Jerusalem


This city, the economic, social, religious and political hub of Palestinian life, has been closed to the Palestinian population since the general blockade began in 1993.

But since 1967 the Jerusalem Municipality, particularly under the administration of Likud mayor Ehud Olmert, has followed a policy of restricting Arab neighborhoods, expanding existing settlements, denying or revoking residency to Arab Jerusalemites, road construction, and house demolition. New confiscations in the eastern part of the city have restricted Arab neighborhoods like never before. Recent plans for new confiscation in the Arab Shu’fat neighborhood in northern Jerusalem will link the French Hill settlement to Pisgat Ze’ev settlement, creating a continuous built-up Jewish area in the Arab north-eastern part of the city.

Several by-pass roads in the north and south have further delimited the constricted area of Arab Jerusalem. Anata and Shu’fat in northern Jerusalem have been especially hard hit by house demolition policies of the Jerusalem municipality, particularly to make way for the by-pass roads in the north. In addition, Silwan village, just east of the Old City, has come increasingly under attack by Jewish settlers, who have recently occupied several homes in this village. As stated above, since the election of PM Netanyahu, 12 homes have been demolished in the Jerusalem area, including two buildings in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Finally the beginning of construction on Jabal Abu Ghneim of a new settlement called Har Homa, to the south-east of Jerusalem, will complete the ring of Jewish settlements around Arab Jerusalem, solidifying Jewish demographic superiority over this part of the city and effectively ending the possibility for a viable, dynamic Jerusalem for Palestinians, both Moslem and Christian. The completion of these plans will cut off this vital lifeline from the West Bank, and cut the city from the residents on which it depends.


Map reproduced from Foundation for Middle East Peace

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