Committed to its colonial project, Israel has destroyed any prospect of a viable Palestinian state in the West Bank. Since 1967, it has been employing brutal colonial policies in the Occupied Territories to change the demography of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Up to late December 2008, it had built 233 colonial settlements in the Occupied Territories, which are now home to 497,500 settlers.
In March 2009, the Israeli group Peace Now revealed in a report on settlements that Israel is planning to build more than 73,302 housing units for settlers, of which 5,722 are in East Jerusalem. Peace Now estimates that if all these units were built, it would double the number of Israeli settlers. The report says that some settlements, including the two largest, Ariel and Ma’aleh Adumim, would double in size. These settlements already consume more than 80% of West Bank water, and their further expansion would in reality mean the destruction of the Palestinian agricultural economy.
Palestinians in Jerusalem are facing a threat to their existence. A report published by the UN office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in May 2009 reveals that about 60,000 Palestinian residents face the threat of having their houses demolished as Israel refuses to give them building permits.
Since its occupation in 1967, the Jerusalem municipality has granted only 4,000 building permits to its 270,000 Palestinian residents. On 2 August 2009, three families of 53 Palestinian refugees were forcibly evicted from their houses in the prestigious neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah at 5am. The houses are a stone’s throw from the American Colony, where Tony Blair, as the Quartet’s Middle East Peace Envoy, has his offices, and very close to many UN offices, European and American Consulates, including that of Britain. The special security units which broke into the houses made way for racist settlers to take over.
The Palestinians thrown on to the streets were determined to stay put outside their houses, despite being harassed by settlers guarded by the police. Two families took shelter under the olive tree on the other side of the street and another built a protest tent. The families are still there and are determined to remain until they can return to their homes. Amal, whose house is among the remaining 24 houses in the neighbourhood which are threatened with eviction, made a plea for international solidarity: ‘With the complete silence of the international community, the Islamic world and local people…what we are experiencing in Sheikh Jarrah is ethnic cleansing. It is not only about Sheikh Jarrah but the whole of East Jerusalem…Where are the leaders? Where is the European Union? Where on earth do people have to have permits to get to their own houses, their own neighbourhood?…We are human beings – where is the solidarity? Enough with silence… all we have is our strong will and steadfastness, but that is not enough.’
No to ethnic cleansing!
Disband the settlements!
FRFI 211 October / November 2009
