Reham Alhelsi - The Unforgotten City and its Forgotten Suffering
By Reham Alhelsi • May 28th, 2008 at 8:00 • Category: Analysis, Culture and Heritage, Features, Israel, Newswire, Palestine, Resistance, Somoud: Arab Voices of Resistance, Uprooted Palestinians' Testimonies, Zionism
Jerusalem, the holy city, a city once the religious, social and economic center of the Palestinians for thousands of years, has turned into a ghost city under Israeli occupation. Moslems, Christians and Jews lived peacefully here until the Zionists started implementing their plans of establishing a Zionist state in Palestine. A city that was open throughout the centuries has become a closed city under the rule of what Bush and others call “the only democracy in the Middle East”! In what other country in the world is the original Moslem and Christian population prevented from living in their own city and reaching their holy places?
The last time I was in Jerusalem was almost four years ago. After the tiresome and somewhat dangerous trip, I remember how shocked I was to see a ghost city. This isn’t the Jerusalem I knew. I remember the daily trip to Jerusalem as a pupil, and sitting in a bus over-filled with people on their way to their schools and work places, to the old city, to Salah-Eldin Street or other streets in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the center of our livelihood. Our first stop was always the newspaper stand at the central bus station, where my father used to buy Al-Quds newspaper, and on Mondays we were rewarded with the Samir and Micky Mouse magazines. This station was so full of life, people coming and going, sesame bread and falafel sellers, students, pupils, employees, workers, falahat and housewives. All coming from Bethlehem, Hebron, Jericho, Ramallah, Nablus and meeting here in the Jerusalem. On that day, four years ago, I saw an almost empty central bus station. Only a few buses stood there. The old newspaper seller wasn’t there anymore, his son sat in his place. He had passed away and the city he and I and many others knew wasn’t there anymore. I bought Al-Quds newspaper although I hadn’t read it in a while, but only to try and revive some of what had been, an effort to bring back the Jerusalem I carried with me all these years living abroad and far away from my beloved city. I looked at the young man’s face as I paid for the newspaper hoping to see some recognition in his eyes. All I could see was a bit of a smile, I suppose he was only glad that yet another person had made it into the city through the various Israeli check points.
As I went down the old city, the only people I could see were mostly tourists. One or two falahat sat selling their goods. The otherwise lively area was quiet and almost empty: a true ghost city. It used to be noisy and full of life before. So much so that you could barely hear your own voice over the voices of the sellers, the laughter of the children, the chatting of the people and the songs coming from the various shops. You could barely take a step without being told to watch out for a passing cart or a running kid. The smells of spices, roasted chicken, incense and falafel would engulf you and guide you through the narrow ways. You would take your time in taking in the colors, the voices and the smells surrounding you, all so unique and diverse as the city itself. Walking further I could not see any colors, hear any voices or smell any falafel. It was as if I’ve left my senses at the checkpoint when I crossed the apartheid wall. I could only see closed shops and wondered if their owners are kept out of the city by the numerous Israeli policies designed to empty this city of its original residents. I saw a few children playing in the streets and remembered my friends and classmates from the old city, some of whom still live here and raise a new generation of Palestinians and some of whom were forced to leave and settle in Ramallah or in one of the Jerusalem suburbs outside the apartheid wall. Here in this holy city, large extended Palestinian families have to be satisfied with living in small houses, sharing rooms and house facilities, since Palestinians rarely get the urgently needed building permits. While the illegal Jewish settlers are flown from all over the world and brought to settle here and given enticements to live on land stolen from Palestinians, the original owners of the land have to be satisfied with living in over-crowded and crumbling rooms they call home.
What has happened to the old city? It was always so exciting going there, despite the crowds and the fact that often one would need hours to find a way out of the streams of masses moving in and out of Damascus Gate. On that day, it seemed the old city was begging not to be abandoned and forgotten.
The various Israeli policies directed towards Palestinian Jerusalemites forced thousands of Palestinians to leave the city and settle outside it. These “quiet deportation” policies such as restrictive residency and housing policies aim at driving the Palestinians out of Jerusalem, thus controlling the number of Palestinian Jerusalemites and ensuring a Jewish majority in the holy city. These discriminatory policies include the confiscation of ID cards under pretext of the 1952 “Law of Entry to Israel”, the 1974 “Entry to Israel Regulations” and the 2003 approved bill of the “Nationality and Entry into Israel Law”, which prohibits Palestinian Jerusalemites married to West Bank residents and their spouses from living in Jerusalem and forbids the registry of their children as residents of Jerusalem (only Palestinian women over the age of 25 and men over the age of 35 have the right to join their partners in Jerusalem). Such restrictions, which don’t apply to the Jewish residents of the city, include:
1) a Palestinian Jerusalemite needs an Israeli re-entry visa when travelling abroad, so as not to lose the right to return.
2) a Palestinian Jerusalemite loses his/her residency rights, if they live “abroad” - including the West Bank - for more than seven years.
3) Palestinian children can be registered as Jerusalem residents only if the father holds a valid Jerusalem ID card.
4) a Palestinian Jerusalemite marrying a non-Jerusalemite must apply for family reunification in order to live legally with their spouse in Jerusalem.
Between 1967 and 2006 the residency rights of over 8,000 Palestinian Jerusalemites were revoked.
According to PASSIA “At least 66% of today’s Jerusalem is territory seized by force (5% of the old Jordanian municipality and 61% of former West Bank territory). Within this area, Israel has expropriated approx. 24,500 dunums - over one-third of the land illegally annexed to Jerusalem, most of which was privately owned by Palestinians to establish the 12 settlements existing today in the city.”[1] Since its occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967, Israel has been implementing an on-going policy of systematic discrimination in planning and building against Palestinian Jerusalemites. While construction in Palestinian areas has been restricted, extensive building has been taking place in Jewish areas of the city. “By the end of 2001, 46,978 housing units had been built for Jews on this land, but not one unit for Palestinians who constitute one-third of the city’s population.”[2] Statistics from 2002 showed that “housing density in Arab neighborhoods was almost twice that of Jewish neighborhoods, 11.9 m² per person compared to 23.8 m² per person. The existing situation has forced many Palestinians to build homes without first obtaining a building permit”.[3]
It is not only the difficult living conditions in East Jerusalem, but the whole social and economic infrastructure is insufficient and inadequate and services are often withheld. Despite making up 33% of the whole residents, Palestinian Jerusalemites get no more than 12% of the city’s welfare budget, and are required to pay the same tax rates as the Jewish residents, despite the fact that the per capita income of the Jewish residents is approximately 8 times higher, and at the same time Palestinian Jerusalemites do not receive the corresponding services (enticements for Jewish residents include no taxes for the first five years followed by reduced taxes). In addition to that, the poverty rate of Palestinian Jerusalemites is more than double that of the Jewish residents.
Nathan Krystall states that “The Fourth Geneva Convention further stipulates that all taxes collected in an occupied area be spent in the same area. Palestinians pay 26% of the cost of municipal services but receive just 5% of those services.” [4] Thus leaving Palestinian neighborhoods to suffer from neglect of infrastructure and services to the extent that entire neighborhoods are not connected to a sewage system and do not have paved roads. Also, Palestinian houses and properties are often closed or confiscated for use of the army or the radical Jewish settlers, who continuously occupy Palestinian houses, threaten and attack Palestinians residents. Other discriminatory policies include the revocation of social rights and health insurance of Palestinians Jerusalemites. “Physicians for Human Rights estimate that there are currently some 10,000 children residing in East Jerusalem who are not covered by medical insurance.” [5]
Keeping in mind that the population growth rates for Jews was 1.2% and for Palestinians 3.3% (Passia for the year 2003), B’Tselem statistics show that 73% of building starts in Jerusalem were in Jewish neighborhoods while only 27% in Palestinian neighborhoods. Between 2004 and 2007 316 houses had been demolished in East Jerusalem, leaving 993 Palestinians homeless.
According to The Hague agreement signed in 1907 paragraph 152, occupation forces must not confiscate lands or properties from the people under occupation.
Israel is a signatory to the undertaking ” to respect and to ensure to all individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the rights recognized in the present Covenant, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.” (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, article 2)”[6]
I write this as a Palestinian whose life had always rotated around Jerusalem, a city I know as the palm of my hand. Yet, I am not allowed there anymore because I come from a small town outside the apartheid wall, a small town that had been geographically and politically part of Jerusalem throughout the centuries. The state of Israel will not allow us, those who grow up in the holy city, to enter it anymore, and if we are lucky this “only democracy in the Middle East” will allow us to be buried in it, i.e., if we are lucky! To me, these Palestinian Jerusalemites, steadfast in Jerusalem despite all the suffering and the discriminating Israeli policies, are another powerful example of the steadfastness and the hope of all Palestinians everywhere. They are the true faces of Jerusalem because they are the true and original residents of the city.
Main sources:
http://www.passia.org/
http://www.btselem.org
http://www.badil.org
[1] http://www.passia.org/
[2] http://www.btselem.org/english/Jerusalem/Discriminating_Policy.asp
[3] http://www.btselem.org/english/Jerusalem/Discriminating_Policy.asp
[4] http://www.badil.org/e-library/Urgent-Issue.htm
[5] http://www.btselem.org/english/Jerusalem/Social_Security.asp
[6]http://tinyurl.com/4×9r5b
Reham Alhelsi is a Jerusalem-born Palestinian. She has worked extensively in the Palestinian Broadcasting Company and since 2000, when she moved to Germany, has trained at various radio and TV networks including Deutsche Welle, SWR and WDR. She is currently writing her PhD in Regional Planning with a focus on Palestinian Land Management and local government.
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My first of five trips to occupied Jerusalem, was in June 2005. I haven’t forgotten it.
On my very first afternoon in Jerusalem, I met with Mother Agapia Stephanopolous, a Russian Orthodox nun and the administrator of the Orthodox School of Bethany in Jerusalem for Spiritual Direction and to discuss our mutual feelings about The Wall.
Mother Agapia is the sister of ABC News commentator, George Stephanopolous, and she had recently and passionately informed Congress about the fact that, “Israel is destroying the local Christian community.”
On April 18, 2005, Robert Novak’s article “Walling off Christianity” reported on the nun’s letter to Congress and how East Jerusalem had been cut off from the rest of the West Bank. Mother Agapia predicted, “It is only a matter of time before Christians and Muslims will be unable to survive culturally and economically.”
Mother Agapia spoke bluntly about the nine yards high wall of Israeli concrete that have “shattered” the Christian communities. She told Novak, “I witness the strangulation of East Jerusalem, and the deprivation of her non-Jewish residents’ religious rights every day. Even the United States seems to have been taken in by Israeli spin.”
I told Mother Agapia her that I hadn’t been taken in by the spin, but what could I possibly do?
She just smiled and shrugged.
I then told her of the surreal experience I had that very morning while wandering around in the Old City.
I had landed a few hours prior in Tel Aviv with ten other members of the Interfaith non-profit, Olive Trees Foundation for Peace just before dawn on that Sunday morn. They all crashed, but I was WIDE AWAKE and so, I wandered around in the Old City, which was eerily empty.
When I found myself at the site of the Pool of Bethsaida, I experienced a déjà vu, which was more real than imaginary.
Between 2000 and 2001, I was a first year student in the Episcopal Diocese of Orlando’s Formation Program for Spiritual Directors. I knew going into the program I would never be hanging out a shingle as a Spiritual Director that I was there for other reasons. I was drawn to the program because of the curriculum; to deepen my prayer life and study the lives of the saints. During the first year all the students attended three weekend retreats.
On the second night of the second retreat, we had a guided meditation on the story of Jesus at the Pool of Bethsaida. I remember it as clearly now as I experienced it then.
There were seven of us in the class and we were instructed to close our eyes, listen to the story and allow our imagination to lead us to respond to the character that called to us. Our leader prefaced the story from John 5: 1-6, by telling the legend of the angel from heaven who would descend and agitate the waters of the Pool of Bethsaida.
Only the first leper, blind, or invalid who made it into the water would receive a healing. One day while Jesus was there, he walked by a man who had been paralyzed for thirty-eight years. Jesus asked him, “Do you want to be healed?”
The man answered he had no friends to help him get into the water first. Jesus asked him again, “Do you want to be healed?”
Our leader then went silent, and in my imagination I was immediately upon the back of that agitating angel. I hadn’t thought of that experience until four years later when I found myself at the site of the Pool of Bethsaida.
What triggered the memory of that guided meditation was the recollection of a dream I had had a few weeks after that day we call 9/11. In my dream I had stood at the edge of a dried up pool where crumbling stone columns were overgrown with vines and weeds and scores of doves and pigeons nested and flew. To my right was a large shade tree, but to my left I saw a few square squat dwellings with large satellite dishes attached to them. I remembered thinking the moment I woke up from that dream I thought what a strange place it was, but then I quickly forgot all about it.
That is, until the afternoon of June 12, 2005, four years later, when I found myself standing at the edge of a dried up pool where crumbling stone columns were overgrown with vines and weeds and scores of doves and pigeons nested and flew. To my right was a large shade tree, but to my left I saw a few square squat dwellings with large satellite dishes attached to them. What a strange place I thought, how could it be that I had seen this scene in a dream a few weeks after that day we call 9/11?
On that afternoon of my very first day in Jerusalem, I told Mother Agapia about that dream about the Pool of Bethsaida.
She shrugged and smiled, then told me about the June 26th Jerusalem Interfaith Peace Conference with satellite link to the world that was happening the Sunday after the Thursday I was scheduled to return to the USA.
I knew immediately that I needed to attend and after saying goodbye to Mother Agapia, I phoned my husband to get his OK to reschedule my home coming.
On June 26, 2006, I attended the world wide satellite linked Interfaith Peace Conference at Jerusalem’s Notre Dame Cathedral. Dan Rather moderated from Washington DC and the Holy Land interfaith panel were all moderates attempting to reclaim the battlefield of ideas from extremists on both sides.
Reverend Theodore Hessburgh, President Emeritus University of Notre Dame began the evening with a pledge and a summons: “The Peace of the world begins in Jerusalem.”
Dr. Tsvia Walden, Board of Director of the Peres Center and Geneva Initiative stated, “There is a need for a third party in the negotiations that could enable both sides to trust each other. There are more people in this region interested in making concessions, they all want peace so desperately.”
The Coordinator of World Bank emergency services to the PA, Rania Kharma informed the world, “We all need to be the bridges to our leaders that justice, equality, and human rights will bring peace. Give people justice and they will reward you with peace.”
Sheik Imad Falouiji warned, “Religions must go back to their origins. God commands us to love each other and live together. This Holy Land was given to all people. This land is on fire. There is an occupation that must be removed. The language of peace cannot succeed without justice for all.”
The Rt. Rev. Bishop Riah Abu Assal affirmed, “Peace is an act. Blessed are the peacemakers not the peace talkers. Peace is possible in the Holy Land. The root cause for the lack of peace since 1967 is the occupation. For peace to make progress in the Middle East we need to deal with the root cause…Religion was not meant to bring death. All those involved in searching for peace should commit themselves to work for justice and truth.”
Throughout the entire evening, I kept remembering what President Bush promised in his Second Inaugural Address: “In the long run, there is no justice without FREEDOM. There can be no human rights without LIBERTY. All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know the United States will not ignore your oppression or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for liberty, we stand with you.”
Eileen Fleming, Reporter and Editor WAWA:
http://www.wearewideawake.org/
Author “Keep Hope Alive” and “Memoirs of a Nice Irish American ‘Girl’s’ Life in Occupied Territory”
Producer “30 Minutes With Vanunu” and “13 Minutes with Vanunu”
Wonderful article
Where can I buy your book ?
Hi
Jerusalem a religious center for Palestinians since thousands of years ?? Jerusalem ils NOT mentioned in the Coran
Moslem under Mohamed rule stopped to pray toward Jerusalem
They pray toward Mecca !
the moslem interest for Jerusalem started in 1967 afetr the town was united
Stop lying
Elie,
What do you know about Qura’an? You don’t even know how to spell the word!
FYI, Jerusalem was mentioned in the Qura’an a lot of times as one of the most sacred places for Muslims until end of time. It is ranked as the third most holy place on earth after Mecca and Madena. When prophet Mohammad told Muslims to change the direction they pray to (from Jerusalem to Mecca) it was because by God knows that Zionist will occupy the city and gather around it until the Messiah comes. Yes, we Muslims believe in the Messiah and waiting for his coming.
I advice you to buy a book about Islam and read before you rant about the topic.