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Palestinians of Jerusalem May 9, 2005
Under international law, Jerusalem should be the shared capital of two states, one Israeli and one Palestinian. In 1948, the Israelis occupied West Jerusalem and all Palestinian residents, Christian and Muslim, fled to East Jerusalem (which includes the Old City), the West Bank, Jordan, or beyond. Between 1948 and 1967, the people of East Jerusalem lived under Jordanian administration, like the rest of the West Bank, and received Jordanian citizenship. However, in 1967, when the Israelis occupied the rest of Jerusalem along with the West Bank, Israel had a particular interest in making sure that it held onto the whole of Jerusalem in perpetuity. Although most countries that recognize Israel refuse to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel—looking to Tel Aviv instead—Israel has traditionally, and forcefully, declared Jerusalem as its capital. Although it was land and not Palestinians that Israel wanted, the Jewish state tried to encourage East Jerusalemites (not the rest of the West Bank) to accept full Israeli identity, so that East Jerusalem would no longer be referred to as occupied land. However, Palestinians in East Jerusalem understood Israel’s strategy and the majority refused to accept Israeli citizenship. Today, East Jerusalemites are given ID cards of a different color than those of the West Bankers, meaning that technically they can work and travel inside Israeli towns and cities. Nevertheless, Jerusalemites consider themselves as part of the West Bank, and see themselves as an integral part of a new Palestinian state, if and when that materializes. Like the West Bankers, Palestinians in East Jerusalem face the dangers of home demolitions and settlement building. There are currently around 200,000 Israeli settlers in East Jerusalem, a figure that doubled during the Oslo years, when settlement building should have been frozen. Although this land was occupied in 1967, not 1948, Israel refuses to recognize Israelis living in Palestinian East Jerusalem as settlers, hoping that, gradually, the issue of Jerusalem will be dropped from the negotiations agenda. Poverty and the Wall in Jerusalem
Everyday, as I wait at the road junction, Khaled is standing there. Although he must be less than 10 years old, he has spent his whole summer holidays standing in the burning heat, with just his little baseball cap for protection. Everybody seems to know Khaled; they call out to him from the cars as they go past. He sells something different every day, from children’s toys to nightlights, to the more familiar trade of chewing gum and boxes of tissues. I feel a bit sorry for the other kids, a little older than Khaled, who do not have such cute round faces and do not sell half as many things. Khaled has definitely captured the market. Khaled is from Jerusalem but he lives in one of the neighborhoods just over the checkpoint, and so his parents would not be allowed to work here. Poverty has come to Jerusalem. While, sadly, street kids and poverty are everyday sights in many parts of the world, the most frustrating thing about Palestine is that there is no need for it to be like this. The country is rich in water and agricultural resources, and Palestinians are the most educated people in the Arab world. The fact that poverty is a sad fact of life in the Jerusalem of the 21st century is a direct result of Israeli occupation, and specifically the closure and restrictions placed on an entire people. The wall, too, has come to Jerusalem, cutting neighborhoods in half, dividing students from universities, workers from their jobs, and one side of the street from another. In one company in West Jerusalem for example, it might take the Palestinian employee an hour-and-a-half to get to work, while it takes the Israeli employee who lives in a settlement one minute away, only fifteen minutes. That is assuming this is a company that still employs Palestinian residents of Jerusalem. Resources:
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