3/3/97

The specter of peace is haunting the Palestinian people: massive settlement expansion, 700 planned house demolitions, confiscation of thousands of dunams, continued arrests, interrogations, torture, Israeli assassination units still operating in Palestinian villages and killing Palestinian civilians (200 since the Oslo Agreement), no prisoner releases, closure, and 300 Palestinian administrative detainees marking their second and third years in prison without charges or trial. And now Jerusalem. Under the Oslo Agreement, the Palestinians agreed to defer the status of Jerusalem in exchange for an Israeli commitment to preserve the territorial integrity of the West Bank and Gaza. Two years later, Palestinians watch this promise unraveling before their eyes as the Israelis continue to expand the Jewish settlements in the West Bank and undermine what is left of the area’s territorial integrity.

Last week, it was the construction of Har Homa on the southern border of Jerusalem. This week, it is the approval of the A-1 plan, towards the east: 1500 new settlement units in Ma’ale Adumim, a 3000 room hotel, and the confiscation of thousands of dunams to create a territorial continuity between the West Bank settlement Ma’ale Adumim and Jerusalem. The purpose of the A-1 plan is to extend the borders of Jewish Jerusalem 10 km eastwards into the West Bank and bring 30,000 more Jewish Israelis into the population of Jerusalem. When final status talks begin in 1998, the status of Jerusalem will have already been determined by Har Homa, the A-1 plan and other similar projects; Israel will have on its table thousands of extra dunams populated by Jewish Israelis and a solid Jewish majority in the city to justify its perpetual sovereignty.

And let us not forget the foundation on which Ma’ale Adumim settlement stands: Only two weeks ago, the settlement ethnically cleansed its surrounding land of the remaining 400 Palestinian Jahalin Bedouins, and forcibly removed them to a mountain top near the Jerusalem garbage dump where all their life possessions and their UNRWA tents were blown away in a winter storm. Now there are no more Jahalin Bedouin outside the Jewish settlers’ windows; the eyesore of Ma’ale Adumim, the Palestinian presence has been removed permanently.

But the eyesore of the West Bank continues- settlements and expanding settlements, bypass roads, security roads, ring-roads, military jeeps, border guards and checkpoints; Israeli domination over Palestinian land and existence, in short, Israeli military occupation .

This is peace.

The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment- LAW calls on all concerned persons to call for real peace. Settlement expansion must be stopped; the funding for the Israeli settlements must be cut off. LAW calls on all concerned persons to embark on a campaign demanding the US government, the European Union and other foreign aid donors to Israel to deduct directly from foreign aid money $100,000 for each new unit constructed in a settlement (including those surrounding Jerusalem like Ma’ale Adumim); and $1,000,000 for each house demolished in the West Bank resulting in the forced homelessness of Palestinian families. Call for real peace.

__________________________________________________________________________________________ The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment is a non-governmental organization, dedicated to preserving human rights through legal advocacy. LAW also is an affiliate member of the Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights.