By Adam Hanieh
Large demonstrations across the West Bank have protested against Israeli settlement and the continuing violation of Palestinian rights. More than 400 Palestinians have been injured by tear gas and rubber bullets in clashes with Israeli soldiers; one student was killed in the town of Ramallah.
The Israeli government has closed off Â鶹´«Ã½ of the West Bank, preventing 30,000 Palestinians from reaching jobs in Israel. In Hebron, the Israelis have imposed a curfew on the 20,000 Palestinian residents while allowing freedom of movement for the 300 Israeli settlers who still control 20% of the Arab town.
On March 21 , a suicide bomber attacked a Tel Aviv cafe. Although the Islamic group Hamas has not claimed responsibility for the attack, it praised the actions of the bomber. Other Palestinians condemned the action, while pointing out that it stemmed from desperation.
"What we are seeing now is the inevitable frustration — in Hebron, in Bethlehem, in Tel Aviv, it's the same thing", PLO negotiator Ahmed Qrei' said after the bombing. "I don't know who or where the instructions for this bomber came from, and there is no excuse for what he did, but we know what the motive was."
These actions were sparked by a February 26 Israeli cabinet decision to approve construction of 2456 housing units on Palestinian land in the south-east corner of East Jerusalem. The plan is eventually to house more than 25,000 Israelis in 6500 housing units. The new settlement, known as Har Homa, is in territory occupied by Israel after the June 1967 war.
When this settlement is completed, Palestinian neighbourhoods throughout East Jerusalem will be cut off from their West Bank hinterland by a ring of settlements housing more than 200,000 Israelis.
The construction approval is part of a package of settlement-related decisions by the Netanyahu government which will further erode Palestinian rights. Other approvals include construction of another road linking the main Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway to northern Jerusalem, construction of the Eastern Ring Road around Jerusalem and creation of "territorial continuity" between the West Bank settlement of Ma'ale Adumim and Jerusalem.
Construction of these roads has been condemned by human rights organisations because they divide Palestinian land and prevent movement from one area to another. The roads are off limits to Palestinians and enable the Israeli government easily to control the Palestinian population.
Settlement construction is an effort to decide the fate of Jerusalem before the beginning of the final status negotiations of the Oslo Accords. Another of these strategies is the expulsion of Palestinians from Jerusalem.
Following the 1967 war , in contravention of international law, Israel annexed East Jerusalem and applied Israeli law. Israel conducted a census in East Jerusalem and granted the status of permanent resident to 170,000 Palestinians present at the time. It was stated that this residency would last for seven years and would then need to be renewed.
Over the years, many Palestinians have moved to neighbourhoods and villages outside the Jerusalem municipality as the result of two policies designed to entrench Israeli sovereignty in East Jerusalem. Israel has greatly restricted Palestinians from building housing, causing overcrowding. Secondly, prior to 1994, Israel rejected requests from Palestinian women for family unification with their spouses who were not Jerusalemites. The Israeli policy compelled these women to leave the city in order to be with their husbands.
In the past two years, Israel has changed its residency policy retrospectively. It now says that those who have not lived within the Jerusalem municipality continuously lose their right to live in the city.
Any Palestinian who leaves Jerusalem for any period and for any reason is liable to lose their resident status. This applies to a Palestinian moving 50 km north of Jerusalem, but not to a Jewish resident who goes to live in a settlement in the same region.
Denial of resident status can occur without a hearing, without explanation, without any notice of the right to appeal and without being informed that the policy has changed. The authorities have also removed resident status from East Jerusalem Palestinians who moved to the Jerusalem suburbs (which are within the West Bank).
Loss of Jerusalem residency has significant implications. Residents of East Jerusalem are not subject to the military government, unlike residents of the rest of the occupied territories. Those without Jerusalem residency are not allowed to enter freely and work in Israel, unless they have special permits. Loss of residency also results in the immediate cessation of national insurance benefits and health insurance, as well as access to education and other benefits.
Within the next six months, the Interior Ministry intends to replace the identity cards of all Israeli citizens and residents. Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem will then have to go to the Interior Ministry, where the clerks will check whether they are entitled to an Israeli identity card. According to estimates, some 70% of Jerusalem's Palestinian residents are liable to lose their resident status.
These policies could force 120,000 Palestinians in Jerusalem to leave their homes.
The human rights organisation B'Tselem recently appealed to the world community: "... these grossly unjust and inhumane policies, which have already affected thousands of Palestinians, and may affect tens of thousands more, are carried out discreetly, through invisible, bureaucratic procedures backed by Israeli laws and court decisions. There are no trucks, no weeping women and children dragged by brutal soldiers, no physical violence ... But the actual effect resembles what the most extremist political factions in Israel have advocated: large-scale displacement of Palestinians which threatens to permanently alter the demographic character of Jerusalem."
B'Tselem is calling for an international campaign against Israeli residential policies in Jerusalem. They can be contacted at e-mail: btselem@actcom.co.il, web site: http://www.btselem.org.