http://www.jqf-jerusalem.org/journal/1998/jqf1/politics.html
Jerusalem Quarterly File
Issue 1, 1998
Institute of Jerusalem Studies
Returning to the Source: The Politics of Housing in East Jerusalem
By Graham Usher
With the impasse in the peace process, there are signs that the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict is returning to its source - which is less a
struggle over the status of a future Palestinian polity than over the
ownership and control of land. This war of position is being fought out
throughout the Occupied Territories, but especially in East Jerusalem.
On the one hand, the Israeli government has long term plans to expand the
eight Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem by 22,000 housing units. (These
are apart from the 6,500 units - housing some 32,000 new settlers - slated
to be built for the Har Homa settlement at Jabal Abu Ghnaim). On the other
hand, Palestinians are resorting to intifada-like tactics, such as a revival
of commercial and general strikes to protest Israeli actions in the city.
Less publicly the 170,000 or so Palestinians living in East Jerusalem are
engaging in what the Israeli attorney, Daniel Seidemann, has coined a "quiet
building boom" across the city's 19 Palestinian villages. The difference is
that while the settlement expansions enjoy the sanction of the Israeli
authorities, Palestinian construction, almost universally, is "illegal."
In May of 1997, Jerusalem's Likud mayor, Ehud Olmert, declared a moratorium
on the demolition of "illegal" Palestinian constructions in East Jerusalem
until October. Prior to this the municipality had been demolishing
Palestinian houses in East Jerusalem at an average of 50 a year. The freeze
came less from a change of policy than under pressure from Israel's General
Security Service (GSS), wary that a spate of housing demolitions in East
Jerusalem would spark protests akin to those that followed the Western wall
tunnel opening in September 1996.
The moratorium has been seized on by Palestinians in East Jerusalem to
address their chronic housing needs. "The Palestinians sense that they can
now build without getting a demolition order or at least without an order
being implemented," says Seidemann. The result is the construction of
hundreds of new houses, floors and extensions throughout East Jerusalem, and
especially in Palestinian villages like Isawiyya, annexed to Jerusalem by
Israel after the 1967 war. Tucked in between the Jewish settlement of French
Hill and the Hebrew University, Isawiyya is home to around 7,000
Palestinians. It is also a graphic illustration of Israel's discriminatory
land policies towards Palestinians in East Jerusalem.
Before the 1967 war, Palestinians in Isawiyya owned 10,000 dunam of land.
After the occupation, Israel annexed 3,000 dunam, declaring the remaining
7,000 dunam to be outside "municipal Jerusalem" and inside the West Bank. In
the years since, Israel has expropriated a further 1,000 dunam for the
French Hill settlement and redrawn Isawiyya's borders so that the village
now covers no more than 660 dunam. Of these, Palestinians are legally
entitled to use 120 dunam for residential construction. Thus, "In the space
of 30 years," says ex-Jerusalem municipality councilor, Sarah Kaminker,
"Palestinians in Isawiyya have seen their land shrivel from 30,000 dunam to
120 dunam."
Coupled with a rising birth rate, the result of this squeeze on Palestinian
living space has been massive overcrowding and worsening housing conditions.
A random visit to a home in Isawiyya will find eight people living in one
room, including grandparents, parents and children. Throughout the
Palestinian villages in East Jerusalem, the average density is 6.8 persons
per housing unit compared to 3.3 persons per unit in the settlements.
Should Palestinians try to use lawful means to build houses, they will have
to navigate "a maze of legal, economic and bureaucratic obstacles," says
Seidemann. A building permit from the municipality can cost $20,000 and take
up to five years to be authorized. Even when all the financial and
administrative procedures are observed, the municipality is in no hurry to
issue permits to Palestinians. Last year - says member of the Palestinian
Housing Committee, Khalil Tufakji - 108 building permits were issued for the
entire Palestinian population of East Jerusalem. Almost ten times this
number was issued to the Jewish population, says Seidemann.
The undeclared aim of these policies is to drive out Palestinians from East
Jerusalem or, as the municipality would have it, to maintain Jerusalem's
overall "demographic balance" of being 72 per cent Jewish and 28 per cent
Palestinian. The sole succor Palestinians have is that the policies are not
working.
In 1996, Israel's Interior Ministry chose to "reinterpret" the law governing
Palestinian residency rights in East Jerusalem. In the past, East
Jerusalem's Palestinians could lose their residency status if they lived
outside the city for seven or more years or took a foreign passport. Under
the new interpretation, residency can be revoked if Palestinians fail to
produce evidence that "their center of life" is within Jerusalem's municipal
borders. The result is that 1,047 Palestinians from East Jerusalem, but now
living in the West Bank or elsewhere, have lost their residency status over
the last two years.
But the measure has also produced a massive wave of Palestinians returning
to East Jerusalem from the West Bank and Gaza to ensure their residency
rights. "The policy has clearly backfired," says Seidemann. "The Israeli
authorities have discovered that for the satisfaction of depriving 500
Palestinians of their residency in East Jerusalem, they are getting 5,000
Palestinians returning to their homes." It is largely these "returning
Palestinians," say Palestinians from East Jerusalem, who are propelling the
current "illegal" building boom.
The Israeli press alleges that the building is being financed by the
Palestinian Authority. Palestinians in Isawiyya wish it were true. Rather,
they say, the illegal building in East Jerusalem is what it appears - a
spontaneous, grassroots movement that has grown in response to a major
housing crisis. But the movement clearly has a political dimension, admits
Muhammad Mahmud, a Palestinian from Isawiyya. "We have learned from the
Israelis," he says. "They gained control of East Jerusalem by creating facts
on the ground. If Palestinians are to get it back, we, too must create facts
on the ground."
Graham Usher is the Jerusalem-based correspondent for the Economist (London)
and Al-Ahram Weekly (Cairo). He is the author of Palestine in Crisis. The
Struggle for Peace and Independence after Oslo. (London: Pluto Press, 1995).
