The following facts and figures (as of 1993/94) on Israeli activities concerning Jerusalem, its status and its character, have to be seen in the context of the general Israeli policy towards Jerusalem which has been to separate it from the rest of the West Bank. According to the Declaration of Principles signed between the PLO and Israel in September 1993, Jerusalem is one of the remaining issues that will be negotiated in the final phase. The Israeli government is constantly violating its commitment by stressing that Jerusalem will remain undivided under Israeli control and be the eternal capital of Israel. Thus, Rabin does not leave anything to negotiate about Jerusalem. To view the current status of annexation as final and to ignore the importance of Jerusalem for Palestinians not only violates the DoP but also contradicts international law and various UN resolutions. One should keep in mind that there will be no peace without a solution for Jerusalem.

The general belief that West Jerusalem had been Jewish when the city was divided in 1948, ignores the reality on the ground. In the course of an Israeli campaign to "clean" their part of the city, some 64,000-80,000 Palestinians were forcibly driven out of West Jerusalem including four villages (Lifta, Deir Yassin, Ein Kerem, al-Malha) in its immediate vicinity. Properties left were declared "absentee property". Today, for Example, the Knesset, some ministries, and the Sonesta and Hilton Hotels are built on former Lifta land. The Hadassah Hospital as well as Yad Vashem were erected on land belonging to Palestinians from Ein Kerem. The Israeli Independence Park was erected on a Moslem cemetery of the former Mamillan neighborhood. The Stadium and the Jerusalem Mall are built on al-Malha land. In 1948, 40% of the property of West Jerusalem belonged to Palestinians, 34% to the Waqf [Moslem Religious Administration], Churches and the Government of Palestine, and only 26% belonged to Jews.

Since 1967, and despite UN resolutions condemning Israeli changes to the city, control of Jerusalem has been the cornerstone of Israeli policy in Palestinian territory. The strategy of "Judaization" has involved colonization of the Old City, its immediate and extended surroundings, and building suburbs with new road links in order to heavily populate the metropolitan area of annexed East Jerusalem. 

Since 1967, an estimated 50,000 Jerusalem Palestinians (not including their relatives and those residents who were not counted in the 1967 census or who "lost" their Jerusalem residency rights as a result of Israeli procedures) have been forcibly evicted form their houses and driven outside the municipal boundaries or outside the country. In the Old City alone more than 6,000 Palestinian were evicted. Israeli bulldozers leveled 135 Palestinian houses to create the plaza in front of the Western Wall, leaving more than 600 families homeless. In 1967, the Knesset annexed 70,000 dunums of East Jerusalem and surrounding village land to the state of Israel's territory (added to the 38,000 dunums of West Jerusalem at that time). Today, the area of Jerusalem is 123,000 dunums.

Israeli law dispossesses all non-Jerusalem Palestinians of their property in annexed Jerusalem. Even if he lives just outside the annexed zone, a Palestinian is classified as "absentee" and his property is expropriated. Since 1967, 86% of East Jerusalem has been removed from Palestinian control and use: 34% of the land of East Jerusalem has been expropriated for the building of Jewish settlements (approx. 7.250 acres); 8% has been designated for expropriation for expanding these settlements; 44% is "green area" on which it is not allowed to build. Only about 13% of the land remains for the Arab neighborhoods.

Settlers have put the legal construction of "absentee property" to their use most effectively, particularly under the Likud administration which gave settlers preference in the allocation of houses declared to be state property under the "absentee" classification. Since 1967, only around 12% of all new construction has taken place for Palestinians in the Arab sector. This gives an annual construction ratio of 2,200 apartments for Israelis to only 230 for Palestinians.

Israel has enforced a strict quota on Palestinian construction in East Jerusalem, allowing them to build on only 13% of the area and only with prior permission from the Israeli Authorities of the West Jerusalem Municipality (WJM). That translates into an average of 3.5 meters of land per Palestinian resident in East Jerusalem. The remaining 87% is either used for Jewish settlement or remains an area where construction is prohibited (see above)79% of East Jerusalem is already under direct Israeli control.

On the expropriated land, 60,000 housing units were built for Jews and not one Palestinians. Restricting Palestinian construction aims at maintaining the city's percentage of Palestinian residents at around 26-28%, a limitation which was adopted by the government's ministerial committee in 1973. It has ensured that today, Palestinians amount to no more of the city's population than they did in 1967 (25.8% in 1967, 28% in 1995).

Another discriminatory limitation for Palestinians is that the building height in Jewish neighborhoods is allowed to be 8 storeys high while in Palestinian areas this may not exceed 2 storeys. 70,000 Jewish settler families in East Jerusalem benefited from subsidized/public housing whereas only 555 Palestinian families did.

Due to the lack of available land to build on and the fact that obtaining building permits in East Jerusalem is almost impossible, many Palestinians are forced to build their houses without a permit and are thus subject to house demolition. Although only some of these houses were actually (and arbitrarily) destroyed (since the beginning of the Intifada more than 200) hundreds of families live under threat of demolition. Demolitions of Palestinian homes are currently carried out at a rate of about 50 per year. This and the restrictive measures concerning Palestinian building has forced to date more than 21,000 families to live in caves, tents or overcrowded and inadequate conditions. . . .

In March 1993, Israel imposed a closure on the West Bank and Gaza denying Palestinians entrance to Israel, access to Jerusalem and free movement between the southern and northern part of the West Bank. The closure is a grave violation of the rights of the Palestinian people and constitutes the collective punishment of some 1.8 million people. This policy contravenes Israel's obligation under international law, especially Section 43 of the Hague Regulations which requires Israel to provide for the welfare and orderly life of the residents of the Occupied Territories. The closure deprives thousands of people form reaching their workplaces (approx. 116,000 Palestinians from the Occupied Territories worked in Israel before the closure), thus depriving them of their income, medical, educational and economic services as well as religious sites. On several occasions, such as Jewish holidays, or after military attacks against Israeli targets, the Israeli government institutes a complete closure of the Occupied Territories canceling all existing permits for entering Jerusalem or Israel under the pretext of needed security guarantees.

The Declaration of Principles on Interim the Self-Government Arrangements (Oslo Agreement), signed by the PLO and Israel in September 1993, states that the permanent status negotiations will commence not later than the beginning of the third year of the interim period and will cover all remaining issues including Jerusalem. Article V, 4 reads: "The two parties agree that the outcome of the permanent status negotiations should not be prejudiced or preempted by agreements reached for the interim period." Despite this and notwithstanding the declared change in national priorities of the Rabin administration, the Israeli government has continued its policy of land confiscation, house demolitions and has only recently (22 January 1995) decided to allow the continuation of settlements expansion, including East Jerusalem.

On December 26, 1994, the Knesset passed the final reading of the "Gaza-Jericho Agreement Implementation Law (Limiting of Activities)" by a vote of 56 to 6 with 32 abstentions. The law prohibits Palestinian political activities in East Jerusalem and therefore violates the Oslo Agreement. Any institution--local or foreign--which includes the PLO must have Israeli permission to set up an office. This violates the Oslo Agreement and contradicts the secret letter of assurances set by Foreign Minister Peres to the Norwegian foreign Minister Holst (October 11, 1993) in which Peres confirmed the "great importance" of Palestinian institutions in East Jerusalem saying "we will not hamper their activity".

Between November 1967 and February 1995, 64,870 housing compilations (=88%, = 122,367 housing units) were built for Jews/in Jewish neighborhoods, while in the same period, only 8,890 housing completions (=12%, = 21,490 housing units) were built for Palestinians /in Palestinian neighborhoods. In 1993, a total of 2,720 housing units were built in Jerusalem, only 3,8% or 103 housing units of which in Palestinian neighborhoods. As of February 1995, there were 20,900 residential units in Palestinian neighborhoods for ca. 156,000 Palestinians residing in East Jerusalem, while 160,000 Jewish settlers had 38,500 residential units - almost twice as much - at their disposal.

Housing density (average): Palestinians: 2.2 persons/room (32.3% more than 3 persons/room);

Jews: : 1.1 persons/room.

Source: PASSIA - Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs

A Palestinian human Rights group recently won a court appeal that was submitted to the Israeli Higher Court requesting the Israeli Authorities to release classified information about the confiscation of Identity Cards from Palestinian Jerusalemites. As per the report, between 1967 and 1996, the Israeli Ministry of Interior had confiscated more than 4000 Israeli identity cards from Palestinian Jerusalemites, an act which meant ceasing their historical ownership and rights to their homes in Jerusalem and eventually banning them from entering the city since no Palestinian can enter the city without having such an ID or getting the approval pass from the Israeli Authorities. That, in addition to losing their medicare rights and other social services.

The Palestinian human rights group regarded this as a deliberate Israeli policy to evacuate Arab East Jerusalem from its majority Palestinian population. The confiscation of 4000 Identity Cards from Palestinian Jerusalemites also meant that their spouses and dependants lost their rights as well, and assuming that each had a minimum of 2, the total number would be at least 8000. The following are some documented statistics as released by the group which shows a staggering rise of more than 600% in some years: 

This statement is no surprise to those who are aware of the biography of this rightist hard-liner, settlements architect Eli Suissa and his zoning plans that have swallowed the land of the holy city during 30 years of occupation, when he was director of the Ministry of Interior's office in Arab East Jerusalem. What is also important to note is that Suissa himself lives in a house built on confiscated Palestinian land on Jabal Az-Zaytoun and what is called now "Beit-Auroun". As for the Palestinian Jerusalemite, he has no option, according to Suissa's announcements, but to yield to the occupation authority by giving up his land and properties in order to obtain the Israeli blue identity card. This identity card in addition to being a political tool closely connected to the Israeli strategic geographic and demographic goals, is also a sword at the necks of over more than 70 thousand Palestinian Jerusalemites who live outside the boundaries of the "Olmert municipality", and another 40 thousand who live abroad for work or study purposes. All of these measures came on the heels of the new decision issued recently by the High Court of Justice which legitimized measures taken by the Israeli Ministry of Interior utilizing "Center of Life" as a tool to deprive the Palestinian Jerusalemites from their citizenship and their right to live in the holy city.

Yunval Genbar, from B'tselem, disclosed the real Israeli intentions saying: "Israeli government has no need to hire planes and buses or to congregate military vehicles and trucks to transfer the Palestinians, for the Israeli administration has orchestrated a sophisticated system of collective deportation based on data information."  He added: "These measures are considered as firmly establishing discrimination practices against the Palestinian in comparison with Jews who are able to live outside the city and return to it whenever they want. This situation applies to Netanyahu personally, who was born in Jerusalem and lived in the USA for more than ten years."  The tight restrictions that were imposed on the Palestinian Jerusalemite has forced him to choose between improving his living conditions or fulfilling his residency stipulations according to Suissa and the Israeli administration. So he chose the first, not foreseeing what was awaiting him.

REFUSAL OF FAMILY RE-UNIFICATION APPLICATIONS:
Since 1994, every Jerusalemite woman who is married to a man living in the West Bank or outside and could not obtain a unification permit for her husband, will lose her right to live in the city and accordingly her children who are registered in her identity card lose also this right, and the family has no option but to leave .

The Following ironic story is the best telling example:
"Suad Nemer, a Palestinian woman was born and lived in Jerusalem. She married her Jerusalemite relative who was working temporarily in Saudi Arabia and in 1994 returned to Jerusalem, where he was granted a temporary residency permit that authorized him to live and work in the city until completing all procedures to have the blue Israeli identity card issued to Palestinians living in Jerusalem. After renewing his residency permit numerous times, unexpectedly they refused to renew his permit and he received a notice to leave the city with his family in two weeks. The family has not found a place to go to.

ISRAELI RACISM
Hanin Mazaru was born on Feb. 16, 1996 with a weak heart. Doctors had recommended that immediately after birth she ought to be transferred to Hadasa-Ein Karem hospital for an emergency surgery to save her life. But the Israeli insurance establishment refused to give her mother a letter obligating the patient's fund to pay the cost of the surgery, and consequently the child Hanin died three months after birth.  The pretext the Israeli insurance establishment used was that her mother carries the blue identity card while her father carries a Jordanian passport. However, Israeli law states explicitly that children have the right to benefit from health insurance as long as one of the spouses carry the Israeli identity card.

THE DEMOGRAPHIC FUTURE OF JERUSALEM
Dr. Bernard Sabila, professor of social science at Bethlehem university, says that Palestinian Jerusalemites are in need of about 10 thousand housing units, noting that between 1700-1800 Palestinian Jerusalemites leave the city annually due to shortage in hosing units and the number is expected to rise two thousand persons yearly.  He adds that Palestinian Jerusalemites' birthrate is continually decreasing since the year 1982. Israel wants the percentage of Palestinian citizens to be 28% and the Jews 72 which means toppling the demographic balance in favor of Jews.  Right now the Jewish neighborhood is built on 130 dunums of land with 18 settlers living on each dunum, compared to a ratio of 43 Palestinians per dunum in other parts of the city.

CHANGING THE CITY'S LANDMARKS.
Israelis went beyond plundering the land and Judaizing it to wage a war on names of sites and historical places in the holy city and its nearby periphery, where Jewish settlements are built on confiscated land. North of the city, Israelis built a military settlement named Anatout on land confiscated from Anata village while Israeli bulldozers continue breaking ground at Jabal Abu-Ghuneim. The attack on everything that is Palestinian appears more clearly in Jerusalem. "Olmert's municipality" put a sign last year at Lion's Gate-- one of the historical gates of the holy city--naming the place "Mordachai Gore," the Israeli General who occupied Jerusalem in the 1967 war.  This war of names bears a religious character that goes in harmony with political schemes that Israelis are seeking to achieve through Judaizing the holy city.

REMOVING HISTORICAL PAVEMENTS
In a blatant deformation to history, "Olmert's municipality" replaced stones that paved streets of the holy city with modern stones. Despite the officials of the municipality bid to interpret the step as if it was aimed at developing the city, this does not prevent Jerusalemites from asking why these ancient stones were not resorted. The stones which were removed from the old city streets can be clearly seen now being used to pave the courtyards of "Olmert's new municipality" building that has been erected at the entrance of Jaffa street near Jaffa Gate.  Palestinian Jerusalemites believe that Olmert's municipality aims to achieve two objectives: first, obliteration of the old city's antiquities and history, and second, using these stones to show the new Jewish sites as if it were ancient.

NEW EXCAVATIONS:
Since last March, Israel began a new episode of its excavation serial inside the old city, using this time the pretext of opening a new sewage system. After three weeks of these excavations, the Israeli authorities revealed its real objectives when it announced the discovery of a road that Jews allegedly used to take toward a Temple during the Roman era. The Israeli archaeologist, Jakov Beilig, who supervises this project announced that this road was one of the main roads in ancient Jerusalem and was called "Cardo Seconds." This announcement recalls to memory the excavations that have been carried out in the old part of Jerusalem twenty years ago and resulted at that time in what Israel "Cardo Maximos", where it is called now, after its restoration, "Cardo Market."

This is one of the biggest projects in the Israeli settlement history, as it will absorb at its first stages more than 30 thousand settlers, totaling 100 thousand settlers once it is completed.  The expropriation process of Jabal Abu-Ghneim began in the aftermath of the proposal submitted by "Mikore and Hatoura" Companies to the former finance minister Yitzhak Moda'ei in 1991. The proposal implied the establishment of a southern wall for Jerusalem comprising 8500 housing units.

In compliance with this proposal, former minister Modae'i took the necessary procedures to achieve this end. He announced the government's intention to confiscate 1850 dunums from its Palestinian owners from Beit-Sahour and Um-Tuba. He also endorsed, on his last day as Minster of Finance, the decision without waiting the opinion of the "objection committee" in this respect. The bitter struggle began between the Israeli settlement project on Abu-Ghneim and the owners of the land backed by the Palestinian people.

The project aims at tightening Israel control around the city of Jerusalem, and making it impossible to reach an accepted solution in the final status negotiations. The struggle against this project took many forms, including political and legal as well as popular protests. The struggle has widened to include regional and international dimensions. Nevertheless, the Netanyhau government still insists on going ahead with its ominous decision.

Jabal Abu-Ghneim lies southeast of the city of Jerusalem, at an altitude of 870m. above sea level. It is the highest point within the surrounding area where it overlooks the cities of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Beit-Sahour and the villages of Um-Tuba and Sur-Baher. The forested area which includes the mountain has been declared as a "green area." Thus it is illegal to build on it. In 1991, Jabal Abu-Ghneim was confiscated and given "state land" status by the Israeli government. This is one of the ways the Israeli authorities resort to in order to expropriate land from its owners and build Jewish settlements.

Netanyahu's government took this decision at this time because the final status negotiations will start in the near future and it wants to impose the Israeli position of power on the negotiating table, disregarding the basis of the peace process and the world condemnation to Israeli settlement policy in general. Also, the first of the three further [troop] withdrawals from areas B and C would have begun.

Aims and Results of the Settling Project:

• Closing of the Southern entrance of Jerusalem, thus isolating the city from the rest of the Palestinian territories.
• Isolating the Palestinian towns surrounding Jerusalem, like Abu-Dis, Shu'fat, Sur-Baher, and others, which must be subject to negotiations in the final stage. Israel's aim is to complete the ring of settlements around them and accordingly making them outside discussions and negotiations.
• Creating a demographic imbalance in the Palestinian cities of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Beit-Sahur, and the surrounding villages. According to Israeli sources the anticipated number of settlers in the planned settlements (Gilo, Giva'at Arba'a, and Har-Homa) is estimated at 100 thousands settlers while the population of Bethlehem district are 120 thousand citizens.
• Squeezing the city of Beit-Sahur, where it will be impossible to develop. Therefore, it will witness a shortage of housing units which will lead to Palestinian move elsewhere, because the lands of Abu-Ghneim mountain were the only available lands to build on in the future.
• Regarding the village of Um-Tuba, the situation is more dangerous since the village lost its lands in the latest expropriations, and the new zoning plan will make it impossible for the village to find solutions to their housing problems.
• Among the economic aims of the settling project, the construction of a number of tourist hotels and industrial zones to compete with the city of Bethlehem. This settlement ring includes Gush Etzion, street 60, and street 80, which are surrounded by three Palestinian cities, Bethlehem, Beit-Sahur, and Beit-Jala. The goal is to isolate these cities from other Palestinian cities.

This photo of the Abu Ghnaim mountain, located less than two kilometers north of the city of Bethlehem, was taken in March 1997.  The mountain historically had been privately owned by Palestinians but was "expropriated" by the Israeli government, which built a settlement there with 6,500 housing units, accommodating thirty to forty thousands Jewish settlers. 

This is a photo of the same mountain several months later, after the beginning of the Israeli government's construction  plans:

Here it is again in 2003, with the settlement project nearing completion:

Q: What connection do Muslims worldwide have with Jerusalem? 

Q: Who is responsible for the ongoing bloodshed?

A: In a Los Angeles Times column published October 13, Rabbi Michael Lerner wrote:

“The preponderance of responsibility lies with Israel and with an international media that continue to obscure the basic realities facing the Palestinian people, and continue to treat the death of Israeli soldiers enforcing a brutal occupation as somehow more outrageous and barbarous than the killing of many times as many Palestinian teenagers who were resisting the occupation.”

The violence has been largely one-sided, mainly Israeli shootings of unarmed or lightly armed Palestinian demonstrators... Almost all of the dead in the current conflict have been Palestinians, including numerous Palestinian citizens of Israel. The UN Security Council has condemned Israel’s use of “excessive force” against the Palestinian population, including the indiscriminate use of automatic weapons, exploding bullets, helicopter gunships, tanks and rockets. It is the use of such weapons--almost unheard of in civilized countries for the suppression of demonstrations--that has led to the high number of casualties and the fact that almost all of them are Palestinian.  

Q: Aren’t Palestinians just over-reacting to a visit by an Israeli leader to a mosque in Jerusalem? 

Q: Do Palestinians deliberately send their children into danger? 

A: The Israeli government’s claim that “the Palestinians are deliberately provoking Israeli troops to kill their children for purposes of propaganda” is racist and absurd. Historically, youth have always been at the forefront of popular uprisings against oppression such as the apartheid-like conditions facing Palestinians living under Israeli occupation in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. Demonstrating and stone-throwing by Palestinian children does not justify Israel’s wholesale massacre of them, any more than the South African government was justified in shooting children at Soweto or southern governors in turning dogs and fire hoses on children involved in the American civil rights movement. The heavy involvement of youth in the anti-apartheid, civil rights and Palestinian liberation struggles reflects the natural and irrepressible response of oppressed peoples the world over.  

Q: Who are the Palestinian refugees and why are they refugees? 

A: Two major waves of Palestinian refugees have been created by the Arab-Israeli conflict. The first wave resulted from the 1948 war and numbered 726,000, two thirds of the total Palestinian population of 1.2 million. The second wave came in the 1967 war when 323,000 Palestinians became homeless, 113,000 of whom were already refugees. Reports from a variety of independent and reliable sources show that the vast majority of the Palestinian refugees were children, women, and old men. Israeli propaganda claims that Arab leaders ordered the population to flee from their homes, but this is a lie. Irish journalist Erskine Childers examined the British record of all the radio broadcasts by Arab leaders during 1948 and concluded: “There was not a single order, or appeal, or suggestion about evacuation from Palestine from any Arab radio station, inside or outside Palestine, in 1948. There is repeated monitored record of Arab appeals, even flat orders, to stay put.” The UN General Assembly called on Israel as early as December 1948 to allow the Palestinian refugees to return to their homes, but Israel continues to refuse.  

Q: Isn’t Israel the only democracy in the Middle East? 

Q: Is Israel really America’s friend? 

Q: What is Palestine? 

A:  The geographical boundaries of Palestine have long been fluid, but the reality of Palestine as a territorial entity is ancient.  The ancient Greek historian Herodotus mentions Palestine at least six times in The Histories.  Romans, Byzantines, Muslims and Crusaders also used the name. The Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs defines Palestine’s location this way: “Palestine lies on the western edge of the Asian continent and the eastern extremity of the Mediterranean Sea. It is bounded on the north by Lebanon and Syria; to the west by the Mediterranean Sea; to the south by the Jordanian Gulf of Aqaba and the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula; and to the east by Jordan.” 

Q: How much money does the United States give to Israel? 

A: Israel is not self-sufficient and relies heavily on US assistance to maintain its economy. Since 1976 Israel has been the single largest annual recipient of US aid. Israel has received $4.1 billion from the US this year, $81.3 billion since 1949. Much of this is in the form of military grants.  Between 1949 and 1996 Israel received $29 billion in military grants; from1997-1999 the amount was $1.8 billion annually. This year, the amount stands at $3.12 billion. Israel has brought shame to America by using US foreign aid and grants to kill civilians.  

Q: Are Zionism and Judaism the same thing? 

A: No. Judaism can be seen as both a religion and an ethnic heritage with a rich moral and scholarly tradition. Zionism is a political movement that was first articulated in the late 1800’s that called for the establishment of a Jewish national home on any available territory, not necessarily Palestine. Many deeply religious Jews are opposed to the philosophy of Zionism and regard it as a blameworthy innovation to their religion.