On the Agenda

The Jerusalem Municipality plans to displace all residents of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi Yasul, close to 500 people according to OCHA figures. The residents built the neighborhood in the early 1990s on land privately owned by Palestinians, but which the city zoned as a green area to prevent construction by Palestinians. The city has done so in many other parts East Jerusalem as well. The Jerusalem Municipality issued demolition orders for the houses, and the orders were approved by the courts, who chose to ignore the reality and city policy and focus on technicalities.

This Sunday, Israel will mark Jerusalem Day, which celebrates the annexation of 70 square kilometers from the West Bank to the municipality of Jerusalem. Palestinian residents have little to celebrate - Israel treats them like unwanted immigrants in their own city and employs a policy designed to drive them out of their homes. One of the measures Israel uses for this purpose is lack of urban planning and demolition. First, master plans are not drawn up for Palestinian neighborhoods. Then, when Palestinians build without a permit (because everyone needs a home), the municipality demolishes their homes or threatens to do so. Since 2004, the authorities have demolished at least 848 homes in East Jerusalem, leaving at least 2,960 people - 1,596 of them children - homeless.

In 2019, many more Palestinian families in East Jerusalem demolished their own homes, which were built without permits. They did this to avoid the high fees the city would have charged them for carrying out the demolition itself. Through the end of March, 15 homes were demolished in this way. Israel does not see East Jerusalem residents as equal citizens and barely allows them to build legally. When, given no other choice, they build homes without permits, the municipality demolishes them – all as part of a policy to Judaize Jerusalem.

Israel has long been implementing a policy aimed at cleansing East Jerusalem of Palestinians, using a variety of unlawful means: prohibiting construction; home demolition; not investing in services and infrastructure; and not allowing spouses from elsewhere in the West Bank and Gaza to live with their Jerusalem spouses. In recent years, the number of settlers moving into the heart of Palestinian neighborhoods has risen, with the approval, backing, funding and aid of Israeli authorities. We bring you the testimonies of two Palestinians whose families have recently been targeted by this policy.

On 10 Feb. 2019, police came to the Abu Ryalahs’ home at 4:00 A.M. and arrested Adam, 13. He was taken to a police station and interrogated for hours with no parent present, for allegedly throwing stones. This is not unusual. The Israeli authorities do not treat Palestinian minors in East Jerusalem as entitled to special protections and routinely abuse their rights. This policy, which the law enforcement system would never dare use against other groups in Israel, has been openly employed against hundreds of Palestinian teens a year for decades.

On 10 Jan. 2019, plain-clothed Israeli police arrived at Dr. Karim Hussein’s home in Jabal al-Mukabber, East Jerusalem. They demanded he hand over security camera footage, even though they had explicitly arranged to collect it the next day from his brother’s home. The officers insisted on coming inside, despite refusing to present a search warrant. A confrontation ensued with other family members who arrived on the scene and thought that civilians were assaulting their relatives. One officer beat Dr. Hussein on the head and he lost consciousness. This incident is but another example of the violent, arbitrary police conduct that has long since become part of the daily life in East Jerusalem.

Yesterday, Israeli High Court justices Barak-Erez, Baron and Elron rejected an appeal filed by 104 residents of Silwan to overturn a September 2002 decision by the Custodian of Absentee Property to "free" the land on which they have lived for decades. The land was "freed" by three people - all closely affiliated with Ateret Cohanim, a settler association that works to Judaize East Jerusalem. In the judgment, written by Justice Barak-Erez, the Court's role is narrowed down to examining several questions relating to administrative law. In choosing this avenue, the Court sent the residents back to fight, against all odds, the civil proceedings that Ateret Cohanim has undertaken in order to evict them from their homes.

At about 10:00 o’clock on the morning of Wednesday, 7 February 2018, Jerusalem Municipality inspectors arrived at the neighborhood of Wadi Yasul in Silwan with a bulldozer and a Border Police escort. They demolished the home of a Palestinian family of six, including four minors.

Ten Palestinians were killed and hundreds injured when Israeli troops used live gunfire during protests sparked by President Trump’s declaration on Jerusalem. Live gunfire is permitted only in case of immediate mortal danger that cannot be otherwise averted. The great number of Palestinian casualties will probably be addressed no differently from thousands of past cases of excessive and unlawful use of live gunfire. With the MAG Corps at the helm, those responsible for these deaths will be afforded protection instead of being held to account.