Ethnic Cleansing in Jerusalem, Israeli Style
By Paul Findley
Israeli authorities are carrying out a
process in East Jerusalem that accurately be described as ethnic
cleansing. It is plainly geared to uproot Palestinians from an
area that historically has been known as Arab East Jerusalem and
convert it into an integral, permanent part of the capital of the
Jewish state.
The scandalous process is recognized and
deplored by the major news media in Britain and elsewhere and
even by some newspapers in Israel, but it is predictably ignored
in the United States. Still worse, Washington provides the
financial, political and military support without which the
cleansing could not go forward.
B'Tselem, a private organization of
Israelis concerned about human rights, calls it "a policy of
quiet deportation." In its report, subtitled
Revocation
of Residency of East Jerusalem Palestinians,
the group notes that "perhaps thousands of people have been
forced to leave" and warns that the worst is still to come.
The squeeze is not new; it has been
underway for years, first under Labor Party leadership,
intensified by the Likud Party when Menachem Begin became prime
minister, and hardened recently in two major steps, first by the
government of Labor's Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres, then by
their Likud successor, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
The first stage was a slow,
little-noticed process of attrition, during which Jewish
settlements that now ring East Jerusalem were built. The next was
tightening the noose against Palestinians through two measures:
control of entry into the city and restriction of construction
permits.
For years, Israel has virtually
prohibited Palestinians from remodeling old housing or
constructing new. Only a handful of building permits-about 150 a
year- are divided among the 155,000 Palestinians who until
recently constituted the majority population. More than 20,000
families are virtually homeless.
At the same time, Palestinians who leave
east Jerusalem for any reason can expect harassment when they
attempt to return. Some of them, even those who have lived in
Jerusalem all their lives, are denied re-entry.
Those who left for holidays sometimes
find it impossible to return. Families are divided, some members
are able to stay in East Jerusalem and others kept out.
Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem are
exempt from municipal taxes for five years and then benefit from
a reduced rate. Because of this bias, Palestinians living there
pay taxes that are five times higher than many settlers.
The effect of these demographic pincers
is rising anger, despair, and violence-or, as Israeli officials
always characterize it, "terrorism."
The real terrorism is inflicted on the
Palestinians, who live in constant fear of bulldozers leveling
their homes without anything remotely resembling due process,
eviction on the pretext that home repairs were made without
proper permits, or confiscation for road construction or other
public purposes.
And the latest form of terrorism is the
voiding of Palestinian identity cards. Before Shimon Peres left
the office of prime minister, he had already begun the use of
identity cards-or lack thereof-as the main instrument of
deportation from East Jerusalem. Under Netanyahu, the instrument
has become razor sharp. It now threatens to sever much of the
remaining population of Palestinians from their homelands.
The Israeli Interior Ministry says that
all identity cards must be renewed by August of this year, a
deadline that will give officials almost unlimited opportunity to
refuse renewal and force Palestinians on short notice to move
elsewhere in the West Bank.
Patrick Cookburn of the Independent
a respected London newspaper, writes, "In two months' time,
in a move likely to have more effect on the fate of Jerusalem
than the building of a Jewish settlement at Jabal Abu Ghneim,
Israel will start a meticulous examination of the right of every
Palestinian resident to remain in the city. Those who are not
issued the coveted Jerusalem identity card will have 15 days to
leave."
The independent
recites grim experiences that are likely to be replicated
thousands of times in the next few weeks. For example: "Olga
Matri Hana Yoaqim, 63, who has seven children, was born in
Bethlehem but has lived in [Jerusalem] with her husband since
1952. 'In September 1995 I went to replace my identity card at
the Interior Ministry office in East Jerusalem,' she aid. The
clerk cut up her card and told her to come back in two weeks.
When Mrs. Yoaqim returned, the clerk told her, 'You don't have an
identity card. Co to the West Bank.'
"Her husband went back to the
ministry 20 times but was refused. Mrs. Yoaqim said, 'I suffer
from diabetes and have kidney problems. When I go to a clinic or
hospital, they want to see my identity card. Because I have none,
I can't receive treatment.'"
Even Palestinians who have moved from the
Old City to adjoining suburbs are in deep trouble. B'Tselem
reports, "Some 18 months ago, the Interior Ministry began to
revoke the residency status of persons who moved outside the
municipal borders of Jerusalem."
Palestinian residency problems began the
moment Israeli forces took control of East Jerusalem in the June
1967 war. Over 50,000 Palestinians have been denied permanent
residency rights because they were away from home in June 1967,
for whatever reason, or moved, even temporarily, to a different
location.
Young people often find their residency
rights blocked when they attempt to return from attending schools
overseas. Only Palestinians bearing proof that they, or their
parents, have resided in East Jerusalem since 1967 can move
freely to and from the city, and now even that right is in
jeopardy. The Palestinians may enter East Jerusalem only if they
receive special permits from Israeli authorities.
This policy sharply restricts religious
practice, as a practical matter blocking most Palestinians in the
West Bank and Gaza from visiting holy places in Jerusalem.
It stands as a cynical reversal of
Israel's long-proclaimed guarantee that all people will have free
access to religious places in Jerusalem. A civil rights attorney,
Eliahu Abrams, put it bluntly: " It is a true crisis in
human rights. Israel is forcibly getting rid of Palestinians not
by pulling them out by the hair, but by quiet, slow,
sophisticated deportation."
He says the "essence of the new
policy is to demand that all Palestinians who cannot give
documentary proof that they have always lived in Jerusalem must
leave. According to The Independent,
Israeli officials sometimes demand as many as 12 different
documents before a Palestinian can secure a new identity card.
Former Congressman Paul Findley (R-IL) is
the chairman of the Council for the National
Interest.
