Palestinians in Jerusalem (Final Blog)

(The Times of Israel)

Ever since being annexed in 1967, Palestinians have led a tenuous, chaotic life, unsure of the status of themselves and their families and facing discriminatory measure in health, welfare, and travel.

The first issue that many face is the inequity and insecurity of residency, along with discrimination when applying for citizenship. Since 1967, Israel has revoked the residency status of 14,595 Palestinians in Jerusalem (The Association for Civil Rights in Israel).
In 1995, Israel began the process of revoking permanent residency status from former Arab residents of Jerusalem who could not prove that their "center of life" was still in Jerusalem. This process was fortunately reversed in 2000 by the Minister of the Interior, Natan Sharansky. He stated that the "quiet deportation" policy would be stopped that and Arab natives to Jerusalem would be able to regain residency if they could prove that they have visited Israel at least once every three years. Despite these changes in policies, since December 1995, the permanent residency of more than 3,000 individuals "expired", leaving them with neither citizenship nor residency. In 2006 the number of former Arab Jerusalemites to lose their residency status was 1,363, a sixfold increase on the year before (B'Tselem). This leaves Palestinians in a fragile condition. They have neither the rights nor the services of either a resident or a citizen, leaving them as refugees once again.

 95% of Palestinians do not have citizenship status - this means that while they work and receive social rights, they do not have the ability to vote in national elections or easily move to and from the country. In January of 2019, Haaretz laid out the many ways that East Jerusalem Palestinians are rejected: getting appointments has sometimes taken up to 3 years, 3 to 4 additional years are needed to receive a decision, grounds for rejection sometimes include petty reasons like insufficient Hebrew or suspicion of loyalty, and lawyers believe that Palestinians are being intentionally discriminated against during the process (which the ministry adamantly denies). Palestinians have been denied for a number of reasons, including insufficient documents or the inability to maneuver a wild amount of red tape. Even having a family member with Israeli citizenship is not enough to guarantee that you or other family members will receive citizenship (Nir Hasson).

Under a recently enacted law, Israel's Interior Minister Aryeh Deri made his plan known to the public that he intended to strip the residency status of 12 Palestinians in Jerusalem, accusing them of being involved in "terror". The law gives the interior minister the authority to take away the residency documents of any Palestinian on grounds of a "breach of loyalty" to Israel. Four of the 12 are affiliated with the Hamas political movement. They were the subject of controversy in September 2017 when Israel's Supreme Court ruled that Israeli authorities had no right to strip them of their residency on "breach of loyalty". That legal battle had been going on for 10 years. When the Palestinians were elected to the Palestinian Authority's legislative body in 2006, Israel's former Interior Minister Ronnie Bar-On revoked their Jerusalem residency status, claiming a "breach of loyalty" for being members of a "foreign parliament" and member of Hamas (Al Jazeera). Residency status is extremely tenuous and can be revoked for a number of minuscule reasons, or larger, more complex, and political reasons like we see here. This is one reason why Palestinians are attempting to gain citizenship status, though it is extremely difficult for them for a number of reasons that we have seen.


The homes and residences of Palestinians are also be reclaimed and destroyed, leaving many in a tumultuous position, unable to figure out where to live and becoming refugees again. While the Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem and the settlements enjoy a vast amount of development and increasing funding, Israel goes to extremes to prevent development in Palestinian areas; since 1967 the state has expropriated more than a third of the land annexed to Jerusalem and built 11 neighborhoods on them, labeled for Jewish citizens only. Under international law, the status of these neighborhoods is the same as the Israeli settlements throughout the West Bank (B'Tselem). The encroachment of Isreali settlements is becoming greater and greater each day, leaving Palestinian residents with few options.

Palestinians are left with no choice but to build without permits. The Jerusalem Municipality estimates that between 15,000 and 20,000 housing units were built without permits in Palestinian neighborhoods up until 2004. These buildings are then issued demolition orders by the Israeli authorities, who ignore the position that they put the Palestinian residents in. A large number of Palestinians in East Jerusalem live under constant threat to their homes and businesses. From 2004 to the end of December 2018, Israeli authorities demolished 803 housing units in East Jerusalem (B'Tselem).

One story that illustrates the continued evictions was recorded on November 22 of 2018. The Ateret Cohanim organization was allowed to continue legal proceedings to evict 700 Palestinians from East Jerusalem’s Silwan neighborhood, the High Court of Justice ruled (Haaretz, Nir Hasson). Despite the fact that the acquisition of land was contested, the plan was allowed to move forward.

In another instance, Israeli police evicted a Palestinian family from their home in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City after the Israeli supreme court ruled Jewish settlers were the rightful owners. Rania Abu Assab, who lived with her husband, their children, and his aunt were removed. She said the family was forced to leave all their furniture and personal items. Her husband Hatem and son Mehdi were arrested by Israeli forces after they were physically assaulted, witnesses said. Ir Amim, an Israeli watchdog group, reported on the eviction proceedings. It said family members had lived there since the 1960s but Palestinian sources said the Abu Assab family had lived in the home for three generations since 1952 (Al Jazeera). No matter the amount of time, nor the legal procedures behind the residences, seems to matter to the Israeli government. They are set on increasing their settlements and will take whatever land they deem necessary in order to expand their holdings.

Even the most simple rights of religious worship and access to its holy places have been threatened by actions of religious extremists and militants. This violence extended back into the 20th century. Jewish organizations such as the Temple Mount Faithful not only continue to scheme the destruction of the Muslim holy places but have also planned and enacted an attack by the Israeli police on Muslim worshipers on October 8, 1990. This attack ended in the killing of 17 Palestinians and the wounding of more than 150 people. The al-Aqsa Mosque has been the target of arsonist attacks and continued harassment and violence during the period of Israeli control. Muslim worshipers are often prohibited from entering the al-Haram al-Sharif because of 'security concerns' (Peter Hall and Robert Giel). Neither Palestinian homes nor holy places are safe spaces anymore, as each can be taken away unjustly and seemingly in an instant.

Even Palestinian leaders are unsafe from prosecution and discrimination by the Israeli government. Israeli police arrested Adnan Ghaith, the Palestinian governor of Jerusalem, according to a local NGO and local media. Ghaith was one among 21 Palestinians rounded up in overnight raids by Israeli forces in East Jerusalem, Maan news agency reported. Many of those rounded up were members of the Fatah movement in the Jerusalem area. Ghaith, appointed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in August last year, has actually been arrested several times by Israeli forces. The last time was in November 2018. Israeli police also briefly detained the head of the Religious Endowments Authority Sheikh Abdelazeem Salhab, along with his deputy, after praying with other Palestinians near al-Rahma gate at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound for the very first time in 16 years (Al Jazeera). Being a member of Fatah, Ghaith was sure to be targeted by the Israeli forces. They do not want a strong leading force within the Palestinian community, so they try their best to suppress any prominent members who may bring about consolidation, power, and force amongst Palestinians.

Israeli authorities have also set restrictions on Palestinians entering Jerusalem from the occupied West Bank after reported attacks on Israeli military and settlers, revoking the entry permits of hundreds who wanted to travel during the month of Ramadan. The announcement by COGAT was the latest reversal that was supposed to make travels easier for Palestinians for Ramadan. While Israel initially eased travel restrictions for Palestinians, authorities have stated that they wanted to make sure that "security wasn't breached. Since the beginning of 2015, an average of two Israelis have been injured by Palestinians, while around 38 Palestinians are injured by Israeli forces during one week (The Jerusalem Fund). It is obvious that the Israeli forces are far more powerful than any singular Palestinian attacks. This statement may just be being used as an excuse for the plan already set up to decrease the access and sovereignty of Palestinian residents, for whom travel is already difficult.


Lastly, it is important to discuss the poverty of Palestinians and the amount of discrimination regarding services they endure. 76% of the residents of East Jerusalem and 83.4% of the children live below the poverty line, according to the poverty report of the National Insurance Institute. The poverty rate average in Israel is 21.7%, and 30% among children (The Association for Civil Rights in Israel). Palestinians in East Jerusalem are required to pay taxes, just like all the other inhabitants of Jerusalem, but do not receive the same services that others do. The Jerusalem Municipality intentionally avoids investing in infrastructure and services in the Palestinian neighborhoods, including roads, pavements, water and sewage systems, schools and cultural institutions. Ir Amim estimates that as of 2017, there is a shortage of 2,557 classrooms in Palestinian neighborhoods, and about a third of the children do not complete twelve years of schooling. Only 52% of the population in these neighborhoods has legal access to the water grid. Also, while Palestinians make up 40% of the Jerusalem population, the municipality only runs six family health centers in the Palestinian neighborhoods, while there are 27 in Jewish neighborhoods (The Association for Civil Rights in Israel).

The municipality also has only four social services offices in the Palestinian neighborhoods, compared to 19 in Jewish neighborhoods – in East Jerusalem, 76% of all residents and 83.4% of the children live below the poverty line (The Association for Civil Rights in Israel).

Healthcare is also a major concern for the Palestinian population. In 1993, the Israeli government imposed a permanent blockage between Gaza and the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. This stopped free access of Palestinians to their only national tertiary-referral hospitals. Israel has responded to terrorist attacks by imposing periodic “internal closures”, which may or may not have actually been needed, on the entire Palestinian population (Peter Hall and Robert Giel).

The Jerusalem Municipality has opened 6 clinics for infant healthcare ('Tipat Halav') in the Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem, compared to 27 in the Israeli neighborhoods. An additional seventh clinic is due to open in the A-Sal'ah area adjacent to Ras al-'Amud. Infant mortality is affected by these discrepancies, obviously.

In September of 2018, the US decided to cut funding to hospitals serving the Palestinians. The director stated it will have a “severe effect.” Bassem Abu Libdeh, a member of the Makassed hospital, said that the US currently comprises 40 percent of costs in six East Jerusalem hospitals that provide care for Palestinians.  The network, containing six hospitals in East Jerusalem, provides healthcare such as cancer treatment and operations. Dave Harden, a former American official who headed USAID’s work in the West Bank and Gaza under the Obama administration, said the cuts were “particularly vindictive” and predicted they could produce the “collapse” of the Augusta Victoria Hospital and the St. John’s Eye Hospital, two of the medical centers in the East Jerusalem network (Toi Staff and AP). The fact that the US is pulling out, while not surprising, is especially cruel, given the limited number of services and rampant poverty existing in East Jerusalem.

Welfare services manage only four offices in East Jerusalem, which are presumed to provide services for 37% of the population and serve 36,029 clients. To compare, the Israeli-Jewish population, which constitutes 63% of the city's population, has 19 welfare offices that serve 57,472 clients. Out of 403 staff positions for social workers in Jerusalem, 106 are allocated to East Jerusalem. To date, only 18 new positions have been filled. The Welfare Ministry has declared that no supplementary budgets would be available in 2017-2018 for new positions. Each social worker in East Jerusalem works an average of 339 cases, compared to an average of 194 cases for the rest of the city. Waiting times for Palestinian families are especially high. Welfare services in East Jerusalem serve 11,451 families and have a waiting list of 598 extra families (The Association for Civil Rights in Israel).

Finally, education must be addressed. In the current school year, 857 sub-standard classrooms are used in public schools and pre-schools. These are almost half the total of 1,815 classrooms in the education system in East Jerusalem.  33 % of the students in the public and the recognized but unofficial schools do not complete 12 years of education. In 2017, the budget for the prevention of dropout in East Jerusalem was NIS 4.1 million, compared to NIS 3 million in the year of 2015. The Jerusalem Municipality reasons that NIS 15 million is required in order to suitably address the problem of student dropouts in East Jerusalem.  The education system in East Jerusalem also suffers from persistent understaffing. Of 150 staff positions for psychologists in schools in Jerusalem, only 20 work in East Jerusalem. There is a total of 57 staff positions for educational counselors for the 185 recognized but unofficial schools in the area.

Overall, it is clear the Palestinians in Jerusalem are discriminated against and live a much harder, harsher, and poorer life than Jewish citizens and settlers in the city. The Isreali government seems to target them, make life more complex for them, and increasingly control their lives. Dissidence is not tolerated. This issues must be given light and addressed in order for Palestinian living standards to increase.



Bibliography

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Al Jazeera. "Israel Evicts Palestinians from Jerusalem Home." News | Al Jazeera. February 17, 2019. Accessed March 25, 2019. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/02/israel-evicts-palestinians-jerusalem-home-190217192515937.html.

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Hasson, Nir. "Court Allows Eviction of 700 Palestinians from East Jerusalem Neighborhood." Haaretz.com. November 22, 2018. Accessed April 21, 2019. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-court-allows-eviction-of-700-palestinians-from-east-jerusalem-neighborhood-1.6677069.

Staff, Toi and AP. "Palestinians: US Cuts to Arab Hospitals Will Have Dire Effect on Healthcare." The Times of Israel. September 19, 2018. Accessed April 21, 2019. https://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinians-us-cuts-will-have-dire-effect-on-healthcare/.

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The Association for Civil Rights in Israel. "East Jerusalem: Facts and Figures 2017." May 21, 2017. Accessed April 21, 2019. https://law.acri.org.il//en/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Facts-and-Figures-2017.pdf.