Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights

ANNUAL REPORT 2001; part 3

The right to freedom of movement

Israel has intensified its siege and closure of on East Jerusalem and increased the number of Israeli military checkpoints surrounding the city. New structural checkpoints between East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank have been erected, dirt roads have been closed, and the number of security forces increased. This policy of closure has an enormous impact on economic, social, and cultural life in the city. Checkpoints are set-up on each main road entering the city. This has closed the border between the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territories and East Jerusalem. To enter Jerusalem, Palestinians without Jerusalem ID must apply for a permit. Obtaining the permit is a lengthy, humiliating, and arbitrary process. Considerable personal documents are required. There are no published criteria for receiving permits, and there is no requirement to state reasons for denying one, nor is there any avenue of appeal for Palestinians denied permits. In 2001, Israel hardly issued entrance permits anymore for Palestinians without a Jerusalem ID card except for medical reasons and medical staff.

With the Second Intifada that began on 28 September 2000, a new wave of heavy closures has been launched. In East Jerusalem, the closure has become much stricter since the start of the Intifada. Israel's occupation forces have regularly erected military checkpoints at the entrances of Ras Khamis, Ras Al-Amud and Al-Zu'ayyem neighborhoods, and at the entrances of Anata and Shufat camps. Israel also erected three additional military checkpoints on Wadi Al-Nar road, which connects Jerusalem with the Bethlehem area.

Today, checkpoints represent exceedingly long lines, harassment, humiliation, and inhumane treatment in a variety of forms for the Palestinian people and have become a daily reality for many of them. Citizens are forced to wait long hours if they are able to pass through at all. Checkpoints prevent workers and employees from reaching their workplace, students from reaching their schools, patients from reaching hospitals, etc. Israeli Forces prevented Palestinian ambulances from passing checkpoints to reach injured Palestinians and transport them to hospitals, arrested Palestinian workers and employees. Regularly, fire is opened on civilians at the Qalandia military checkpoint.

JCSER's activities

Legal advocacy
JCSER started with the preparation of a petition against the Israeli Ministry of Defense. On 11 November 2001, it sent the first letter to the Israeli Defense Minister, Benjamin Ben-Eleizer. The letter requests the removal of checkpoints in and around Jerusalem, specifically the ones in Beit Hanina, Ras Al-Amud and Qalandia. JCSER wrote the letter on behalf of residents of these neighborhoods. The preparations for the petition will continue in 2002.

The right to own property: Land confiscation and settlement construction

Land confiscation
Since 1948, Israel has confiscated Palestinian land in Jerusalem for 'public interest'. The confiscation has partly been on an individual basis, but has also taken place on a far larger scale. After 1948, Israel confiscated all Palestinian owned land in West Jerusalem, which was 40 percent of the total area. Between 1967 and 1994, a total of 24.8 square kilometers of land (35 percent) was expropriated in East Jerusalem out of the 70.5 square kilometers annexed in 1967. 80 percent of this land was taken from the Palestinians. The Israeli authorities used most of this land for the construction of settlements for the Jewish population of Jerusalem and roads leading to these settlements (16 square kilometers). The other nine are not yet developed, but probably will be in the future for the same purposes. Israel continues to confiscate Palestinian land. It earmarked six square kilometers more in East Jerusalem for confiscation.

In 2001, land confiscations took place in four Palestinian neighborhoods, namely Beit Hanina, Beit Safafa, Shufat and Sheih Jarrah. According to the Municipality, land was confiscated for public interest, namely to build schools, public parks, the eastern ring road and to develop a railway network and to build a railway station at the French Hill junction. The Municipality is also going to demolish houses for this purpose.

In 2001, the Israeli authority sent letters for confiscation to all people who own land on the 580 dunums of East Jerusalem needed to build the ring road around the eastern part of the city. The total area of land that will be confiscation for this purpose is 1070 dunums.

Settlement and by-pass road construction
The Old City and Palestinian neighborhoods around the Old City like Silwan, Ras Al-Amud and Sheikh Jarrah are increasingly exposed to extremist Jewish settler groups, who aim to take over as much Palestinian property as possible. These settlers receive security from the Israeli authorities. The costs budgeted for settler security in 2001 was US$ 5.1 million.

Besides taking over of property by settler groups, the Municipality has planned and overseen the construction of sixteen Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem since 1967: Old City; Ramat Ashkol, Givat Hamiftar, French Hill; Hebrew University; Gilo; Neve Yacob; Ramot; East Talpiot; Malst Defna; Atarst; Pisgat Ze'ev; Pisgat Omer; Rekhes Shufat; Givat Hamatos; Har Homa.

The building and connecting of settlements from around and inside Jerusalem starts now on land for the 'Greater Jerusalem Plan', which was confiscated in the 80s. This project is called the 'Eastern Gate Project'. The Municipality will implement this project in three phases and it will include, amongst others, 2000 housing units for Jewish settlers. The Municipality approved the plan.

The Municipality built an additional 2,000 housing units in existing Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem in 2001, for example in Har Homa, Ras Al-Amud, Pisgat Ze'ev, and Ne'ev Jacov. These constructions took place without new planning schemes. For example, the master plan for Pisgat Ze'ev was approved in 1985 for 12,000 housing units. Now, Pisgat Ze'ev is being expanded by 1000 housing units annually.

There are currently several new plans for settlement construction in East Jerusalem:

Ras Al-Amud: 15 dunums for 121 housing units. This plan is approved by the Municipality and the houses are currently being built. 32 housing units have been sold so far.

Baba Az-Zahara (Old City): approval for the construction of 200 housing units, which included digging for historical sites.

Jabel al-Mukaber: 115 dunums. Approved by the Municipality.

A-Tur: 30 dunums. In process of approving.

Shufat: 15 to 17 dunums: In process of approving. The Municipality is planning to start building a commercial high tech residential area.

Silwan: 10 dunums. Not approved yet.

A-Rum: 42 dunums. Not approved yet.

Abu Dis: No further information available at this moment.

Issawiya: No further information available at this moment.

Anata: No further information available at this moment.

Furthermore, the Israeli government opened a network of bypass roads to connect these settlements. These roads isolate a large number of Palestinian villages in the eastern parts of the city. If the additional settlements on the Municipality's agenda are built, including the bypass roads to link the settlements, East Jerusalem will be completely separated from the West Bank and integrated into Israel's vision of a 'unified' city.

In 2001, the Municipality continued building the Jerusalem Ring Road, which requires the confiscation of Palestinian land and additional demolition of Palestinian homes. This ring road will include two tunnels and one bridge and will cost NIS 900 million. One tunnel will be constructed under Mount Scopus to connect Jerusalem with the settlement of Ma'ala Adumin.

JCSER's activities

JCSER did not conduct activities concerning the issue of land confiscation and settlement construction except for monitoring the developments taking place.

The right to education

There are 93 schools in East Jerusalem with a total of 51,625 pupils. These can be divided in four categories: (i) 22 Al-Waqf schools (8,042 pupils); (ii) 7 UNWRA schools (2,753 pupils); (iii) 29 Private schools (11,031 pupils); (iv) 35 Municipality or Jerusalem Education Authority schools (30,989 pupils).

Several Israeli policies and practices limit the access of Palestinian children in Jerusalem to free and compulsory education in the Jerusalem Education Authority (JEA) schools in East Jerusalem. In order for a child to be registered in school, the JEA requires proof of residency in the city. Palestinian children, whose parents have no residency status or had their residency status revoked, yet remain in the city, are often denied their right to public education.

Another factor that limits the access of Palestinian children is that the Municipal Education System in East Jerusalem suffers from a severe lack of space and facilities. The responsibility for such structures lies within the Israeli Ministry of Education, but the Ministry has not provided the necessary buildings in East Jerusalem or set out plans for such development.

The overall situation of the public Arab education system, in both budget and educational standards is insufficient. The JEA has 169 schools in West Jerusalem and 35 in East Jerusalem. However, Palestinian students comprise one-third of the school age (5-19 years) population in the city. The teaching methods are outdated and the studying environment lacks resources. The number of teaching hours per Jewish pupil or class is far greater than that per Palestinian pupil or class.

Some examples show the difference between East and West: (i) 16.6% of the budget for 2001-2002 for education was allocated for education in East Jerusalem; (ii) NIS 780 per student per year is spent in municipal school in West compared to NIS 250 per student per year in municipal schools in East Jerusalem; (iii) The number of grants given to teachers for studying is 382 percent higher in the Jewish sector; (iv) There are 75 educational psychologists in West compared to 5 in East Jerusalem; (v) There are 36 public libraries in West compared to 4 in East Jerusalem.

As a result of the growing overcrowding, the Municipality turns away children who want to register at Municipal schools. For this school year (2001 - 2002) more than 3,000 Palestinian children, who requested to study in the municipal public schools, could not be accepted. An additional unknown number of children attempted to register for school but were not even recorded in the waiting lists as the Municipality abruptly terminated all registration on 23 March 2001. This is in violation of the registration regulations. In the Jewish sector every child is accepted for free public education.

The Israeli High Court decided in August this year that there is no effective solution to the plight of more than 3,000 Jerusalem Arab children who are requesting to study in public schools, as a result of continuous neglect of the Jerusalem Municipality and the Ministry of Education.

JCSER's activities

JCSER did not conduct activities concerning the issue of education except for monitoring the developments taking place.

Click here to return.

Click here to go back to JCSER's main page.