ISRAELI SETTLEMENT ACTIVITIES IN JERUSALEM CONTINUE

Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs

• The Jerusalem Municipality intends to confiscate hundreds of dunums of Palestinian lands for construction work in the Eastern periphery of Jerusalem, including lands within the municipality borders of Abu Dis, in addition to other lands in several neighborhoods.
• The local Committee for Construction in Jerusalem asserted on Sunday 21/3/2000, the confiscation of 658 dunums, 543 of which to be used for the construction of the same street. The remaining 115 dunums are to be used for the construction of side-roads linked to the same street.
• The lands to be confiscated are located in the following villages surrounding Jerusalem:

1. Al Issawiyeh.
2. Al Tur
3. Al Azaryeh.
4. Abu Dis.
5. Ras El Amud.
6. Sur Baher.

• The Center of Studies and Social and Civil Rights and the Orient House in Holy Jerusalem asserted that nothing has changed in the policy if withdrawing ID’s from Jerusalem citizens

• The center explained it received on January and February of this year 39 ID’s cases.

• The number of the cases the center dealt with since 1996 till the beginning of March amounted to 3758 Jerusalem citizens, most of whom are still deprived of their right to retrieve their IDs.
• The policy of withdrawing ID’s upset the demographic balance in Holy Jerusalem in an attempt to judaize the city.
• Restitution of ID’s is carried out at random and for isolated cases; it only aims at deceiving public opinion.
• The center mentioned in a statement that the cases it received in 1996 amounted to 447 cases concerning 1195 citizens, while deportees were 28 citizens. In the year 1997, 1300 cases were received concerning 2876 citizens, the deportees were 11 citizens. In 1999, 900 cases were received concerning 2466 citizens, the deportees were 19 citizens.
• From thousands of citizens whose ID’s were withdrawn, only 78 were returned back.

The Israeli insurance institution tries to deprive Palestinians from Jerusalem of their citizenship through depriving them of services on the pretext that they live outside the municipality borders. Hundreds of citizens are the victims of this policy and some of them face mortal dangers as a result of the lack of health insurance.

• Studies maintain that the conduct of the Israeli Ministry of Interior towards the Palestinians became harsher after the signing of the Oslo accords in 1993; so that it refused all the applications for Family Reunification.
• The ministry also issued new regulations concerning husbands of women from Jerusalem and implemented a new program for the right of residency through implementing the concept of "place of living" and started the policy of withdrawing ID’s.

• The study stressed the lack of clear Palestinian plans or instruments to face up to these Israeli policies and explained that there are only individual attempts and efforts, which is not enough.

• The study revealed the difference in the treatment of citizens according to the nationality and race of the applicant: The problems in the offices of the ministry in Eastern Jerusalem are not found in the offices in West Jerusalem although they both pertain to the same Ministry.
• About 150 to 300 citizens go to the Ministry of interior in East Jerusalem everyday, but only 40 to 50 of them manage to get into the building: they start to queue at midnight.
• Some of them pay to buy a place in the queue; this allowed some persons to get places in front of the line and then to sell them to others for 150-200 NIS. They do it everyday as a profession.
• Most of the applicants are husbands and wives applying for Family Reunification, but there is no special department for the completion of documents as is the case in the office in West Jerusalem.

Informed sources affirm that groups of settlers are getting ready secretly to settle on the lands of Abu Dis and that they have been carrying out different activities in order to settle on lands under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Civil Authorities in the mentioned town.

• These preparations go side by side with the plans of the municipality of Jerusalem concerning the constructing of a settlers neighborhood on part of Abu Dis near Al Quds University.
• The local Committee for planning in Jerusalem verified the construction of a cable railroad in the park of the High Commissioner Palace on Mount Al Mukaber in Jerusalem; the project also includes the building of three train stations along the park containing commercial buildings. The one-kilometer long railroad begins in the Western side of Shofer Park and ends in the park they intend to create near the UN seat. The three stations are to be constructed on eight dunums: five dunums for the first, two for the second and one dunum for the third. The project also includes the building of a 135 meter high watchtower near the antennas of the UN and will contain a center for visitors and a restaurant with a two hundreds visitors capacity.
• Israel plans to construct a new Jewish settlers neighborhood on the Southern hills of the settlement of Gilo near the Tunnel Street on the road to Bethlehem.
• The Tender Committee attached to the Municipality of Jerusalem decided to build an elementary school for the settlers in Jabel Abu Ghneim

• There is an Israeli expansion plan for building a new Jewish settlement on the lands of a Palestinian village near the Southern borders of occupied Arab Jerusalem. This plan aims at building a Jewish neighborhood on lands belonging to Al Walajeh, South of East Jerusalem, containing five thousand housing units. This new settlers neighborhood will be built on 1200 dunums, which amount to one quarter of the lands of Al Walajeh.

Note that media resources mentioned that the Israeli government decided to suspend the plan to building the settlement neighborhood on the land of the village of Al Walajeh – half of which Israel had annexed half in 1967- but these news have not been officially confirmed.

• Suspension of the construction works in the Har Gilo settlement project in the South of Jerusalem.

• The extremist Jewish groups agreed lately to intensify their efforts aiming at rebuilding the so-called "Temple of Solomon" in the Holy city.
• Six right wing extremist Jewish groups are intensifying their activities in the attempt to impose the Israeli domination on the Holy sanctuary in Jerusalem, to established the so called 'Third Temple".
• These groups are raising funds to build the "Third Temple" and to finance its preliminary activities.

A contest will be organized between the engineers making designs of the Sanctuary.

• In its first attempt to number the illegal buildings in East Jerusalem, the Israeli Ministry of Interior asserted that more than 20 thousand illegal houses were built in East Jerusalem.
• The Municipality of Jerusalem issued, in 1999, (141) demolition resolutions, 17 of which were carried out.
• A house in Wadi Kaddum in Eastern Jerusalem was pulled down on March 8^th, 2000, under the pretext that it was not legal.
• Six houses in the North-West of Jerusalem are threatened with demolition.