New Jewish Settlements in Jerusalem Destroying Fragile Oslo Accords

by Stephen Sosebee

The recent Israeli decision to build more settlements on Arab land in occupied Jerusalem has again threatened to destroy the fragile peace in the holy land. While Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s effort to renegotiate on Hebron nearly ended the Oslo accords early this year, and the opening of a tunnel resulted in a three-day mini-war in September, the growing confrontation over Arab Jerusalem is much more serious. It not only unites all Palestinians, but also the entire Arab and Muslim worlds.

Israel’s most recent plan to alter the status of Arab Jerusalem is to build 6,500 housing units in the Har Homa housing project in a heavily wooded Arab area captured in 1967. The plan is eventually to expand the settlement to cut off Bethlehem from Palestinian villages in south Jerusalem.

“It is not only a violation of international law, but also violates the Oslo accords,” explains Fathi Ghanem, a human rights worker in Ramallah. “It was agreed upon in Oslo that there will be no unilateral measures taken until the final status negotiations are completed. We have not even started these talks yet.” Final status negotiations were postponed until mid-March of this year after being delayed following the bus bombs in April 1996, and the election of a right-wing government in Israel on May 31 of that year.

While some claim that hard-line policies by Netanyahu are to divert attention away from growing scandal and corruption charges against him and his cabinet, it makes little difference to the Palestinians why Israel is pushing Oslo closer to a violent demise. “Palestinians will not surrender our land in Jerusalem without protest,” says Hanan Ibrahim, a mother of seven in Al-Amari refugee camp in Ramallah. “Our children in the camps are taught to defend Jerusalem and fight for Palestine.”

The secretary-general of the Palestinian Cabinet, Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, called Jerusalem a ball of fire that can “explode…and burn all other things.” Such rhetoric came at a time when the Palestinian Authority was embarrassed by reports in the Israeli press that a deal had been struck between Netanyahu and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat not to protest over Har Homa in return for a greater Israeli withdrawal, freeing between 2 and 10 percent of the West Bank, in early March. That happened at a time when the PA already was under pressure from opposition factions for negotiating with Israel while Palestine’s land and rights in its most sacred city were being undermined. Hamas labeled as “very dangerous” Israel’s decision to build homes for Jews in East Jerusalem. “The Palestinian people feel they have a knife on their hearts and they will want to express their pain with strong demonstrations,” predicted Hamas spokesman Ibrahim Ghosheh in Amman, Jordan.

“The September clashes were a wedding compared to our response over Jerusalem,” promised George Shomaly, from Bethlehem, who participated in a nonviolent march from Beit Sahour on Feb. 27. “Christians and Muslims are united as Palestinians when it comes to Jerusalem. We must have our own state with East Jerusalem as our capital. Anything less will not bring a final peace.”

On March 3, Palestinians throughout the territories observed a general strike to protest Har Homa. Arafat, meanwhile, had traveled to Washington seeking U.S. support for the Palestinian position that unilateral acts by any side prior to final-status talks are a violation of Oslo. There is little hope, however, that the Clinton administration will strongly support the Palestinian position.

Measures by the Likud government to build Jewish housing in Arab areas came at a time when the Netanyahu administration was imposing harassing measures on Arab residents of Jerusalem. Clearly, Israel was seeking to settle the issue of Jerusalem on the ground rather than through compromise at the negotiating table. These new measures included an increase in violence against the Palestinians.

In February, Israeli troops also violently removed two families of the Jahalin bedouin tribe to make way for an expansion of the Ma’aleh Adumin settlement in East Jerusalem. Members of the tribe had been living just outside Jerusalem since they were evicted from the Negev desert in 1950. A number of homes and other property were destroyed during the forced eviction.

On Feb. 25, a day before a three-hour meeting and final decision on the Har Homa project by the Netanyahu government, an Israeli undercover unit (known also as a death squad), shot dead 57-year-old Mohamad Abad al-Aziz Hilu in the village of Hizme just north of Jerusalem. Three others were injured in what appeared to be an Israeli effort to take the offensive on possible demonstrations against Har Homa. Netanyahu also warned Arafat that future redeployment would be “delayed” if there was any Palestinian “violence” over Har Homa. Such violence “would be a grave mistake and endanger the peace process,” said the Israeli prime minister following his cabinet’s decision.

Although the IDF sent hundreds of soldiers into the West Bank to forestall protests over Har Homa, “Deploying thousands of Israeli soldiers cannot stop Palestinians from taking to the streets to defend their existence and future on this land,” said Faisal Husseini, the de facto PA representative for Jerusalem and head of the Orient House. According to Husseini, 34 percent of Arab Jerusalem already is under direct Israeli control in the form of settlements.

In late January, the Israeli Ministerial Committee for Jerusalem Affairs, which is headed by Netanyahu, agreed to spend $200 million over the next three years on Jewish housing in Arab Jerusalem. They also promised to release $43 million for 3,000 Arab new housing units to be built in Jerusalem. While the Western media were quick to include this in their Har Homa reports, the fact is that the Israeli government will not actually build Arab homes at all. Peace Now in Israel labeled Netanyahu’s promise to build Arab housing a “lie.”

In other efforts to consolidate Israeli control over Arab East Jerusalem, Israeli security is looking at ways to move governmental buildings into Arab areas, including the National Security College currently located in Tel Aviv. Israeli efforts to reduce the Arab population in Jerusalem have been going on since its capture in 1967.

In January, the Israeli Interior Ministry announced that Arab Jerusalemites wanting to apply for a new identity card must now adhere to stringent documentation requirements previously applied only to those who were requesting family reunification.

“Roughly 50 percent of Jerusalem’s Palestinians are facing the loss of their residency rights under Israel’s current policy of denying permanent residency to those who cannot prove that they were living within Jerusalem’s boundaries in 1967,” says a worried Faisal Husseini. “We suffer from extremely overcrowded conditions but still pay Israeli taxes. Tens of thousands more living in Jerusalem’s surrounding areas have had their residency invalidated. We are heading for a big explosion if these policies continue.”

Continue they will because there is little hope that the current Israeli government will compromise over Arab Jerusalem for the sake of a lasting peace in the Middle East. While European countries have warned Israel not to make unilateral moves before the final status talks, the U.S. seemingly is unwilling to pressure Israel enough to stop settlements. U.S. officials are more concerned with the Palestinian response to Har Homa and warned Arafat not to encourage demonstrations. “We do not want to see violence occur,” said Edward Abington, the U.S. consul general in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is an issue that unites passions throughout the Arab and Muslim world and may finally galvanize meaningful support among traditionally weaker backers of the Palestinians. However, it will take more than King Hussein and a helicopter this time to save Oslo if Israeli measures to determine unilaterally the final status of Jerusalem by settling its Jewish citizens on occupied Arab land continue. Some Israeli peaceniks hope that pending corruption charges will bring down the Netanyahu government, and a more realistic and reasonable government seeking a lasting peace and compromise with the Palestinians will come to power in Israel. Otherwise, Oslo’s greatest test, in the form of the Har Homa project, has arrived.