Jerusalem in the Shadow of the Disengagement from Gaza
August 1, 2005The expansion and appropriation of Greater Jerusalem damages Israeli interests
An Ir Amim Position Paper, August 2005
With local and international attention focused on the disengagement from Gaza, the Israeli government is currently implementing policies intended to expand the borders of Greater Jerusalem, to appropriate East Jerusalem, and to create facts on the ground that may well thwart any chance for Palestinians and Israelis to arrive at a political solution.
Israel’s attempt to appropriate Greater Jerusalem exclusively to Israel, through unilateral action, is unprecedented. No previous government, including the government of Prime Minister Sharon, has dared to do anything like this. This policy is being carried out without any regard for the complexity or sensitivity of Jerusalem, and it does not serve Israeli interests in the Jerusalem area.
The timing of this policy of the Israeli government in regards to East Jerusalem is not coincidental. Under cover of the disengagement from Gaza and the overwhelming international support for it (“Quiet! Disengagement!”) Prime Minister Sharon’s government is attempting to implement long-term changes to Jerusalem and its environs. The disengagement from Gaza is supposed to represent the beginning of a new political process, but the policy currently carried out in Jerusalem will in fact thwart this very process.
Ir Amim believes that this policy has far-reaching negative ramifications for the status and stability of Jerusalem, and for the future of relations and negotiations with the Palestinians toward a political settlement. This position paper is written with the purpose to illuminate these intentions and the manner in which they are being carried out, and to warn about their possible consequences.
Continuation of the annexation under cover of the disengagement from Gaza
On February 20, 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 “Jerusalem Envelope” essentially annexes additional 164 sq. kilometers of West Bank territory to the city of Jerusalem, by connecting three large areas that lie north, east and south of the city:
- Northwest of the city – the enclaves of Bir Naballah, al-Jadira and El-Jib (that compose the area which separates north Jerusalem from the Israeli enclaves of Givat Ze’v and Givon, to the northwest);
- East of the city – the Ma’aleh Adumim ‘bubble’, which includes the E1 area (see below);
- South of the city – the area between Jerusalem and Gush Etzion.
Lining the separation barrier with settlements
The territorial annexations mentioned above are indication of the real intention behind building the separation barrier in the Jerusalem area. This is strengthened by the realization that the barrier itself is due to be lined with settlements and neighborhoods. Prime Minister Sharon constantly claims that the separation barrier is merely a means of security and that there is no reason to regard it as permanent. When the political and security circumstances that allow the fence to be dismantled arise, he argues, it will be done. However, the building of new neighborhoods and settlements as detailed below conflicts with the claim that the current route is temporary. These new neighborhoods and settlements will create a mass of irreversible “facts on the ground.”
The planned new neighborhoods will be built up to the city’s municipal border, and in many cases past it. The principle goal is to strengthen the Israeli hegemony in the area, as well as to divide the contiguous Palestinian areas that lie between the cities and neighborhoods south of Jerusalem and those that lie north of it (while cutting off East Jerusalem from the Palestinian area that surrounds it).
These neighborhoods and settlements include:
- Givat Yael /Wallaja – in the southwest corner of the city, both inside the municipal border and beyond. The planned new neighborhood will have 13,600 housing units for approximately 60,000 residents.
- The lands of Mar-Elias – The Ministry of Housing and Construction has already begun planning a new neighborhood in the area south of the Mar-Elias monastery up to the border, west of Har Homa.
- Hirbat Mazmuriya – A new residential area is being planned for this area, which is in the southwest corner of the city, east of Har Homa. In fact this is a widening and continuation of Har Homa up to the city’s municipal border; it will block south-north traffic for the Palestinians residents of the area.
- Kidmat Zion/Abu Dis – an area that abuts the separation barrier on the municipal border in Abu Dis. About 200 housing units are planned by settlers’ NGOs (such as “Ateret Cohanim”).
- Givat Binyamin/Adam – an area that touches the north-east corner of Jerusalem; due to create an urban connection between Jerusalem and the West Bank settlements beyond the municipal boundary.
One clear result of carrying out the E1 plan will be the continuing opposition of the American government and various European states, who take a severe view of the Israeli government’s policies in this area, and their consequences.
Of greater concern is the fact that the E1 plan does not serve the interests of Israel in any way. The implementation of the plan will cast a heavy shadow on the prospects of arriving at a lasting settlement for the area - one that promises security and peace for the residents of the State of Israel.
The Absentee Property Law
The Absentee Property Law is the principle means by which the Israeli government is attempting to realize the plan described in the previous section. In July 2004 the Israeli government decided (secretly, it should be noted) on a systematic implementation of the Absentee Property Law in East Jerusalem. The purpose of implementing the law was to make possible the transfer of Jerusalem properties -- belonging to Palestinian landowners who find themselves on the other side of the separation barrier -- to the Israel Lands Administration. Naturally, public attention in Israel and elsewhere was focused on the humanitarian harm to the Palestinians who lost their land. But it is important to see the use of the Absentee Property Law in its wider context. “Lining” the separation barrier with settlements (including Givat Yael and Hirbat Mazmuriya) could not be accomplished without confiscating the property of the “absentees” who live on the other side of the barrier from their land. Thus, the use of the Absentee Property Law is in fact one more facet of the government’s current policy in Jerusalem and its environs.
The separation barrier in Jerusalem – a sealed border
The severing of hundreds of thousands of residents of East Jerusalem from the West Bank is the most drastic change to take place in the city since 1967. While the visuals of the barrier draw most of the attention, the cognitive changes that are likely to result will have far-reaching consequences. Several senior representatives of the Israeli government and the Jerusalem municipality have already expressed the view that the separation wall in Jerusalem will once and for all prove to the Palestinians in Jerusalem that they “belong” to the State of Israel, and are to be severed from the surrounding Palestinian areas.
Indeed, the government of Israel recently admitted that its considerations in deciding the route of the barrier in this area were not based only on security concerns, but also on political ones. Even before this admission, however, it was clear that the route of the barrier in and around Jerusalem was set overwhelmingly on the basis of political and demographic concerns rather than on real security concerns. At any event it is obvious that a physical barrier that would allow the efficient passage of people, goods and services is totally impossible.
To what extent it is possible to minimize the current damage created in these areas is still to be seen. However, one of the immediate consequences of the separation barrier in Jerusalem is that tens of thousands of Jerusalemites will find themselves outside of the barrier. Services will need to be provided to approximately 55,000 residents (who will reside in Jerusalem but beyond the barrier) and tens of thousands of others (who will be both outside of Jerusalem and beyond the barrier, but for whom Jerusalem is the center of their lives).
The July 10, 2005 decision of the Israeli government to provide services to Jerusalem neighborhoods on the other side of the barrier cannot be seen as anything but mere words, because it is utterly disconnected from reality and from the real needs in the area.
Civil withdrawal and creeping militarization in East Jerusalem
Since the beginning of the construction of the separation barrier there appear increasing signs that the state authorities are abandoning the Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. On the one hand there has been a distinct withdrawal of civil presence from the eastern section of the city: from the decreasing supply of services to East Jerusalem residents to the thinning presence of Israeli citizens in the Palestinian neighborhoods. On the other hand, there has been a significant increase in Israeli military and police presence. Ironically, as the eastern part of the city has been increasingly disconnected from the West Bank by the barrier, life in this area has come closer to that of Area “B” of the West Bank.
The planning regime in East Jerusalem, which was always more concerned with preserving the demographic balance than with responding to the needs of the local population, has become completely dysfunctional. Obtaining permission to build in the area has become almost “mission impossible.” Also, the number of house demolitions has increased dramatically since 2000. During the 1990s, an average of about 20 illegally built houses were destroyed annually; in 2004, that number increased to more than 150(!).
Other problems in the same context are, for example, in the field of education in East Jerusalem where there are now 1,300 classrooms missing. (It should be noted that while this problem is worsening year by year, it existed well before the building of the barrier in Jerusalem). However, it now reaches unprecedented conditions.
Palestinian hospitals in eastern Jerusalem are also losing status. Their levels of quality and professionalism are declining in tandem with the predictable decrease in occupancy. This is a result of the difficulties patients and physicians face in traveling to the hospitals from the other side of the barrier. Consequently, non-residents of Jerusalem have lost access to health care. A temporary solution seemed to have been provided by hospitals in East Jerusalem, which are already under threat of closure. These hospitals are now trying to provide services on the other side of the wall; but in fact there has been no tangible improvement and the status of the hospitals as central institutions in the eastern part of the city has been damaged.
The implications are clear: While it was expected of the authorities to do their best to minimize the damages created by the barrier, in fact the policies carried out are drastically worsening this situation, and the levels of civil and welfare services are constantly deteriorating.
Ir Amim’s Position
Ir-Amim is convinced that there can be no political settlement between Israel and the Palestinians without a mutually acceptable solution to the issue of Jerusalem and its environs, including the (at least political) division of the city between the two communities which share it.
The attempts to achieve full Israeli hegemony in East Jerusalem and its environs will only damage the city’s fragile stability and increase the conflict between its two populations. This, in turn, will cause significant harm to the prospects of holding negotiations about Jerusalem as one of the critical points in any future settlement between Israelis and Palestinians.
Clearly, not only the Palestinians, but indeed some of Israel’s closest international allies, will find it impossible to endure this situation and will use various means to express their disagreement.
The establishment of a sustainable Palestinian state adjacent to Israel will require a contiguous area that is politically and geographically connected to East Jerusalem. In the absence of this, as detailed in this paper, only one political alternative will remain: a bi-national state. Such A bi-national state will very likely spell the end of the State of Israel as the national home of the Jewish people. It is out of fear from this possibility that Ir Amim works to prevent the current policies of the Israeli government from being carried out.
While the disengagement from Gaza could represent the renewal of a political process between Israel and the Palestinians, the unilaterally dictated events in Jerusalem are aimed at preventing this very result and thwarting any future political settlement. Ir Amim believes that just as the disengagement from Gaza, which began as a unilateral action, later became essentially coordinated, so is it necessary, and possible, to arrive at an agreement acceptable to both sides regarding the status of Jerusalem.
About Ir-Amim
Ir Amim (“City of Nations” or “City of peoples”) was founded in order to actively engage in those issues impacting on Israeli–Palestinian relations in Jerusalem, and on the political future of the city. Ir Amim seeks to render Jerusalem a more viable city even under the dire current circumstances, while generating and promoting a more politically sustainable Jerusalem in the future.
Ir Amim is a professionally driven organization, unaffiliated with any political party or institution. It is comprised of professionals and lay activists -- attorneys, planners, architects, educators, social scientists and concerned citizens -- who are devoted to “Jerusalem on a human scale.” That is, to a city shared by two collectives, Israeli and Palestinian, not only in the future, but today.
Ir-Amim works in three directions in the service of these goals:
- Exposing the complexities of East Jerusalem to various publics – including through study tours of the area for Knesset members, senior government officials, journalists, the general public and diplomatic missions.
- Preventing the creation of unilateral “facts on the ground,” that will prevent future prospects for achieving settlements on the status of Jerusalem.
- Strengthening civil society organizations in East Jerusalem -- toward a more workable and equitable city.
- Attorney Danny Seideman – founder of Ir Amim and its legal advisor
- Prof. Elinoar Barzacchi, Chairperson – former Chief Engineer for the City of Jerusalem and founding Dean of the School of Architecture at Tel Aviv University
- Prof. Ze'ev Mankowitz, Deputy Chair – faculty member, the Institute for Contemporary Judaism, The Hebrew University
- Amos Gil, Executive Director of Ir Amim– former Executive Director of The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI)
- Sarah Kreimer – Associate Director of Ir Amim; founder and former co-director of The Center for Jewish-Arab Economic Development
- Dr. Menachem Klein, board member – Senior Lecturer at Bar Ilan University, specializing in Palestinian political culture and the peace process.