East Jerusalem - Who Owns What?

We drove by bus around the perimeter of Jerusalem with an Israeli guide whose sympathies lie with the Palestinians. She showed us where Israelis had grabbed Palestinian homes and simply taken them over. The rightful Palestinian owners have deeds but to little or no avail. She showed us the plans for illegal Israeli settlements, such as Nof Zion, that will eventually destroy Palestinian neighbourhoods and force out the Palestinians. The illegal Israeli settlements are all in Palestine territory and are illegal according to international law.

Our guide pointed out individual Palestinian houses taken over by right wing Zionist settlers who threaten the Palestinians living around them. Sometimes the settlers buy the properties through a Palestinian middleman. Just as in Hebron the settlers all carry guns and have look-out posts on their roofs. Our guide told us that East Jerusalem will soon be like Hebron (please see our Hebron posting). The illegal settlers are protected by the Israeli government and Israeli soldiers. And they have financial backing from the wrong-minded group of Christian Zionists who believe they are participating in Armageddon by helping in the judaizing of Palestinian land. Imagine! Preparing for the return of the Prince of Peace by encouraging ethnic cleansing (or "sterilization" as the Israelis say in Hebron).

The separation wall built around Jerusalem has created the "Jerusalem bubble". If a Palestinian who has always lived in Jerusalem finds himself outside the wall, he no longer enjoys the privileges of being a Jerusalemite. If his house happens to be in the way of the wall, the house is bulldozed. Of course, if a Jewish settler seizes an abandoned Palestinian property, nothing happens to the settler. The goal of the right-wing Zionist settlers is to have a completely Jewish Jerusalem.

We ended our day by watching the film "The Iron Wall" produced and directed by Mohammed Alatar. He joined us for conversation. The film points out that the Separation Wall is more than twice as long as the official border (the Green Line) between Israel and the West Bank. That's because the wall moves in and around Palestinian communities cutting them off from one another and from their fields and olive groves. It's not there for defence - it's part of the land-grab. The illegal hill-top settlements built among and between Palestinian communities are part of Israeli policy to "sterilize" Palestinian land and steal it.

Mr. Alatar told the mostly American Sabeel group that it's the several billion dollars of American tax money sent to Israel each year by the Bush administration that build the walls and roads and illegal settlements which oppress the Palestinian people. "If you want to want to stop injustice here in Palestine, lobby your government to stop transfer payments to Israel", he told us.

The truth of what is happening to the Palestinians needs to be revealed to the world. The strong Jewish lobby in North America and in Europe needs to be challenged. Criticizing Israeli policy and supporting the Palestinians has nothing to do with antisemitism. It has everything to do with human rights.

For more information go to the website of the UNITED NATIONS OFFICE of the COORDINATION of HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS (OCHA), Occupied Palestinian Territory, at http://www.ochaopt.org/