Palestinians living in the city of Jerusalem, their home for thousands of years, are subjected to first class, premeditated, deliberate, preplanned, discriminatory policies designed to gradually eliminate their presence in the holy city.
The current incumbent 'mayor' Ehud Olmert and his predecessor Teddy Kollek, supported by successive Israeli governments, have applied ruthless measures to make life for Palestinians in Jerusalem, both as a community and individuals, unbearable.
Ehtiram Awad was born in Jerusalem in 1956. A married woman (her husband was born in Jerusalem in 1946) with five children all born in the city. Ehtiram and two of her children (4 year old twins) were turned back at the Allenby Bridge while coming home from Jordan. She and her children had been waiting all day at the bridge, all of her papers were in order, however the Israeli police decided that on that day they wanted to see the original birth certificates of the children before letting them through. Naturally she did not have them with her (people don't travel about carrying originals of their birth certificates with them). She spent almost ten hours trying to reason with the police but to no avail, she was turned back. Her children were hospitupon their return to Amman suffering from the effects of dehydration.
This kind of treatment is not unique, it is systematic, occurring on a daily basis at the crossing points.
Another example is the time, effort, and agony it takes for a Palestinian to renew his or her Jerusalem ID . Every so often the Israelauthorities issue directives asking East Jerusalem Palestinians to renew their ID's. New categories or conditions are introduced and enforced, and each time Palestinians have to spend many hours queuing outside the Ministry of Interior office in Nablus Road. Many people begin their trip to this office at around 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning to make sure they are first in the queue outside the building. The elderly, mothers with babies and small children, the disabled all have to queue like any one else. The treatment accorded to the Palestinians by the Israeli guards at the door could not be worse, truly one has to experience it to believe it. Naturally the Ministry of Interior office in West Jerusalem is a different story where this kind of treatment and subsequent suffering does not exist, however, no Palestinian can have his papers dealt with in the west side of the city.
Jerusalem ID's of women married to Palestinians residing outside Jerusalem, even on a temporary basis for work or other reasons are systematically confiscated. Confiscation of one's ID means a person is homeless and stateless. Names of children are removed from their mother's ID, a mother would then have to choose between staying at her home in Jerusalem or be separated from her children, or even worse, choose to leave her Jerusalem home for ever and join the children outside the country.
In March 1993, the Israeli Prime Minister, the late Mr. Rabin ordered the closure of Palestinian East Jerusalem. Nowadays anyone traveling in the streets of East Jerusalem outside the Old City will immediately realize the effect this closure is having on the city. The streets and the markets are empty, merchandise is not sold and businesses are in decline.
Many Palestinian Jerusalemites are forced to leave in search of work to keep their families, many more leave due to the shortage of housing. No new neighborhoods have been established since 1967, and permissions to build private houses are not given by Olmert's municipality. Those who are able to get permission to build pay exorbitant fees reaching US $ 30,000. East Jerusalem land is systematically being eaten away to accommodate Jewish housing settlements and roads leading to Jewish settlements and neighborhoods.
In short, "Palestinians," according to Olmert, "are not welcomed in Jerusalem." Olmert's policies are effectively dedicated to eliminating Palestinians from Jerusalem, the question is - will he succeed? From a historical and contemporary point of view, he will not. There are 180,000 Palestinians in the city, their birth rate is high, they are absorbing the suffering, enduring the hardships, and managing their life - the time of their liberty is approaching, no-one should doubt that.