JERUSALEM
FACTS & FIGURES

The following facts and figures (as of 1993/94) on Israeli activities concerning Jerusalem, its status and its character, have to be seen in the context of the general Israeli policy towards Jerusalem which has been to separate it from the rest of the West Bank. According to the Declaration of Principles signed between the PLO and Israel in September 1993, Jerusalem is one of the remaining issues that will be negotiated in the final phase. The Israeli government is constantly violating its commitment by stressing that Jerusalem will remain undivided under Israeli control and be the eternal capital of Israel. Thus, Rabin does not leave anything to negotiate about Jerusalem. To view the current status of annexation as final and to ignore the importance of Jerusalem for Palestinians not only violates the DoP but also contradicts international law and various UN resolutions. One should keep in mind that there will be no peace without a solution for Jerusalem.

Historical View: The Changing Face of Jerusalem

The general belief that West Jerusalem had been Jewish when the city was divided in 1948, ignores the reality on the ground. In the course of an Israeli campaign to "clean" their part of the city, some 64,ooo-80,000 Palestinians were forcibly driven out of West Jerusalem including four villages (Lifta, Deir Yassin, Ein Kerem, al-Malha) in its immediate vicinity. Properties left were declared "absentee property". Today, for Example, the Knesset, some ministries, and the Sonesta and Hilton Hotels are built on former Lifta land. The Hadassah Hospital as well as Yad Vashem were erected on land belonging to Palestinians from Ein Kerem. The Israeli Independence Park was erected on a Moslem cemetery of the former Mamillan neighborhood. The Stadium and the Jerusalem Mall are built on al-Malha land. In 1948, 40% of the property of West Jerusalem belonged to Palestinians, 34% to the Waqf, Churches and the Government of Palestine, and only 26% belonged to Jews.

Since 1967, and despite UN resolutions condemning Israeli changes to the city, control of Jerusalem has been the cornerstone of Israeli policy in Palestinian territory. The strategy of `Judaization` has involved colonization of the Old City, its immediate and extended surroundings, and building suburbs with new road links in order to heavily populate the metropolitan area of annexed East Jerusalem.

Since 1967, an estimated 50,000 Jerusalem Palestinians (not including their relatives and those residents who were not counted in the 1967 census or who "lost" their Jerusalem residency rights as a result of Israeli procedures) have been forcibly evicted form their houses and driven outside the municipal boundaries or outside the country. Alone in the Old City, more than 6,000 Palestinian were evicted. Israeli bulldozers leveled 135 Palestinian houses to create the plaza in front of the Western Wall, leaving more than 600 families homeless.

In 1967, the Knesset annexed 70,000 dunums of East Jerusalem and surrounding village land to the state of Israel's territory (added to the 38,000 dunums of West Jerusalem at that time). Today, the area of Jerusalem is 123,000 dunums.

Israeli law dispossesses all non-Jerusalem Palestinians of their property in annexed Jerusalem. Even if he lives just outside the annexed zone, a Palestinian is classified as "absentee" and his property is expropriated.

Since 1967, 86,5% of East Jerusalem has been removed from Palestinian control and use: 34% of the land of East Jerusalem has been expropriated for the building of Jewish settlements (approx. 7.250 acres); 8,5% has been designated for expropriation for expanding these settlements; 44% is "green area" on which it is not allowed to build. Only about 13% of the land remains for the Arab neighborhoods.

Settlers have put the legal construction of "absentee property" to their use most effectively, particularly under the Likud administration which gave settlers preference in the allocation of houses declared to be state property under the "absentee" classification.

Since 1967, Only around 12% of all new construction has taken place for Palestinians in the Arab sector. This gives an annual construction ratio of 2,200 apartments for Israelis to only 230 for Palestinians.

Jerusalem: Facts of Today

Israel has enforced a strict quota on Palestinian construction in East Jerusalem, allowing them to build on only 13% of the area and only with prior permission from the Israeli Authorities of the West Jerusalem Municipality (WJM). That translates into an average of 3.5 meters of land per Palestinian resident in East Jerusalem. The remaining 87% is either used for Jewish settlement or remains an area where construction is prohibited (see above)79% of East Jerusalem is already under direct Israeli control.

On the expropriated land, 60,000 housing units were built for Jews and not one Palestinians.

Restricting Palestinian construction aims at maintaining the city's percentage of Palestinian residents at around 26-28%, a limitation which was adopted by the government's ministerial committee in 1973. It has ensured that today, Palestinians amount to no more of the city's population than they did in 1967 (25.8% in 1967, 28% in 1995).

Another discriminatory limitation for Palestinians is that the building height in Jewish neighborhoods is allowed to be 8 storeys high while in Palestinian areas this may not exceed 2 storeys.

70,000 Jewish settler families in East Jerusalem benefited from subsidized/public housing whereas only 555 Palestinian families did.

Due to the lack of available land to build on and the fact that obtaining building permits in East Jerusalem is almost impossible, many Palestinians are forced to build their houses without a lines and are thus subject to house demolition. Although only some of these houses were actually (and arbitrarily) destroyed (since the beginning of the Intifada more than 200) hundreds of families live under threat of demolition. Demolitions of Palestinian homes are currently carried out at a rate of about 50 per year. This and the restrictive measures concerning Palestinian building has forced to date more than 21,000 families to live in caves, tents or overcrowded and inadequate conditions.

To secure Israeli sovereignty over the whole Jerusalem region through demographic superiority, Israel began to populate within the annexed area in 1967 and began building major urban Jewish-only settlements form the mid-70s on. Each of the sizable areas of former pasture land annexed is now the site of a dense Jewish suburb. These areas from two rings around the city, isolating Arab East Jerusalem and cutting the West Bank in half: the inner ring is composed of 10 settlements in East Jerusalem while the outer ring consists of 20 settlements ("Greater Jerusalem") reaching into the West Bank. Road No. 1, the most dramatic addition to the East Jerusalem landscape in 1992-93, serves to link the rapidly expanding northern and eastern suburban settlements directly to central Jerusalem.

Besides the direct impact of Israeli practices in Jerusalem, the government initiated the "Greater Jerusalem" plan, a concept rather more political than geographical, which is Israel's vision of a metropolitan Jerusalem stretching from Ramallah (north) to Hebron Olmert announced before the elections that he would expand the city "to the east, not the west". The planned massive expansion of Jewish settlements implies the expropriation of more Palestinian land and demolition of Palestinian property and implies a severe escalation of the present housing crisis in East Jerusalem.

The settlement policy in and around Jerusalem has led to a Jewish majority even in the east part of the city with 150-160,000 Jewish settlers and 156-160,000 Palestinians currently in the area. More than 2,300 settlers live within the Old City (and more than 25,000 Palestinians). If the settlements in Jerusalem's "outskirts" (according to the concept of "Greater Jerusalem") are counted as well, there are an additional 38,400 settlers and the total number exceeds 200,000. The Israeli government provides generous inceto encourage Jews to live in East Jerusalem by exempting them from municipal tax for five years followed by a reduced tax rate.

The Israeli settlers who live in East Jerusalem comprise a startling 76% of the total increase in Jerusalem's Jewish population since 1967. Today, some 330,000 Israelis live in West Jerusalem.

From the beginning of the occupation, Israeli authorities and the WJM placed official institutions such as civil courts, police headquarters and some ministries in East Jerusalem, particularly in Sheikh Jarrah, while its planning policy limited Palestinian building in the city center and thus forced many institutions and businesses into peripheral areas and suburbs.

Jerusalem's Palestinian population pay 26% of the total cost of municipality services but the WJM spends only an average of 5% of its budget in Arab East Jerusalem.

Since most Palestinians refuse to pay arnona tax, the WJM has filed or prepared 14,000 lawsuits against Palestinians in East Jerusalem for non-payment and has launched a campaign to seize a number of stores and confiscate goods from businesses and houses which will be held compounded until payment.

40% of Palestinian houses in Jerusalem do not have a sewage network, and half of the water network needs replacing. Maintenance work like garbage collection, parks, gardens, street light installation and repair are almost non-existent in East Jerusalem.

From the beginning of the occupation, Israeli authorities have denied family reunification for husbands of female Jerusalemites if the husband is from the West Bank or Gaza Strip. These female residents also face huge problems in registering their children who are supposed to be registered with their father. As a consequence, there are hundreds of cases of "unregistered" children who face serious problems obtaining education, health care etc.

In March 1993, Israel imposed a closure on the West Bank and Gaza denying Palestinians entrance to Israel, access to Jerusalem and free movement between the southern and northern part of the West Bank. The closure is a grave violation of the rights of the Palestinian people and constitutes the collective punishment of some 1.8 million people. This policy contravenes Israel's obligation under international law, especially Section 43 of the Hague Regulations which requires Israel to provide for the welfare and orderly life of the residents of the Occupied Territories. The closure deprives thousands of people form reaching their workplaces (according to Israel's CBS approx. 116,000 Palestinians form the Occupied Territories worked in Israel before the closure), thus depriving them of their income, medical, educational and economic services as well as from reaching religious sites thus denying their right to freedom of worship. On several occasions, such as Jewish holidays, or after military attacks against Israeli targets, the Israeli government institutes a complete closure of the Occupied Territories canceling all existing permits for entering Jerusalem or Israel under the pretext of needed security guarantees.

The Declaration of Principles on Interim the Self-Government Arrangements (DoP), signed by the PLO and Israel in September 1993, states that the permanent status negotiations will commence not later than the beginning of the third year of the interim period and will cover all remaining issues including Jerusalem. Article V, 4 reads: "The two parties agree that the outcome of the permanent status negotiations should not be prejudiced or preempted by agreements reached for the interim period." Despite this and notwithstanding the declared change in national priorities of the Rabin administration, the Israeli government has continued its policy of land confiscation, house demolitions and has only recently (22) January 1995) decided to allow the continuation of settlements expansion, including East Jerusalem.

On December 26, 1994, the Knesset passed the final reading of the "Gaza-Jericho Agreement Implementation Law (Limiting of Activities)" by a vote of 56 to 6 with 32 abstentions. The law prohibits Palestinian political activities in East Jerusalem and therefore violates the DoP. Any institution - local or foreign - which includes the PLO must have Israeli permission to set up an office. This violates the DoP and contradicts the secret letter of assurances set by Foreign Minister Peres to the Norwegian foreign Minister Holst (October 11, 1993) in which Peres confirmed the "great importance" of Palestinian institutions in East Jerusalem saying "we will not hamper their activity".

Between November 1967 and February 1995, 64,870 housing compilations (=88%, = 122,367 housing units) were built for Jews/in Jewish neighborhoods, while in the same period, only 8,890 housing completions (=12%, = 21,490 housing units) were built for Palestinians /in Palestinian neighborhoods.

In 1993, a total of 2,720 housing units were built in Jerusalem, only 3,8% or 103 housing units of which in Palestinian neighborhoods.

As of February 1995, there were 20,900 residential units in Palestinian neighborhoods for ca. 156,000 Palestinians residing in East Jerusalem, while 160,000 Jewish settlers had 38,500 residential units - almost twice as much - at their disposal.

Housing density (average): Palestinians: 2.2 persons/room (32.3% more than 3 persons/room);

Jews: : 1.1 persons/room.

Source: PASSIA - Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs