Hope Rising from the Despair in East Jerusalem

Sheikh Jarrah is an Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem where Israeli settlers are taking over land and houses whose residents are being removed by Israeli soldiers. Many Israelis are increasingly troubled by the way such actions are changing the values for which many Jews migrated to Israel, as Israeli author David Grossman's speech at a recent demonstration explains. The text of his speech follows the introductory paragraph below, with a link to a video of his speech (in Hebrew) at the bottom. Click on the title to read it where it originally appeared, the blog for JustJerusalem.org:

David Grossman's speech in Sheikh Jarrah

Before Friday's demo, a delegation of some 30 public figures and intellectuals visited Sheikh Jarrah. Among the participants were former Speaker of the Knesset Avrum Burg, author David Grossman, Prof. Ze'ev Sternhal, and former MK's Naomi Hazan and Zehava Galon. Following the visit with the families the delegation held a peaceful vigil next to the occupied houses. The police quickly ordered the vigil to disperse, and escorted the delegation out of the neighborhood. The police could not forbear from arresting four people - although they did not have the guts to arrest any of the dignitaries.

When the delegation joined the main demonstration up the street, the famous Israeli author David Grossman decided to address the crowd. Here is the full text of the speech:

"[...] what took place during the last few hours. We came early, a group of people, and visited one of the homes here in Sheikh Jarrah... at 1 P.M. The owner told us about the long history of abuse by the settlers, the police, and the army that has been going on for years, about how they are being effectively forced out, about how their lives are being made intolerable day and night, that they are being told how to live, harrassed incessantly, violently attacked. Then we went out, the same group, about 30 people, and stood quietly with signs protesting what is happening in Sheikh Jarrah, condemning the persistent, planned takeover of this place and other places by settlers, by right-wing elements. After all, what's happening here is only the tip of the iceberg. It's only one example of what has been happening in the Occupied Territories for more than 40 years. I think that we are all beginning to grasp - even those who maybe don't really want to - how 43 years ago, by turning a blind eye, by actively or passively cooperating, we actually cultivated a kind of carnivorous plant that is slowly devouring us, consuming every good part within us, making the country we live in a place that is not good to live in. Not good not only if you are an Arab citizen of Israel, and certainly not if you are a Palestinian resident of the Territories - but not good as well for every Jewish Israeli person who wants to live here, who cherishes some hope to be in a place where human beings are respected as humans beings, where your rights are treated as a given, where humanity, morality,and civil rights are not dirty words, not something from the bleeding-heart Left. No. These are the bread and water, the butter and milk of our lives, the stuff from which we will make our lives, and really make them lives worth living here.

We stood with the signs for two or three minutes and then the commander of the police announced aggresively - even violently, I would say - he said: 'You have two minutes to disperse.' I think that even before those two minutes were up, they began pushing us away from there, shoving, knocking people over with unreasonable force. The people here did not come to create a confrontation, they came to express solidarity, to make their cry heard. The police lost its head, behaved in a way that actually proves a lack of confidence, an inability to control itself and the situation. Four of our people were arrested, four people who didn't come here to get arrested, didn't make any provocation and certainly not one that justifies arrest. Of course, all of us here protest that.

I'll finish by saying that I wish that next week, there will be many many more people here. People who perhaps don't understand [stops because of applause] that because of lack of action, of indifference, and maybe out of fear and comfort, are allowing our future to be stolen away from us. They are stealing the country we want to live in, stealing every chance that we will ever have peace based on equality and mutual respect with our neighbours. Making any peace agreement almost impossible because of the places where the settlements are sneaking in, taking root, which really make any future agreement almost impossible, and certainly make the peace that will be attained much more fragile. We have something to fight for and something to struggle for. [People] have to understand this and come here, because this is the place, more than any other place today, to protest and confront the root of the occupation, where you can identify with the motives and with a just cause that can hardly be questioned. You have to be totally blind to not see what is happening here, and through that, perhaps, understand what is happening in all the areas of the occupation, and what is happening in all areas of our lives in Israel. Thank you, and Shabbat Shalom."

The video, in Hebrew, can be watched here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OWEQbK-rzA

Palm Sunday in Bethlehem, 2010

Today, as we lifted our palms and shouted "Hosanna!" Christians in Bethlehem were denied travel permits to join the Palm Sunday procession into Jerusalem, to mark the beginning of Holy Week--a long-standing tradition for all the Christians of the West Bank and Jerusalem.

Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh, who lives in Beit Sahour, one of the towns in the Bethlehem district, writes of his experience:

"Wow, what a day: over 100 native Palestinian Christians and Muslims and internationals including Israelis, breached the tight security separating the Palestinian cities of Bethlehem from the occupied city of Jerusalem.

Donkeys and people arrested!

We were initially some 150 strong and started from the Church of Nativity at 11:45 AM carrying palm leaves an banners asking for freedom of worship and movement (as demanded by international law). The demonstration included individuals riding 2 donkeys and a horse. Appropriate since Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey. Like him, we knew this was not going to be an easy entry but we did believe in the goodness of humanity. We arrived at the main gate used for tourist buses at around 12:30 and decided to just keep going. The few soldiers and police at the gate tried to close it but we managed to get in and the huge 8 meter high metal gate stopped half way perhaps as a safety mechanisms since there were dozens of people passing and they could be crushed if it continued.

The Israeli security forces tried to close other fences but we kept going. As word reached their offices, the Israeli army was mobilizing its forces and soon several army jeeps arrived and blocked the road half way between the gate and Deir Mar Elias (the monastery at the edge of the city). They blocked our way. (photo shows Palm Sunday marcher being arrested)

Ibrahim Salah riding his donkey was speaking to them in Hebrew and saying why can't we go to Jerusalem. It is our right to travel. He was the first to be violently knocked down off his donkey and arrested. The next
















was an American girl, then some Palestinians. All violently wrestled to the ground when even many were just peacefully walking back to the gates. It seemed like a calculated move to punish some of us so that others get the message not to try this again.

Some 60 of us ended up being rounded up in between a wall, a hill, a gate, and a cordon of police officers. We expected to be all arrested......."read more of his story

See more photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/activestills/


Read a news report of the protest in the Ma'an news: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=272253

Ir Amim Works for Equitable and Stabel Jerusalem

There are many Jewish organizations in Israel that are working to stop constuction of Israeli settlements on Arab lands. They do this because the settlements interfere with a future two-state solution and they fear that the settlements destabilize Israeli society. Ir
Amim ("city of nations") is one of these organizations. Their non-profit organization is "founded in order to actively engage in those issues impacting on Israeli-Palestinian relations in Jerusalem and on the political future of the city. Ir Amim seeks to render Jerusalem a more viable and equitable city, while generating and promoting a more politically sustainable future." They seek to maintain Jerusalem as a city of "two peoples and three religions."

Ir Amim is involved in:

• Monitoring and exposing critical developments in Jerusalem, and informing / alerting target audiences in Israel and in the world.
• Legal advocacy aimed at halting or mitigating unilateral actions that harm the fabric of life in Jerusalem, and create obstacles to reaching an agreed-upon future for the city and the region.
• Policy advocacy with decision makers, both local and international.
• Public outreach and media work aimed at raising awareness of developments in the city and understanding of their local and global significance. Activities include study tours of East Jerusalem, professional seminars and public events.
• Strengthening, and working with, civil society organizations in East Jerusalem to advance a more equitable Jerusalem.

One more group working for peace and justice, walking with the Palestinians who have lived in East Jerusalem for many years, whose homes are threatened by the continuing construction of Israeli settlement in this Arab area. Read more about their work: http://www.ir-amim.org.il/eng/

Their map showing Israeli settlement-building in the Old City of Jerusalem: http://www.ir-amim.org.il/Eng/_Uploads/dbsAttachedFiles/HistoricBasinOldCityEng.jpg

Touring East Jerusalem with ICAHD

East Jerusalem is part of the West Bank, inside the Green Line, the boundary separating Palestinian and Israeli areas when the U.N. partitioned Palestine in 1947, the legal basis for the creation of the state of Israel. Although a formal peace agreement has never been adopted, many people view this boundary as a starting place for negotiating boundaries if there is to be a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.

When we were in East Jerusalem, we took a tour with Angela, from the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. Angela took our tour bus around East Jerusalem and showed us the places where Israelis are destroying Palestinian homes because they do not have building permits, while at the same building new apartment blocks and settlements for Israelis. She showed us the rubble of Palestinian homes within view of the new Israeli police station recently constructed in East Jerusalem. She showed us the new condominium development, Nof Zion, being built in the Silwan neighborhood, where Palestinian families have lived for hundreds of years. She told us this development is being marketed to American Jews because Israeli Jews would never want to live in the middle of this Arab neighborhood. Angela showed us where the Wall has cut off Palestinian East Jerusalem from the road to Jericho, a neighboring town now under the authority of the Palestinian Authority.

Angela also told us she was planning a civil action—breaching the blockade Israel has imposed on Gaza. This week Angela and other Israelis, Palestinians and internationals—human rights observers, aid workers and journalists—are taking a flotilla of boats to Gaza to draw the attention of the rest of the world to the impossible situation of the people living in Gaza, cut off from food, fuel and any way of making a living. Look for news of their action: www.freegaza.org or on the Palestine News Network: http://english.pnn.ps/index.php

The boat flotilla is one action marking the 60th anniversary of the “Nakba” the “catastrophe,” as Arabs describe the 1947-48 removal of Arabs from their villages, the destruction of those villages and the building of towns for Jewish migrants from around the world on those lands. Today, more than five million refuges still wait to return to these homes, a right guaranteed to them by international law, a right which has never been addressed in peace negotiations. But still, today, Arab homes are being demolished—one four-story apartment building in East Jerusalem on July 28.

Homes Demolished in East Jerusalem

If you want to see how the IDF demolishes homes, you can watch one filmed last week, perhaps the same demolition described in the post below: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=NYP7VvTJXto

More Houses Demolished July 28

One of the participants in our Sabeel trip in June was Linda Mamoun, a freelance journalist, who, addition to having her articles published in The Nation, has a blog: http://newswhacker.blogspot.com/

She posted this story written by Mira Rizek, National General Secretary, YWCA of Palestine, as she witnessed the demolition of a neighbor's house:

Dear all,

Please read this and share with your colleagues and friends.

This morning, our family woke up to screaming voices at 4:00 a.m., and we started looking around and wondering what was happening, but we could not see anything. So we went up to the roof of the house (our house is 3 stories), and we saw tens of Israeli army, special troops, border police, ambulances, fire department cars, police cars, surrounding Abu Eisheh’s house, who is our neighbor, ordering the family to leave the house because they wanted to demolish it. For almost two hours, the families who live there refused to leave, and soon they were pulled out by force, and some were beaten and had to be taken to the hospital.

For the last few months, this case of Abu Eisheh has been in courts, and the family have taken the case to supreme court few weeks ago, but of course, as expected, lost the case. The Israeli government decided to demolish the house because it is “illegally” built. This is not the first Palestinian house to be demolished in East Jerusalem, and for sure won’t be the last. Hundreds of houses have been demolished. The claim is that they are built “illegally” when Israel continues to deny issuance of building permits to East Jerusalem Palestinian residents.

Most houses where settlements have been built, have been the target for demolishing. As you all know, the YWCA is also neighboring the Shim’on Essidiq tomb, claimed to be a very important Israeli site. The Israeli Government is now planning to build a settlement near the tomb, which will be 201 units, to fit around 1,000 Israeli settlers, evacuating 20 East Jerusalem Palestinian families that presently live in and around that area. The YWCA building is facing this area, and could be eventually at risk, or could end up facing the Israeli settlement if kept “alive”, and probably we will have to go through a thorough security system to be able to enter our premise.

Where on earth can this kind of thing happen? For those of us who forgot that East Jerusalem is occupied, I have tidings for you…..we will continue to suffer all this until the Occupation is over. But I also hope that there still will be Palestinians in East Jerusalem to celebrate the day when the Occupation is over. Until then we will continue watching the expropriation of houses, land, resources and rights and just document and report on these stories, because we as Palestinians and the rest of the World have proven that we can do nothing about this. Sadly, we don’t even have a shepherd to guard East Jerusalem.Until when will it continue, to be the case, that no one can stop Israel from violating international law on a daily basis? The International Court in the Hague confirmed that the building of what is called the “Separation Wall” is illegal, yet Israel is continuing with this Wall, and instituting a whole system of entrance permits. We even stopped talking about it, and pass though it every day. This is our new reality.

Abu Eisheh’s apartment building is 4 floors, and there are 8 families living there (4 of the apartments are rented/sold to other families). All of them were evacuated by force this morning, and stood out in the street watching their own house being demolished in their own eyes. One of the residents in one of the apartments is even traveling abroad, so when they return, they will figure out the new living mode on the street. All the furniture, personal belongings, memories and valuables of all the residents are in there, and soon will be buried under the rabble of stones.
This has been our story since 1948, and it looks this will continue to be our story until Israel and the rest of the world realizes that there can be no peace with house demolishing, with making people homeless, with land confiscations. As Palestinians living in Jerusalem, we continue to be “residents” and not citizens, and Israel has the right to terminate our residency right using different mechanisms, which they have been doing since 1967.......

The press and UN observers came to the neighboring houses, and the roof tops were filled with people taking pictures, filming and watching. At 9:00 a.m., the army came to all our neighbors, and our street and closed it off, and ordered all people on roof tops (including us) to leave threatening to shoot . Later, Palestinian politicians and representatives of the PNA and Islamic Awqaf came, and the army came rushing ordering them to leave. They closed off part o the main road (which links Jerusalem to Ramallah), and prohibited the press from covering the story. One of Abu Eisheh’s sons was standing on the roof of our neighbor’s house, taking pictures of what he knew very well will become the “used to be his home”. I am not sure whether they or the rest of the residents of this house will have any roof to protect them tonight.

Usually, when the Palestinian receive notices for demolition, they are given the option of demolishing their own homes, which apparently the Abu Eisheh family is refusing to do. If the Israelis complete the demolishing today, they will send the bill to the owners, who have to cover the cost of demolishing, patrolling of police and all other related expenses. So on top of becoming homeless, people have to cover the cost of injustice. The other option is that they will crack the foundations, which they have been doing for the last few hours, and give him few days to complete the demolishing......(read more....)

My mother was saying that she still remembers when she left her home in Jaffa in 1948, she thought it was for few hours and that they will return home. Well she and the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were never able to return to this date, and today the Abu Eisheh family have been forced to leave their home, knowing they will have no house to return to. Every day we add more and more to the list of Palestinian refugees and homeless, and I wonder when will the day come when all these people will have the right to return??

Mira Rizek
National General Secretary, YWCA of Palestine
JerusalemTel. +972 2 6282593 - Fax +972 2 6282082 http://www.ywca-palestine.org/