An American Skeptic

Israel Buys Time to Absorb East Jerusalem

By Frank Collins

The Israelis have gained time by signing the Oslo agreement to squeeze Palestinian inhabitants out of East Jerusalem and into the West Bank and elsewhere. The technique, which they have accelerated, is simple: rush the building of heavily subsidized and segregated settlements for Jews only, while delaying the building of housing for non-Jews and demolishing housing already occupied by Palestinians.

The Oslo agreement postpones for at least two years any negotiations on the status of East Jerusalem. If this decision is left unchallenged, there will be little left to negotiate by the time meetings on East Jerusalem are convened. And because of the crucial position of East Jerusalem in the life of the West Bank, there can be no viable settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict without an early resolution of the Jerusalem question.

From the very start, the Israelis indicated that their program for East Jerusalem was quite different from their less definite plans for the remainder of the occupied territories. Almost immediately following the 1967 conquest of the West Bank, the Israeli government tripled the area of East Jerusalem by extending the city limits deep into the West Bank. Then, in 1980, the Knesset passed the Basic Law declaring Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel and annexing the extended East Jerusalem area to the state of Israel. Apart from Israel itself, no nation has recognized its annexation of East Jerusalem.

The fighting had hardly ceased in 1967 before bulldozers began the demolition of 135 homes in the Moroccan quarter of the walled Old City. Successive waves of evictions followed, expanding the Jewish quarter to four times its original area. Ever since then, evictions have continued intermittently all over the Old City. To date, 5,000 Palestinians have been dispossessed.

The boundaries of the extended East Jerusalem municipality were drawn with the aim of seizing as much West Bank land as possible while minimizing the intake of the Palestinian population. Thus the lands of Beit Hanina, Anata, Abu dis and five other villages were absorbed into the enlarged East Jerusalem, but only small parts of two of the villages themselves were included. The excluded population of the eight villages numbers at least 80,000, while the lands separated from those villages became prime targets for early confiscation.

Other more centrally located villages such as Shu'fat, Issawiyeh, Silwan, Sur Baher and Beit Safafa were absorbed into the extended East Jerusalem, and almost all of the lands surrounding them have been confiscated for the building of Jewish settlements and Israeli institutions. (The legal grounds for seizure of privately owned Palestinian land in East Jerusalem is its "conversion to public use." This turns out to be the building of segregated Jewish housing. Christians and Muslims are not part of the public.)

The Israeli takeover of yet more Palestinian land was accomplished at a single stroke recently by the issuance of master plans for the various East Jerusalem neighborhoods. As is the usual Israeli government practice, the local Palestinian residents were not informed about the master plans although they had been in preparation for 10 years. Recently built houses and other buildings lying outside the master plans' new village boundaries may become subject to demolition orders.

"Green zones" also are included in village areas. These "green zones" are areas where building on privately owned Palestinian land is prohibited. "Green zones" are no barrier to the building of Jewish settlements, however. The Jerusalem municipality simply abolishes the "green zone."

The village of Shu'fat on the road to Ramallah illustrates the operation of the master plan. Shu'fat's land was reduced considerably from its 1967 area by successive confiscations for the building of the adjoining Jewish settlements of French Hill, Rarnot Eshkol, Ma'aleh Dafna and Pisgat Ze'ev. Now, under the master plan, one quarter of the remaining village has become a "green zone." Meanwhile, northwest of Shu'fat, construction has begun on a new settlement, Rehkes Shufat, intended for Canadian Orthodox Jews, further hemming in the Palestinian village.

Such tactics closely resemble those used in land confiscations in the West Bank. Individual landowners are given 60 days to file objections. Collective objections by the villages are not possible, there being no competent village authorities to file them. In practice, few objections are filed because few landowners have the funds to hire lawyers for expensive and hopeless litigation.

Consequently, the master plan for Jerusalem will be pursued without substantial alterations. It sets aside at least 56 percent of the extended area of East Jerusalem for Jewish settlements and Israeli institutions.

Sept. 13 halted new land confiscations. It seems clear that the Israeli government has resolved to convert East Jerusalem into a giant Jewish settlement to support its claim to all Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

As the result of these strenuous efforts to Judaize East Jerusalem, the Jewish population of 152,000 already slightly exceeds the combined Muslim and Christian population of 150,000.

According to the Jerusalem municipality, another heavily subsidized 18,000 housing units are planned, designed to house 70,000 additional Jewish settlers. By contrast, the Israeli Ministry of the Interior has yet to license the building of 7,500 unsubsidized units for Palestinians on Palestinian land, as requested last year by the municipality. A 1981 municipality request for the licensing of 18,000 units of housing for Palestinians has lain dormant all these years, receiving no response whatsoever from the ministry.

Beyond being denied the licensing and housing subsidies which are freely available to Israeli Jews, the Palestinians who remain in East Jerusalem are subject to further aggravated discrimination. Jerusalem's Palestinian population pays 26 percent of the total cost of municipal services, but receives just 5 percent of these services. In addition, Palestinians are placed in the higher tax brackets in spite of their much lower incomes compared to Jerusalem's Jewish residents. By contrast, Jerusalem's Jewish settlers are exempted from the payment of municipal property taxes for five years, and afterwards are liable only at a reduced rate. Said the head of one Palestinian family faced with eviction from his present apartment because of the sale of the building, and discouraged by the high prices of the limited housing open to Palestinians, "I don't see how we can possibly afford to stay in Jerusalem."

Since East Jerusalem is the heart of the West Bank, the Israeli isolation of the occupied territories from the city since March 31 of this year has devastated Palestinian life in both. Palestinian business activity has been reduced by 80 percent.

Geographically, the traffic arteries radiating out from Jerusalem to Nablus in the north, Hebron in the south and Jericho in the east all pass through East Jerusalem. The northern and southern regions of the West Bank are thus isolated from each other, as well as from East Jerusalem. Even for the minority of Palestinians who carry valid permits issued by the Israeli authorities to enter Jerusalem, the 10-mile drive between Bethlehem and Ramallah now requires an additional hour or more because of delays at army checkpoints. Trucks are further delayed for close inspections of the goods and equipment they are carrying.

There are clear indications that Israeli authorities intend to ban Palestinian travel through East Jerusalem permanently. For example, the narrow, tortuous and dangerous Valley of Fire bypass road, east of East Jerusalem, is being repaired in order to open it to travel.

It is surprising that the Palestine Liberation Organization did not make the reopening of the West Bank a condition for its signing of the Oslo agreement. Since the closure of East Jerusalem is nothing less than the decapitation of the West Bank, PLO acceptance of this agreement could turn out to be the signing away of East Jerusalem for good unless its status is given top priority in the ongoing negotiations with Israel.

Frank Collins is a regular contributor to the Washington Report.