (mainly in the north of the city), and where plans for the joint admini­stration of the Old City were discussed. However, Israeli demands that Palestinians recognize its settlements established within the WJM boundaries as well as the historic and religious relationship of the Jews to the Haram Ash-Sharif and thus their right to share “sovereignty” over the site, was unacceptable and led, inter alia, to the failure of the Camp David Summit. After the breakdown of those talks, negotiations continued between the two sides and gaps between the parties on various issues were narrowed. In a last ditch effort, US Pres. Clinton offered his "Parameters" to Israeli and Palestinian negotia­tors at a meeting in the White House on 23 Dec. 2000, to serve  as guidelines for final accelerated negotiations, which, he hoped, could be concluded in the coming weeks before he would leave office in Jan. 2001. Both sides eventually accepted those parameters, though with questions and reservations, and they laid the foundation for the Jan. 2001 Taba talks that took place in before the election of Ariel Sharon in Feb. 2001 that effectively ended the peace process. With regard to Jeru­salem, Clinton’s general principle was “that Arab areas are Palestinian and Jewish ones are Israeli”, that “maximum contigu­ity for both sides” should be created, and that the Haram Ash-Sharif/”Temple Mount” was less an administrative than a symbolic issue of sovereignty and should be treated as such.

Since then, peace initiatives included the 2002 Saudi peace plan, the Quartet’s Road Map (2003) and the Geneva Docu­ment (2003), which, however, have all failed to bring the issue of Jerusalem any closer to a solution. Meanwhile, Israel continues to create facts on the ground, which further obstruct, if not have made impossible, a viable solution for the city.

Population

Since 1967 there has been a clear strategy employed by the Israeli government to limit the number of Palestinians living in Jerusalem. Immediately after the occupation of Jerusalem in 1967, the Israeli government conducted a census that counted 66,000 Palestinians living in East Jerusalem within the new municipal borders (44,000 in pre-1967 East Jerusa­lem and 22,000 in the area newly annexed by Israel). While these Palestinians were classified as permanent residents of Jeru­salem (according to the Law of Entry into Israel 1952, Entry to Israel Regulations 1974), those who were not re­corded due to absence – whether studying abroad, visiting relatives else­where, etc. – had later to apply for family reunification to the Ministry of the Interior (see Residency Rights). In 1967, the population ratio in the city - according to Israeli records - was 25.8% Arabs and 74.2% Jews (Jerusa­lem Institute of Israel Studies, Statistical Yearbook of Jerusalem, 2005).

Ever since 1967, the Israeli government has encouraged Jews to settle in East Jerusalem and has provided numerous incentives such as favorable apartment purchase terms, subsidies, and exemption from municipal taxes (or reduced rates) for certain periods. As a result, the settlers in East Jerusalem comprise an es­timated 75-80% of the total in­crease in Jerusalem's Jewish population since 1967. Nevertheless, by 2005, the population ratio had changed in favor of the Palestinian population with 33.0% Arabs to 66.0% Jews (Jerusalem Institute of Israel Studies, Statistical Yearbook of Jerusalem, 2005). The Jerusalem Institute of Israel Studies counts a total population of 719,900 for the end of 2005 (=10.3% of Israel’s total population), of which 475,100 were Jews and 244,800 Palestinians (the remainder being “others”, for details see table overleaf). One-third of the Jewish residents are ultra-Orthodox. In late 2004, some 176,153 were listed as “Jewish residents in East Jerusalem.” (Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, Statistical Yearbook, 2005). According to the Israeli CBS, the population of the Jerusalem district was 851,400 at the end of 2005, incl. 582,700 Jews and 235,500 Arabs.

Palestinian figures are much higher – around 250,000 by the end of 2004 (PLO-NAD, Israel’s Wall, July 2005) - although it is estimated that at least a third of the Palestinian Jerusalem ID card holders reside outside the city in nearby West Bank towns. The PCBS estimates the Palestinian population in the Jerusalem Governorate at 402,712 at the end of 2005, incl. 251,289 living in Israeli-annexed Jerusalem.

Jerusalem’s Arab popu­lation is growing much faster – about three times - than the Jewish popula­tion, which is growing even slower than the rest of Israel (see graph overleaf). For the past few years, the city has witnessed a net loss of Jewish residents. Some 313,000 Jews have left Jerusalem between 1980-2005, 105,000 more than those who moved to the city during the same period.  (Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, quoted in Ha’aretz, 15 Sept. 2006). In 2005 alone, 16,200 people left the city, and 10,400 moved in (resulting in an inter­nal migration balance of -5.800).

In addition, the Palestinian popula­tion is significantly younger than the Jewish. In 2004, the median age for Jews & others was 25.4, it was only 19.3 for Arabs (see also table below).

Annual Growth Rates (%) by Population Group and Area

(Source: Jerusalem Institute of Israel Studies, Statistical Yearbook of Jerusalem 2004-05).

Some 105,000 Jews live in West Bank areas considered part of the metropolitan Jerusalem area, mainly in Ma'ale Adumim, Betar Illit, Gush Etzion, and Givat Ze'ev. (Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, quoted in Ha’aretz, 24 May 2006).

According to the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies and the Israeli Defense Ministry, approx. 90,000 Palestinians East Jerusalemites (Israeli identity card holder), lived outside the city's municipal boundaries before the separation barrier was built. Since construction began, tens of thousands of them have been moving back into the city, as a result of which housing prices have soared. (Ha’aretz, 6 Oct. 2005).

Demographic Features

It is against the background of such demographic development that the Israeli government has used various methods to counter the trend, incl. drafting various plans to expand the municipal boundaries; isolating East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank through its settlement policies and by building the separation barrier; discriminating in land expropriation, planning, and building, and demolition of houses; revoking residency and social benefits of Palestinians; dividing the municipal budget in favor of the west part of the city, with harmful effects on infrastructure and services in East Jerusalem.

Palestinian Neighborhoods in Israeli-Annexed East Jerusalem

Due to Israel’s restrictive policies, there is a large housing shortage for Palestinians in the city; housing densities are accordingly unequal: while the average number of persons per household is 5.2 on the Palestinian side, it is only 3.3 in the Jewish areas. 45.5% of Palestinians live in households of 6 persons and more, while only 13.5% Jews do. Reversely, while 46.8% of Jews live in households consisting of 1 or 2 people, only 14.6% of Palestinians do (Jerusalem Institute of Israel Studies, Statistical Yearbook of Jerusalem, 2005).

The PA Jerusalem Governorate

The Jerusalem governorate of the PA has different district boundaries than the Israeli municipal area of Jerusalem, which includes illegally and unilaterally annexed East Jerusalem. Consequently, the statistical areas both sides refer to differ in scope and range. The map on the right shows the PA governorate in dark and the Israeli municipal area in lighter shade. The total land area of the Jerusalem governorate comprises 319,790 dunums, 117,551 of which are located within the part that was annexed by Israel in 1967.

According to the PCBS Census of Dec. 1997, 323,837 Pales­tini­ans were living in the Jeru­salem Gov­er­norate, 210,209 of whom resided inside the Israeli municipal boundaries and 113,628 outside. The numbers projected for 2007 were 420,409 (governorate), 259,896 (inside) and 160,513 (outside), the latter of which being distributed as follows:

Estimated Palestinian Population - Jerusalem Governorate, excl. Israeli-Annexed East Jerusalem, 2007

   (Source: PCBS, Jerusalem Statistical Yearbook, no. 8, 2006.)

1. The average household size in the Jerusalem Governorate was 5.3 in 2005, compared to 5.9 in the remaining WBGS.
2. In the Governorate, the average number of rooms is 3.7, in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem 3.1.
3. Some 14.8% of the households in the Governorate comprise of 3 or more persons, whereas this is the case with 18.1% of the households in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem 3.0. The average housing density (persons per room) is 1.8 in the Governorate.

   (Source: PCBS, Jerusalem Statistical Yearbook, no. 8, 2006.)

Residency Rights

Israeli demographic strategies vis-à-vis Pales­tinian Jerusalemites - such as restric­tive residency and housing policies - aim at both sepa­rating them from the Palestini­ans in the West Bank and driv­ing them out of the city in order to secure a long-term Jewish majority. Until this day, any Palestinian who is not classified by the Israeli government as a permanent resident of East Jerusalem - incl. spouses, children and other relatives of East Jerusalem permanent residents - must apply for family reunification to reside legally there. The decision to grant or deny these applications is, according to Israeli Law, ultimately at the discretion of the Interior Minister, who is not required to justify refusal.

Israel applies a number of discriminatory methods to control the number of Palestinians who legally re­side in the city. The confiscation of ID cards under bureau­cratic pretexts is one of these. Instrumental in this are the 1952 Law of Entry to Israel and the 1974 Entry to Israel Regulations, both of which regulate resi­dence in Israel. The following restrictive provisions do not apply to Jewish permanent residents or Israeli citizens but only to Palestinian Jerusalemites. Those who:

• wish to travel abroad must obtain an Is­raeli re-entry visa; otherwise, they lose their right of return;
• hold or apply for residency/citizenship elsewhere lose their residency right in Jerusalem; this policy relates to a Dec. 1995 decision by the Interior Ministry to make permanent residency status depending on proofs of whether one’s "center of life" was within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem. Over some 3,000 individuals lost their ID cards on those grounds between 1995-99. In March 2000, then Interior Min. Sharansky submitted an affidavit to the High Court of Justice, ceasing this policy and restoring some residency rights that had been revoked.
• live abroad for more than seven years lose their residency rights; in 1996, the Israeli government decided that any Jerusalemite who lives in the ‘territory’ (West Bank) more than seven years, would also cease to be an Israeli resident;
• want to register their children as Jerusalem residents can do so only if the father holds a valid Jerusa­lem ID card; as a consequence, there are countless cases of ‘unregis­tered’ children of couples liv­ing ‘illegally’ in Jerusalem - who are de­nied access to the city’s educational and health serv­ices - and of Jerusalemite women who are forced to leave the city.
• marry non-resident spouses (from the WBGS or abroad) must apply for family reunifi­cation in order to live le­gally with their spouses in Jerusalem. Most of these applications are turned down, with no need for justifi­cation.

The Israeli policy of ‘quiet deportation’ in East Jerusalem – through court judgments, legal and administrative tactics – has resulted in the revocation of over 6,500 ID cards from Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem since 1967; this number does not include the dependent children of those who lost their ID cards.

Source: B’Tselem. http://www.btselem.org/English/Jerusalem/Revocation_Statistics.asp.               

The Interior Ministry reinstated the residency rights of 83 Palestinians in 2003 and of 16 Palestinians in 2004.

In addition, Israel’s policy on residency in the Occupied Territories as always been restrictive:

Israeli policy on residency in the Occupied Territories: 1967-2000

Source: Perpetual Limbo: Israel's Freeze on Unification of Palestinian Families in the Occupied Territories, Jerusalem: B’Tselem and Hamoked - Center for the Defence of the Individual, July 2006.

 In Oct. 2000, several days after the outbreak of the second Intifada, Israel imposed a new policy: freeze on processing family unification requests. In May 2002, the Israeli govt. officially decided to stop processing all family unification applications submitted by non-Jerusalemite Palestinians. On 31 July 2003, the Knesset approved by a vote of 53 to 25 a bill to prevent Palestinians who marry Israeli citizens from receiving Israeli citizenship or permanent residency status, thus prohibiting them from residing in Israel or Jerusalem. The law is to become an amendment to a clause in the Citizenship Law relating to family unification (Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law - Temporary Order 2003) and applies retroactively. The pretext for this policy is ‘security’ though the real reason is demographically motivated: to prevent further increase of the Arab population in Israel. Also children born in the Occupied Territories to permanent residents of Israel are affected as they will only be recognized as Israeli residents upon an approved family unification application; however all such applications were frozen in May 2002. On 21 July 2004, the Knesset voted to extend the Citizenship Law by another six months. It was re-extended since, most recently on 14 May 2006, when the Israeli High Court upheld the law; the court’s president, Aharon Barak, had described the law as an infringement of human rights but was outvoted by six to five on the grounds that it was appropriate to limit human rights in order to enhance Israel's security. According to the latest version of the law only Palestinian women over the age of 25 and men over the age of 35 have the right to join their partners in Israel.

It is estimated that if Israel would begin again to handle family unification requests and apply the quota set in 2000 (i.e., 4,000 a year), it would take at least 30 years (!) to process the more than 120,000 requests that have so far accumu­lated. (B’Tselem, Hamoked. Perpetual Limbo: Israel's Freeze on Unification of Palestinian Families in the Occupied Territories, 2006).

(On the impact of the separation barrier on residency issues see also chapter 14.6 on Land & Settlement below.)

Housing and House Demolitions

Facts & Figures

• In June 1967, Israel unilaterally expanded the boundaries of Jerusalem by annexing some 70 km2 to the munici­pal boundaries of West Jerusalem. Some 24 km2 of the area were expropriated primarily to build new Jewish neighbor­hoods for which master plans were developed (covering 17.5 km2), while for the remaining 45 km2 no such plans exist. Only 5 km2 of the area for which master plans exist are allocated for Palestinian housing needs (about 8% of the total area of East Jerusalem; of these, only approx. 7.3% is available for residential and only some 0.6% for commercial and industrial construction. (IrShalem. East Jerusalem - The Current Planning Situation. A Survey of Municipal Plans and Plan­ning Policy, 1998.)

As Israel’s policy in East Jerusalem is politically motivated, aimed at maintaining a Jewish majority in the city, it is very difficult for Palestinians to obtain building permits. It is estimated that some one-third of the buildings in East Jerusalem (some 10,000 houses) were built without permits and are thus ‘illegal’ under Israeli law, and that four out of every five houses built are illegal every year. (JSCER, Chronic Racial Discrimination in East Jerusalem, 2003.)

• One of the main obstacles in obtaining building permits is that large areas of East Jerusalem land have been declared ‘unfit for building’ or as ‘green’ or ‘open space,’ where construction is forbidden. The same goes for areas allocated in Israeli future building plans for public buildings and in areas lacking infrastructure (e.g., roads, water and sewage). In addition, there is in many cases the difficulty of proving land ownership as Palestinians did not document their land ownership under Ottoman rule, the British Mandate, Jordanian or Israeli rule. A complicating factor is the fact that land is often owned by several inheritors some of whom are difficult to locate in order to obtain the required letter of approval.
• Another problem are the very high costs for issuing a building permit, paying direct and indirect taxes, engineers’ and planners’ fees and other charges levied by the WJM; those costs are often higher than the actual building costs. (JSCER, Chronic Racial Discrimination in East Jerusalem, 2003).
• Due to Israel’s restrictive policies, there is a large housing shortage for Palestinians in the city; housing densities are accordingly unequal: while the average number of persons per household is 5.3 on the Palestinian side, it is only 3.4 in the Jewish areas (Jerusalem Institute of Israel Studies, Statistical Yearbook of Jerusalem, 2004).
• Unlicensed - and thus ‘illegal’ - construction provides the WJM with a pretext to demolish Palestinian homes (over 2,500 since 1967). As a result of these dis­criminatory policies, thousands of Palestinian Jerusalem­ites live under severely over­crowded or similarly inadequate condi­tions. ICAHD reports that in 2005, Israeli forces destroyed 94 Palestinians homes in the city, and in 2006 (as of Nov.) 40, in addition to other structures, such as pirate gas stations. According to ICAHD, over there are over 10,000 outstanding demolition orders pending against Palestinian buildings in East Jerusalem, which can be enforced at any time without warning.
• B’Tselem’s statistics count 706 house demolitions in East Jerusalem in the period 1987-2005, incl. 104 in 2004, 94 in 2005 and 32 as of 31 Aug. 2006.
• Another source has these numbers for home demolitions and illegal construction in East Jerusalem:

House demolitions, 1994-2005

   * Excl. four homes in Silwan destroyed for “security reasons.” (Margalit, M. Discrimination in the Heart of the Holy City, ICCP, 2006)
Illegal Construction in East Jerusalem, 2000-2004

(Margalit, M. Discrimination in the Heart of the Holy City, ICCP, 2006)

• In 2004, the WJM demolished 53% of the illegal structures it located in East Jerusalem, compared to 26% in West Jerusalem. In the WJM implemented 95% of the demolition orders it issued against illegal structures in East Jerusalem, but only carried out 65% of those in West Jerusalem. Demolition in East Jerusalem concerns mostly residential buildings housing families, while in West Jerusalem mostly extensions, such as porches, are destroyed. Despite the ongoing demolition practice, according to Meir Margalit of ICAHD, municipal data shows that some 1,500 houses were added in East Jerusalem in 2005. (Ha’aretz, 17 May 2006).

Discrimination in the Application of Israeli Law, 2004-2005

(Margalit, M. Discrimination in the Heart of the Holy City, ICCP, 2006)

Another Israeli strategy to restrict Palestinian construction in East Jerusalem is the Town Plan­ning Scheme (TPS): without an approved TPS that complies with the infrastructural, zoning, and housing require­ments of the WJM’s planning goals, no building permits will be issued. TPSs are compre­hensive, costly and re­quire extensive coor­dination with the municipal authorities; their stipulations make it nearly impossible for Pal­es­tinians to obtain permits for development and housing plans.

It must be noted in this context that while Israeli settlements were growing, not a single new Palestinian neighborhood has been planned since 1967 and the size of the existing ones was reduced by spot zoning plans, which designated all adjacent land surrounding Palestinian built-up areas as ‘green areas’, where Palestinian construction is strictly prohibited

Land and Settlement

Land Control in East Jerusalem

At least 66% of today’s Jerusalem is territory seized by force (5% of the old Jordanian municipality and 61% of former West Bank territory). Within this area, Israel has expropriated approx. 24,500 dunums - over one-third of the land illegally annexed to Jerusalem, most of which was privately owned by Palestinians - mainly to establish the 12 settlements existing today in the city. (B’Tselem, Land Grab, Draft Report. May 2002). These settlements - with a population of 185-200,000 - are intended to secure Israeli supe­riority over the entire Jeru­salem region. They form two rings around the city - the inner ring in East Jeru­salem and the outer ring (‘Greater Jeru­salem’) reaching far into the West Bank - isolating Arab East Jerusalem, cutting the West Bank in half, and imposing economic strangu­lation as the city is the natu­ral center for all trade and movement routes in the Palestinian Territories.

Almost half of the area of Arab East Jerusalem has been slated as ‘Green Areas’, i.e., public space, on which construc­tion is not allowed. In fact, these areas serve as land reserves for set­tlements construction or expansion: formerly designated ‘Green Areas’ are rezoned to allow for Jewish building. The most recent case (1991) was Har Homa set­tlement, built on land (Jabel Abu Ghneim) classified as ‘Green Area’ since 1968.

• On 13 Sept. 2004 the WJM mayor Uri Lupo-lianski disclosed a Town Planning Scheme for “united Jerusalem,” known as Master Plan 2000, to serve as a mandatory map for land use and a blueprint for other municipal planning purposes until the year 2020. The ‘stated’ target of the plan is a city population made up of 70% Jews and 30% Palestinians, while the current trend suggest a population ration of 60:40 by 2020. Geographic and demographic manipulations to counter the trend and achieve the aim include the separation barrier which excludes over 150,000 Palestinians from municipal borders, the closure and house demolition policies, and expropriation of Palestinian land as well as of private property (through attempts to apply the 1950 Absentee Property Law). The plan provides for the establishment of more Jewish settlements and numerous other Jewish public institutions, while hampering Palestinian development and contributing to the further isolation of Palestinian suburbs.

Land Expropriation in East Jerusalem

    Source: B’Tselem. http://www.btselem.org/English/Jerusalem/Land_Expropriation_Statistics.asp

Israeli Settlements in East Jerusalem

  (Source: Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, Statistical Yearbook of Jerusalem, 2002/03 and 2005; except column three: PCBS.)

Recent settlement activities: (see also the Old City/Jerusalem Maps in this Diary’s map section)

• ‘Givat’ or ‘Nov Yael’ – launched in June 2004 to eventually provide 13,600 housing units for some 60,000 settlers on 2,000 dunums of land near Walaja village close to Bethlehem (inside and beyond the WJM border) with the aim to link Jerusalem and the Etzion bloc.
• Construction in ‘Nof Zion’ in Jabel Mukabber begun in 2004, continues; first occupancy is expected in Spring 2007.
• ‘Kidmat Zion’ is being built (planned are 200 housing units) on some 1,000 dunums in Abu Dis next to the separation barrier. Two new houses have already been turned over to settlers.

  Israel recently handed de facto control of the national park that surrounds the Old City on its south and east – incl. the many religious and historic sites it contains - to the extremist settler group El Ad. Another national park northeast of the Old City will soon be placed under the control of Jewish extremists. Har Homa area: The Ministry of Housing and Construction has begun planning a new settlement south of the Mar Elias Monastery, west of Har Homa. In addition, a new residential area (‘Hirbat Mazmuria’) is being planned east of Har Homa, aiming at extending Har Homa up to the WJM border. (Ir Amim, Continuation of the Annexation Under Cover of the Disengagement from Gaza, Aug. 2005)

• Ma'ale Adumim and E-1: Israel’s separation barrier is built some 15 km into the West Bank in order to include the entire Adumim settlement bloc (approx. 47 km2). In addition, Israel recently announced plans to more than triple the current size of Ma'ale Adumim by developing the 12 km2 area (“E-1 Plan”, incl. 3,500 housing units for up to 20,000 settlers, hotels, an industrial park, commercial and entertainment buildings) in order to connect it to Jerusalem. With its current eastward expansion and the planned construction, a Palestinian state will be practically impossible as the West Bank will be cut into two – thus preventing territorial contiguity - and the last area of undeveloped access will be taken, thus preventing any meaningful Palestinian capital in the city. (PLO NAD, Israel's Wall, July 2005). Construction of the new “Judea and Samaria District Police” building in the E1 area between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim has commenced on 14 dunums of land on 14 March 2006.
• In July 2005, the right-wing 'Bukharan Community Committee' and Israel Police (through National Police Commissioner Moshe Karadi) signed an “exchange deal” according to which the Committee will build the new police station in the E1 area and receive, in return, the current police building, located in Ras Al-Amud, to use it for residential purposes, i.e., incorporate it to the adjacent Ma’ale Zaytim settlement, which is expected to double in size (Ha’aretz, 26 April 2006).
• Plans are underway to establish a new Jewish settlement - 90 apartments, a synagogue and kindergarten - around the Shepherd's Hotel in Sheikh Jarrah between the National Police HQ and the Hyatt Hotel. A construction request was submitted to the WJM in late Oct. 2005. The land in question was apparently acquired by Jewish millionaire Irwin Moskowitz in 1985. (Ha’aretz, 3 Nov. 2005).
• In March 2006 settlers took over a compound in Silwan, consisting of three buildings, from which 30 members of the Ghuzlan family were evicted.
• In Ath-Thori (Abu Tor) settlers took over a Palestinian property which was being used to serve the mentally disabled.
• In April 2006 settlers took over two large buildings in At-Tur on the Mt. of Olives, marking the first time since 1967 that settlers succeeded in acquiring property in this neighborhood. Apparently, this is part of new settler efforts to create outposts in East Jerusalem and thus an irreversible situation in the “Holy Basin” area.
• Almon (Anatot) settlement near Anata will expand to connect to the Military Camp running to the northeast.
• Lands isolated in Beit Surik (northwest Jerusalem) will become a new industrial settlement to be connected with Ramot settlement. www.stopthewall.org, Save Jerusalem from the Apartheid Wall and Ethnic Cleansing, 2006).
• In Beit Safafa, the caravans of the Hamatous settlement are to be replaced by high-rise buildings and a new bypass road to connect it with the rest of nearby settlements. (www.stopthewall.org, Save Jerusalem from the Apartheid Wall and Ethnic Cleansing, 2006).
• On 25 July 2005, the WJM’s Local Planning Committee approved an amended Town Planning Scheme (21 instead of 30 residential units) that will allow the construction of a new Jewish settlement on a 3.8-dunum site near the Burj Al-Laqlaq in the northeastern corner of the Old City. The Israel Land Authority owns 1.9 dunums ("absentee property") of the land in question and Himanuta Ltd., a JNF subsidiary owns 1.3 dunums, reportedly acquired privately from the White Russian Orthodox Church in the 1980s. The plan is pending with the Regional Planning Committee of the Interior Ministry.
• According to the ARIJ Database 2006, Israeli forces have confiscated or razed some 30,308 dunums of Palestinian land in the Jerusalem Governorate between Jan. 2000-July 2006 and uprooted 23,420 trees. (ARIJ, Ethnic Cleansing in Beit Hanina, 12 Sept. 2006)

Israel’s Separation Barrier around the City - The ‘Jerusalem Envelope’

• On 20 Feb. 2005, the Israeli government confirmed the route of the separation barrier in the Jerusalem area based on the declared intention of providing security to the residents of Israel. In fact, the barrier serves to redefine Jerusalem's borders and is routed in such a way as to maximize the number of Palestinian Jerusalemites behind the Wall, while maximizing the amount of Palestinian land on the "Israeli" side of the Wall. On 30 April 2006, the Israeli cabinet approved a revised route of the separation barrier. Revisions in the Jerusalem area included:

-Beit Iksa and its surrounding lands are removed from the Jerusalem side of the barrier and placed within the Biddu/Beit Surik group of West Bank villages; - Al-Walaja is encircled by the barrier, isolating it from its farmland; - Al-Jaba’ is included in the Etzion settlement bloc. There are currently 12 routes and crossings to enter Jerusalem from the West Bank. Palestinian traffic into Jerusalem is limited to four Barrier crossings: (1) Qalandia from the north, (2) Gilo from the south, (3) Shu’fat Camp from the east, and (4) Ras Abu Sbeitan for pedestrian residents of Abu Dis, and Al-Izzariyia. The eight other routes and crossing points into Jerusalem, now closed to West Bank Palestinians, will remain open to residents of Israel and non-Israelis with valid visas, are Ar-Ram, Beitunia commercial crossing, Hizma, Az-Za’im, the tunnels on north-south bypass Road 60, Ein Yalow near Gilo, Ramot Alon, and Bir Nabala-Atarot. In addition, there are four more crossing planned: one each near Bethlehem, in Ras Al-Amud, in Nabi samwil, and in Shikh Sa’ad/Jabel Mukabber. (UN OCHA, Humanitarian Update, Feb. 2006).

• Approx. 25% of the Palestinians holding East Jerusalem ID Cards are located on the West Bank side of the separation barrier. (OCHA, Preliminary Analysis of the Humanitarian Implications of the April 2006 Barrier Projections – Update 5).

• A recent survey on the impact of the wall on Jerusalem showed, inter alia:
• that 32.9% of the Palestinian Jerusalemites have changed their last place of residence due to the separation barrier (29.7% of those living in localities inside and 83.3% of those outside the wall). In addition, some 63.8% are currently thinking to change their place of residence due to the wall and its associated regime (78.9% inside and 58.0% outside the wall);
• that some 19.2% of households in the Jerusalem governorate had all or part of their land confiscated (5.3% inside and 31.4% outside of the wall);
• that 21.4% of Palestinian households had at least one member separated from relatives (15.5% inside and 32.6% outside of the wall);
• that the ability of 84.6% of the households in Jerusalem to visit family and relatives has been affected by the wall (84.3% inside and 85.2% outside of the wall);
• that 80.0% of the households with students in higher education and 75.2% of those with students enrolled in basic/secondary education reported use of alternative roads to reach university/college or schools;
• that access to health centers was a difficulty for 34.5% of the households in Jerusalem governorate (5.8% inside and 88.3% outside of the wall);
•  that the time spent to pass checkpoints was an obstacle for 94.7% of the households (94.5% inside and 95.0% outside of the wall);

(PCBS & Badil, Impact of the Wall and its Associated Regime on the Forced Displacement of the Palestinians in Jerusalem, June 2006.)

• In 2005, it was estimated that some 55,000 Palestinian Jerusalemites (e.g., residents of Kufr Aqab, Salam, Ras Khamis, Anata, Qalandia and Shufat RC) will be transferred to the West Bank, while an additional 60-80,000 Palestinian Jerusalem ID card holders – unable to afford the housing prices in Jerusalem – live already outside the Jeru­salem municipal boundary (e.g., in Ar-Ram), and will be cut off from the city. (Ministry of State for Jerusalem Affairs, Out of Gaza, Into Jerusalem: Israel’s Threat to the Two-State Solution, Aug. 2005).

The Old City

Founded around 4000 BC, the Old City is divided into four quarters: Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Armenian. The pre­sent walls surrounding the Old City were built by the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman Al-Qanouni in 1542. The walls stretch over approx. 4 km and encompass an area of barely 1 km².

Population and Areas in the Old City

(Source: Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, Statistical Yearbook of Jerusalem, 2005)

Since 1982, the Old City of Jerusalem is listed on the World Heritage List as well as on the List of World Heritage in Danger. The Old City houses 25 mosques, 65 churches and 19 Synagogues. The wall surrounding Jerusalem’s Old City has 11 gates, seven of which are presently open: Damascus Gate, Herod's Gate, Jaffa Gate, Zion Gate, Al-Magharbeh Gate, Lions' Gate/St. Stephen's Gate, and New Gate, while the Golden Gate remains closed (was sealed during the Crusader Period).

Open Gates:

• Damascus Gate: Located on the northern side, Damascus Gate is the main gate into Jerusalem's Old City. It was built in 1542 by Ottoman Emperor Suleiman the Magnificent. Arabs refer to it as Bab Al-Amud ("Gate of the Column") because of a pillar that stood there in Byzantine times. It consists of one large center gate originally intended for use by persons of high station, and two smaller side entrances for commoners.

• Dung Gate/Al-Magharbeh Gate: Found in the south wall and is a main passage for vehicles. Derives its name from the fact that in the 2nd century, refuse has been hauled out of the city through this gate. The name Magharbeh Gate stems from the Moors' history in the area.
• Herod’s Gate: The entrance into the Muslim quarter through the northern wall. The name was given by pilgrims, who erroneously believed that it led to Herod's palace. It is known in Arabic as Bab Az-Zahra (“the Flower Gate”).

• New Gate: named so because it was constructed relatively recently - in 1889 - with permission of Sultan Abdul Hamid II. The gate is located near the northwestern corner of the city and leads into the Christian quarter. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, when Jordan captured East Jerusalem (which includes the Old City of Jerusalem) it was sealed off. It was reopened again in 1967 after Israel's capture of East Jerusalem during the 1967 War.

Closed Gates:

The Golden Gate: is the oldest of the current gates, probably built in the 520s CE, on top of the ruins of an earlier gate. Another theory suggests it was built in the later part of the 7th century by Byzantine artisans employed by the Umayyad khalifs. In Arabic it is known as Bab Al-Rahmeh (Gate of Mercy). Jewish tradition has it that the Messiah would enter Jerusalem via this gate when he comes, so Muslims during the reign of Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-1566) sealed the Golden Gate to keep him

Al-Haram Ash-Sharif

1. Islamic Museum 2. Bab Al-Maghrarbeh (Moroccans Gate) 3. Bab As-Silsileh (Chain Gate) 4. Bab As-Salaam (Tranquility Gate) 5. Silsileh (Chain) Minaret 6. Bab Al-Matarah (Ablution Gate) 7. Bab Al-Qattanin (Cotton Merchants Gate) 8. Bab Al-Hadid (Iron Gate) 9. Bab An-Nazir/Majlis (Council Gate) (Waqf office is outside the gate) 10. Minaret of Ghawanimah 11. Bab al-Atim (Gate of Darkness) 12. Bab Al-Huttah (Gate of Remission) 13. Minaret Al-Asbat 14. Bab Al-Asbat (Gate of the Tribes) 15. Bab Az-Zahabi (Golden Gate) 15a. Bab Ar-Rahma (Door of Mercy) 15b. Bab At-Tauba (Door of Repentance) 16. Cradle of Jesus 17. Al-Mussallah Al-Marwani (Solomons’ Stables – substructure) 18. Al-Masjidul Aqsa – Al-Aqsa Mosque 19. Fakhriya Minaret 20. Dome of Yusuf Agha 21. Station of Buraq 22. Al-Kas (The Cup) 23. Minbar of Buran Eddin 24. Dome of Yousef 25. Dome of An-Nahawiyyah (School of Literature) 26. Dome of Moses 27. Fountain of Qasim Pasha 28. Pool of Raranj 29. Fountain of Qayt Bay 30. Muezzin’s Dome 31. Dome of the Chain (Silsileh) 32. Dome of the Rock (Qubbat As-Sakhra) 33. Dome of the Prophet 34. Dome of the Miraj 35. Dome of Al-Khalili 36. Mihrab Ali Pasha 37. Dome of Al-Khidr 38. Dome of the Spirits (Ruh) 41. Dome of the Lovers of the Prophets 39. Fountain of Sha’lan 42. Fountain of Sultan Solomon 40. Solomon’s Dome 43. Solomon’s Throne

Settlers in and around the Old City

Arab Jerusalemites make up 33% of the city's residents but get no more than 12% of its welfare budget, even though their poverty rate is more than double that of Jewish residents. They get 15% of the education budget, 8% of engineering services, just 1.2% of the culture and art. (Meir Margalit. Discrimination in the Heart of the Holy City, Jerusalem: ICCP, 2006)

Budget Distribution by Departments

Source: Meir Margalit, Discrimination in the heart of the Holy City, Jerusalem:ICCP, 2006.

The WJM development budget for 2003 was NIS 768,563,000. Of this, 13% were allocated to East Jerusalem, if the East Jerusalem proportion for the planned Light Railway is included; thoerwise, the East Jerusalem share was only 9%! That year, the municipal budget per capita amounted to NIS 5,968 for West Jerusalem and to NIS 1,311 for East Jerusalem.

Examples for Discrepancies in Selected Municipal Facilities and Services

Source: Meir Margalit, Discrimination in the heart of the Holy City, Jerusalem:ICCP, 2006.

In addition, Palestinians are exposed to an unfair tax system (e.g., arnona tax), which requires them to pay the same rates as their Israeli counterparts whose per capita income is approx. 8 times higher. Arnona tax covers residential taxes - depending on the neighborhood, the state and construction quality of the build­ing and its size -, and business taxes, where commercial property is graded by size, and not by economic activity or income. In top areas (‘Area A’) the average arnona amounts to NIS 245 per m2. The arnona tax burden has forced many Palestinian businesses, especially inside and around the Old City, to close.

Similarly unfair is the treatment of Palestinian Jerusalemites by the National Insurance Institute (health and social welfare system whose benefits include income mainte­nance, wage substitution, child allowances, pensions, maternity benefits, and rehabilitation). Palestinians - unlike Jews - must prove their residency in Jerusalem, and while the NII investigates the properness of claims, no benefits are paid. About 70% of investigated claims are eventually approved (B’tselem). On 7 Aril 2002, the Israeli govt. approved a proposed revision to the National Insurance Law that would make families of Palestinians, who died while carrying out attacks in Israel, ineligible for orphan and widow entitlements.

The NII also investigates eligibility for health insurance for children whose parents are recognized as residents; those children remain without health insurance until completion of the investigation. Physicians for Human Rights estimate that there are currently some 10,000 children residing in East Jerusalem who are not covered by medical insurance.

Education

The education system in East Jerusalem itself is divided into the ‘government schools' maintained by the WJM, but teaching a separate "Arab Educational System" and non-municipal schools, which are owned and run by either churches, the Waqf in coordination with the PA, or private bodies, and serve approx. the same number of students. The Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies estimates that some 21,000 pupils were enrolled in private Arab education in 2004/05.

Palestinians in East Jerusalem have "permanent resident" status in Israel, which grants them the same social entitlements granted to every citizen, incl. the right to public education. The Israeli Compulsory Education Lawrequires that all children are registered for school and their attendance is assured. However, only about half the Palestinian children in Jerusalem currently attend public schools, while several thousand others must pay for private or unofficial education, attend Waqf schools, or do not attend school at all. 

In Aug. 2001, the Israeli High Court ruled that the Jerusalem Education Authority must register all school aged children, even if no classrooms are available to serve them. Also in 2001, the Ministry of Education and the WJM obliged themselves to the Court to allocate funds for, and to build, 245 additional classrooms within four years. However, as of 2006, only 48 of these had been built. Thousands of Palestinian children in East Jerusalem were denied access to the free public education in 2006, and many of those attending public schools must study in classrooms that are nothing more than crowded bedrooms of private homes rented by the WJM in buildings unfit for instructional purposes. Approx. 14,000 children are not registered at all due to the intolerable conditions in the school system (Ir Amim, Inadequacies in the Public Education Infrastructure for Palestinians in East Jerusalem: Overview, Sept. 2006).

The Palestinian school age population in East Jerusalem grows at a rate of 6% per year, which translates into the need to build some 160 classrooms per year. Under current rates of construction, the classroom shortage will continue to grow from year to year. (Ir Amim, Inadequacies in the Public Education Infrastructure for Palestinians in East Jerusalem: Overview, Sept. 2006).

1. Palestinian School-Age Children in East Jerusalem, 2004/5

*Based on estimates from the 1990s.   Source: Access to Public Education for Palestinian Residents of East Jerusalem, Ir Amim, 2005.

Israeli Municipal Education, 2004/2005

1 incl. non-municipal kindergartens
(Source: Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, Statistical Yearbook of Jerusalem, 2004/05.)

According to the PCBS, there were 26,524 Palestinian pupils enrolled in the non-municipal school system in Israeli-annexed Jerusalem in 2005-06; of these 9,412 attended one of the 29 government schools, 3,741 one of 7 UNRWA schools and 13,371 one of the 37 private schools (PCBS, Jerusalem Yearbook No. 8, 2006)