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Peace Not Walls

Barrier Update: 7 Years After ICJ Advisory Opinion (New OCHA Report)

A new OCHA report is out that looks at the impact of the Separation Barrier on Jerusalem in the 7 years since the International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion on the Barrier. The report looks specifically at the area of East Jerusalem and those West Bank communities and households who found themselves now isolated on the Jerusalem side of the Barrier.

In its own words, “[t]his report addresses the impact of the Barrier, a main component of the multi-layered system of physical and administrative obstacles which severely constrains movement and access throughout the West Bank.”

It is broken up into 5 sections that look at:

  1. The Current Status of the Barrier
  2. Restrictions to Land and Livelihood
  3. Communities in the ‘Seam Zone’
  4. The Barrier in Jerusalem
  5. Case Studies of the Personal Impact of the Barrier

Download a pdf of the report by clicking the picture to the right.

New ME-NETs: Demolitions in Jordan Valley & Christian Call to Peace

Two new Middle East Network – Action Alerts went out at the end of June. The first addressed the issue of increased demolitions in the Jordan Valley, where over 700 people have been evicted from their homes in the first half of this year. The second touched on a letter written by 44 Christian leaders, including ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson, to President Obama to work with the international community to work towards Middle East peace.

Read the Action Alerts (pdfs) and see how you can get involved:

To read more Middle East Network Newletters, visit the Peace Not Walls – MENET page.

New UNRWA reports show economic woes in Gaza and record number of children displaced by home demolitions

An UNRWA report done on the 5th anniversary of the Gaza blockade shows that unemployment in the 2nd half of 2010 reached an unprecedented 45%, one of the highest rates in the world.  Real wages continued to decline, especially in the private sector, falling 35% since the first half of 2006.

These are disturbing trends, and the refugees, which make up two-thirds of Gaza’s 1.5 million population, were the worst hit in the period covered in this report. It is hard to understand the logic of a man-made policy which deliberately impoverishes so many and condemns hundreds of thousands of potentially productive people to a life of destitution.  – UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness

Read more     |   Read full report   |  See Peace not Walls Gaza page

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Another UNRWA report shows that a record number of children were displaced in May by Israeli eviction or demolition of Palestinian homes and families.  UNRWA has also created a new website called Demolition Watch that monitors these demolitions and evictions, and calls upon Israel to stop this practice as they claim it violates international law

Bishop Younan’s Statement of Solidarity with Algerian Church

Yesterday Bishop Younan of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land released a statement of solidarity with the church in Algeria which has been under pressure from the Algerian government to close churches. The most interesing portion of the statement for me was that it seems the Algerian government is not asking for expatriate (foreign, non-Arab) churches to be closed, just Arab Christian churches. Bishop Younan’s response touches on the long-standing history and importance of Arab Christians and the need for Freedom of Religion.

Read the full statement.

NILI Urges President Obama to Visit Jerusalem and Restart Talks

The National Interreligious Leadership Initiative for Peace in the Middle East (NILI), a high level group of religious leaders of Christians, Muslims and Jews, which includes the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, the presiding bishop of the ELCA, is urging President Obama to visit Jerusalem and re-start peace talks now.  They wrote a letter and an ad to appear this week.  The ad states:

We are Jewish, Christian and Muslim national religious leaders united in support of strong U.S. leadership for a two-state solution before it is too late. 

We urge you to visit Jerusalem and the region soon to meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to restart negotiations focused on the principles and ideas in the Israeli Peace Initiative, the earlier Arab Peace Initiative and the Geneva Accord.

We believe the United States, in coordination with the Quartet, should continue to respond carefully to the new Palestinian unity agreement and not act precipitously to cut off aid to the Palestinians. The unity government must commit itself to rejecting violence and negotiating a two-state peace agreement with Israel. 

We pledge our prayers and public support for active, fair and firm U.S. leadership for peace and we will urge Congress to support this effort.

NILI supports a two-state solution to the conflict that brings security and recognition to Israel and establishes a viable and independent state for the Palestinians—two states living side by side in peace and security—with peace agreements between Israel and all her Arab neighbors.

Download letter  |  Download ad

Palestinian President Abbas on a Palestinian State

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in an op-ed in the New York Times, talks about the importance and international legitimacy of a Palestinian state.  Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu takes issue with him and his account of history.  President Abbas does leave out the detail that the Arabs did reject the UN partition plan on the basis that it gave half of the land to the Jewish state when only a fraction of the land was owned by Jewish people.

Israel admits it covertly revoked residency rights of 140,000 Palestinians

One of the many kinds of permits that people in the West Bank need in order to travel into East Jerusalem or Israel.


May 11, 2011 – An article in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz by Akiva Elder today reveals that Israel revoked residency rights of 140,000 Palestinians who traveled abroad between 1967 and 1994 without telling the Palestinians what they were doing.  When Palestinians left, they were ordered to leave their residency cards at the border, then Israel decided that if they didn’t return within a certain amount of time they would cancel their residency rights altogether.  

The Central Bureau of Statistics in Israel says the West Bank’s Palestinian population amounted to 1.05 million in 1994, which means the population would have been greater by about 14 percent if it weren’t for the procedure.

Today, a similar procedure is still in place for residents of East Jerusalem who hold Israeli ID cards; they lose their right to return if they have been abroad for seven years.  (See previous post on “The Bookseller of Jerusalem.“)

According to another article by Akiva Elder, Palestinian Chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told Haaretz:

This policy should not only be seen as a war crime as it is under international law; it also has a humanitarian dimension: we are talking about people who left Palestine to study or work temporarily but who could not return to resume their lives in their country with their families.  Israel’s actions violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states that ‘everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.’

Press conference on new UN report: Palestinian presence threatened in East Jerusalem

Ray Dolphin of UN OCHA

Ray Dolphin, Barrier Specialist at the UN Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for the occupied Palestinian territory  and author of a new report called East Jerusalem: Key Humanitarian Concerns, held a press conference Monday, May 9, highlighting findings of the report that there are many humanitarian factors pushing Palestinians out of Jerusalem.

Click here to see press conference.

Key factors threatening the Palestinian presence include:

  • the revocation of residency rights
  • home demolitions
  • the increase in settlement building
  • zoning and planning practices
  • the separation barrier
  • restrictions on access to education and health care

For each issue raised, there are recommendations, such as: stop settlement building in East Jerusalem; stop home demolitions; stop the revocation of residency rights; increase the number, quality of and access to classrooms.  The 116-page report details the background and current status of each issue as well as provides case studies and stories.

Among these stories:

For more information on the background and issues about Jerusalem, see the Peace not Walls Jerusalem page.

“The Bookseller of Jerusalem” Fighting for Right to Live in Home Town

Munther Fahmi at the American Colony Bookstore in Jerusalem

Israel is in the process of expelling Munther Fahmi, "the bookseller of Jerusalem." Photo from The National website.

Imagine that you were told you were not allowed to live in the city in which you were born or grew up.  That is what has happened to 14,000 East Jerusalem Palestinians since the Israeli occupation began in 1967, and the pace has been accelerating.  In 2008 alone, the last year records are complete, 4,500 residency permits were rescinded.

When Israel began the occupation in 1967, most Palestinians were not made citizens but residents, which came with restrictions.  If you leave Jerusalem for an extended period of time to live elsewhere (including other parts of the West Bank), your residency rights can be rescinded.

Munther Fahmi is known as “the bookseller of Jerusalem” because he runs the bookstore at the exclusive American Colony Hotel in East Jerusalem which serves such guests as Tony Blair, Kofi Annan and Jimmy Carter, to name a few.  This bookstore is known as an “oasis of dialogue” in a country riddled by conflict, says writer Jonathan Cook, because there are many dialogue events featuring writers on all sides of the conflict.

But despite Munther’s many famous friends who have written letters and the good work his bookstore does, Israeli officials have told him that they will no longer automatically issue him the tourist visas he needs to live there year-round.  His residency rights were already rescinded because he has a US passport and lived away for a number of years before returning in the early 90s after the Oslo Agreement.  Now, he may well have to leave Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory altogether, and possibly be re-admitted for only 3 months a year, if that.

Read more about it in Jonathan Cook’s article, The Jerusalem Expulsions.

Read more about this and other issues related to Jerusalem in the March UN report East Jerusalem:  Key Humanitarian Concerns.

New UN Report Says Palestinian Presence in East Jerusalem Threatened

UN report on EAst Jerusalem
A new report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for the Occupied Palestinian Territories says that unless current Israeli policies are changed, the Palestinian presence in East Jerusalem is at risk.   See the Peace not Walls Major Issue page on Jerusalem for more information, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land’s website for information about our longtime companion church there.
 
The report gives background, current statistics and case studies about residency rights; planning, zoning and home demolitions; settlements; the separation barrier and restrictions on education and health care.
Citing the Jerusalem Master Plan of 2000 and related policies designed to maintain a Jewish majority in Jerusalem, the report blames the current Palestinian housing shortage on Israeli policies like reserving only 13% of the land for Palestinian building, most of which is already built up, home demolitions, settlement expansion and the new open spaces plan.
 
Dr. Tawfik Nasser

Dr. Tawfik Nasser, CEO of Augusta Victoria, explains the difficulties of running a hospital in East Jerusalem in a new UN report.

According to the report,  the Palestinian population is also being thinned by the revocation of Jerusalem IDs, the freezing  of family reunification permits and outright evictions is also detailed.  Problems with the separation barrier, access to education and health care are also explored.  One case study in the report features the LWF’s Augusta Victoria Hospital’s CEO Dr. Tawfik Nasser  discussing the difficulty in expanding hospital space and obtaining pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and necessary permits for EMTs.

Augusta Victoria Hospital has been serving refugees and all who need health care since 1949, and is one of six major health institutions in East Jerusalem.  The Lutheran World Federation’s Jerusalem program, which runs the hospital as well as other programs, also has a housing project underway, the Mt. of Olives Housing Project,  to address the critical housing shortage for Palestinians and help keep a Palestinian presence in Jerusalem.

Another case study in the report features the the Kasabrehs.  Ghassan, the organist at Redeemer Lutheran Congregation, has a Jerusalem ID, but his wife, Rimaz, is from Nablus and only has a West Bank ID.  They have been told that the yearly permit they have been issued – a timely and sometimes costly process – will not be issued anymore as of now, so she will be illegal in her own home when her current permit runs out.  The Kasabrehs were featured on an ELCA video entitled The Forbidden Family.