Nablus, Jerusalem, and Hebron: Three old cities united by occupation

Although, the West Bank is under Israeli occupation, the measures used to enforce and maintain the occupation differ between locales. The differing impacts of these occupation measures became particularly apparent after placing my recent visits to the Old Cities in Nablus and Hebron in the West Bank in context with the current reality in the Old City of Jerusalem. In Arab and Palestinian culture, old city neighborhoods are comprised of grand rock archways and beautiful, historic architecture. Traditionally, old cities also are the center of commerce and the beating heart of the community.

Nablus has long been the commercial and business center in the northern West Bank and is thus a very important trade location for villagers from communities surrounding Nablus. However, during and after the 2nd Intifada, which began nearly ten years ago, Nablus was encircled by a series of six Israeli military checkpoints. The city was essentially under siege by the Israeli army with checkpoints controlling all vehicular and pedestrian travel to and from Nablus. Thus, it was very difficult if not impossible, depending on the current Israeli restriction regime, for the movement of goods and people in and out of the city.

Nablus' Old City was nearly lifeless during this period, and the dire economic impacts of the siege were tremendous. For example, according to the UN, municipal revenues from the vegetable market dropped by 90% from roughly $1.3 million in 2000 to $130,000 in 2005. Additionally, unemployment rose from 14.2% in 1997 to 60% in 2004. The Nabulsi soap industry, which was one of the major industries in Nablus, has been hit particularly hard. During a tour of the Touqan Soap Factory (see slideshow on right), the manager of the company revealed that of the 35 soap factories operating in Nablus prior to the 2nd Intifada, only two are still functioning. However, he also stated that the economic situation in Nablus has begun to improve during the past few months, largely as a result of Israel's lifting of movement restrictions at the checkpoints surrounding Nablus. During my visit to Nablus last week, the Old City felt alive and breathing after being suffocated for nearly a decade.

East Jerusalem, including the Old City, has been internally occupied and administered by the State of Israel since the implementation of Israeli law in 1967. The impact of the occupation was felt immediately in 1967 when the entire Moroccan (Mughrabi) Quarter, which was located near the Western Wall, was destroyed (all families were expelled) to increase the size of the Jewish Quarter. Since that time, settler organizations, such as Elad and Ateret Cohanim, with the support of the Israeli government, have continued to take over as much Palestinian property as possible (click on map above). In October 2008, settlers strengthened their religious presence in the Old City by opening the "Ohel Yitzhak" synagogue roughly 80 meters from Al-Haram Ash-Sharif, which is the third holiest site in Islam and is referred to as the Temple Mount by Jews. According to the Israel Construction and Housing Ministry, there are approximately 75 families and 600 yeshiva (religious) students currently living outside of the Jewish Quarter in the Old City. Plans are underway to build a new settlement (35 units) within the Muslim Quarter, which is home to roughly 22,000 Palestinians.

The signs of Jewish Israeli settlement are visible throughout the Old City, particularly in the Muslim Quarter. Dark brown wooden doors with large, black metal locks, in contrast to the metal doors of Palestinian owned homes, and Israeli flags flying from rooftops and balconies reveal the location of settler-occupied homes, synagogues, and yeshivas. The Old City also is under complete surveillance with an Israeli army and police presence on every major street corner and 'security' cameras located on nearly every road and alleyway.

The Old City of Hebron (southern West Bank), unlike those of Jerusalem and Nablus, is largely deserted. As a result of the Oslo Accords in the mid-1990s, Hebron was divided into H1 (Palestinian Authority controlled area) and H2 (Israeli controlled area; click on map above). The Old City of Hebron and the Ibrahimi Mosque/Tomb of the Patriarchs, which is sacred to both Muslims and Jews, are located within H2. Roughly 500 Jewish Israeli settlers, who are protected by 1,500 Israeli soldiers, live in four settlements within the Old City and of the 169 Palestinian families that lived in Old City prior to the 2nd Intifada only 10% remain. The presence of settlers has lead to strict security measures, including the closing of shops and creation of "buffer zones." Before September 2000, there were 1,610 Palestinian shops in and around the Old City; however, 650 of these shops were closed by military order and 700 others closed due to a reduction in business. Only 10% of the remaining shops are functional. Furthermore, eight out of ten of the adults remaining in city are unemployed and 75% of the population live below the poverty line.

The physical and atmospheric changes when entering the Old City near the settlement of Beit Hadassah are stunning. Within 20 meters of entering the Old City you go from an energized and vibrant market atmosphere to almost nothing but closed storefronts. Wire netting hangs above the street running next to the settlements to protect Palestinians from debris thrown by the settlers, including rocks, garbage, and feces (see slideshow). We visited a family living directly adjacent to the Avraham Avinu settlement and whose rooftop overlooks Al-Shuhada St., which used to be the main road in the Old City and is now completely closed off to Palestinian pedestrian and vehicular travel. During the 2nd Intifada, several settlers entered a room in the home through a window while the Palestinian owners were present, doused the room in gasoline, and proceeded to burn it down (see slideshow). The woman whose home we were visiting was pregnant at the time and had a miscarriage due to carbon monoxide poisoning from the fire. On a second occasion, she had a child die during birthing because she was not allowed to pass through a checkpoint to access a hospital. Many Palestinians, not just those in Hebron, share similar heart-wrenching stories, yet all Palestinians share a life under occupation.

If you have not had the opportunity, please read my blogs (4) from April 2008 where I share my previous experiences with both Palestinians and settlers in Hebron. I also have included a series of photos from the old cities of Nablus, Jerusalem, and Hebron in the slideshow on the right. Click on one photo, and you will have access to the complete album.

From Ramallah to Jerusalem: A bus ride through the occupation - Part III: Israeli Jewish settlement in Sheikh Jarrah

Near the end of my roughly one and a half hour commute from Ramallah to Jerusalem, I arrive at the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem (click on map above to enlarge). Sheikh Jarrah is home to numerous Foreign Consulates, hospitals, Palestinian homes, and an ever increasing Jewish settler population. The Sheikh Jarrah settlement scheme is one of the most contentious outside of the Old City, along with the settlement in the al-Bustan neighborhood in Silwan, and one of the most perilous when trying to resolve the question of Jerusalem.

This settlement scheme has become even more hazardous in recent weeks and days given the forced eviction of two Palestinian families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah and the recent approval of settlement construction on the site of the Shepard Hotel. Last month the Jerusalem municipality approved a plan to construct 20 apartments plus a three-level underground parking lot on the site with construction slated to begin immediately. The hotel is owned by the family of the former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammad Amin al-Husseini; however, after Israel conquered East Jerusalem during the 1967 War, an Israeli government agency, the Custodian for Absentee Property, took control of the hotel and associated land. The land was then 'sold' by the Israeli government to US millionaire Irving Moscowitz in 1985, who is funding the current Shepard Hotel settlement plan.

Daily my bus goes past the Shepard Hotel, and I get dropped off on the road above the Shimon HaTzadik settlement. From here my closest route to PASSIA is directly through the settlement itself, comprised of 7-8 settler groups and roughly 40 settlers. The rock stairway down and through the settlement is marked by an Israeli security booth with armed guards. On my left while walking down the narrow stairway are homes now occupied by Jewish settlers and on my right are homes that have been lived in by Palestinian families since the 1950's. Midway down the stairway is a second manned security booth and a small playground for the children of the settlers and not the children of their Palestinian neighbors. There are gold plaques on the doors of the settler occupied homes commemorating there acquisition, and the stairway is strewn with Israeli flags commemorating Israel's sovereignty over all of Jerusalem.

After walking down the stairway I pass the supposed tomb of Shimon HaTzadik, the Second Temple High Priest. The settlers have transformed this area in core of Sheikh Jarrah into a Torah learning center and synagogue, which is bustling on Saturdays as the site of regular Shabbat prayer services. Directly across the street, used to lie the Sheikh Jarrah Protest Test, which was established following the eviction of the al-Kurd family from their home in November 2008. The tent was recently destroyed for the sixth time by Israeli authorities.

Before leaving Sheikh Jarrah and arriving at PASSIA in Wadi al-Joz, I pass the home of the Hanun family who along with the Ghawi family were forcibly expelled from their homes three days ago to make way for settler families who immediately occupied the homes. These expulsions resulted in the displacement of 53 people, including 19 children, and were the culmination of a long running legal battle between Jewish settler organizations and the Hanun and Ghawi families over ownership of the properties. The settler organizations claim the disputed land was purchased from local Arab owners in 1875 during Ottoman rule. Recently, the Israeli courts rejected an official letter issued from the Ottoman land registry archives in Ankara, Turkey stating that the archives have no record of the registration of any land in Sheikh Jarrah to a Jewish organization.

Regardless of Israeli domestic law, the evictions and settlement construction are illegal under international law. The fourth Geneva Convention explicitly states that "the Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies."

Perhaps most disconcerting about Jewish settlement within Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem, such as Sheikh Jarrah, is the tremendous danger they pose to the "peace process." These settlements interweave Jewish and Palestinian residents within the heart of traditionally Palestinian neighborhoods, making the partitioning of Jerusalem along the Clinton Parameters of 2000, which would see Palestinian areas become part of a Palestinian state and Israeli areas become part of the State of Israel, virtually impossible.

Transforming Jerusalem into the capital of two states for two people is absolutely necessary to resolve both the Palestinian- and Arab-Israeli Conflicts. Without a just solution to the question of Jerusalem peace will forever remain out of reach.

Please click on the photograph slideshow on the right, which contains a series of images of Sheikh Jarrah, including pre- and post-eviction. The photographs were provided by Jason Hicks and Natalie Van der Aa.

Eau Claire County - The Tale of Two Jails

After arriving back in Eau Claire, WI this summer for a visit, I found the city embroiled in a debate over construction of a new jail downtown. Clearly, this is an important issue for Eau Claire residents and after familiarizing myself with the various perspectives and arguments regarding the jail I felt it necessary to place this debate in the context of my experiences in the Middle East and the political realities of the Palestinian-Israel Conflict.

While the $58 million price tag for building a jail downtown is one of the primary criticisms of the proposed jail project, we as Eau Claire County residents have spent nearly the same amount via United States aid to Israel over the past 40 years. Since 1949, the U.S. has provided Israel with over $160 billion (2009 dollars) in direct foreign assistance, and when calculated on a local level, Eau Claire County taxpayers have provided Israel with roughly $53 million in military and economic aid. Nearly 99% of this aid has come since Israel preemptively attacked Egyptian forces on the Sinai Peninsula to begin the Six-Day War in 1967 and occupied the Palestinian territories in the same year. Moreover, Israel has been the largest recipient of U.S. military aid in the world and will receive an additional $30 billion in military aid over the next ten years.

Citizens of Eau Claire County have contributed nearly enough tax payer dollars to Israel over the past 40 years to cover the cost of a much needed jail in Eau Claire, but ironically our money has been used to create virtual open air prisons in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In both of these occupied Palestinian territories, Israel controls the population registries, air space, and all border crossings for people and goods.

Within the West Bank, Israel has imposed an extensive closure regime of over 65 checkpoints and 550 roadblocks, severely limiting Palestinian freedom of movement and access to roughly 40% of the West Bank. Furthermore, Israel is constructing a 436 mile prison-like separation barrier between the West Bank and Israel with the vast majority of the planned and constructed route being built on Palestinian land. Under the pretext of security, Israel has imprisoned the Palestinian population in the West Bank – denying or severely restricting the access of Palestinian villages to their farmland, limiting access to essential medical facilities in Jerusalem, and severely inhibiting movement to work and schools.

Following Hamas’ takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007, Israel with Egyptian support resulting from Israeli and U.S. pressure has completely sealed the Palestinian territory off from the rest of the world. Since 1996, Gaza has been fully encompassed by a prison-like separation barrier similar to that in the West Bank with the exception of its coastline which is controlled by Israel. Restrictions imposed by the Israeli government for the past two years have made it virtually impossible for Palestinians in Gaza to leave the territory, and approximately 50% of those who have requested permission to seek medical treatment in Israel have been denied. Further, it is estimated that over 300 Gazans have died as a result of being denied access to necessary medical care. The Israeli siege on Gaza has made it impossible for Palestinians to rebuild their decimated infrastructure, and the extremely rigid restrictions on the transfer of material goods and humanitarian aid have crippled their capacity to engage in economic activities and have caused a poverty rate of over 50%.

Another criticism leveled against the downtown jail proposal is the potential demolition of neighborhood homes to make way for the new jail. While these concerns are legitimate, Israel’s policy of house demolitions in the occupied territories, including Jerusalem, has resulted in the demolition of over 18,000 Palestinian homes since 1967. Unlike in Eau Claire where most of the houses proposed for demolition are rental properties, the homes destroyed in Palestine are owned and lived in by families whose ancestors have lived in Palestine for hundreds if not thousands of years. Although most Palestinian houses are demolished for being built without a permit, the building permits themselves are nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain. Furthermore, house demolitions conducted by an occupying power in occupied territory are clearly illegal under international law.

From my perspective, the ultimate reality of the proposed downtown jail is that opposition to the plan derives in a large part from the adages “not in my backyard” and “out of sight, out of mind.” The unfortunate reality of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict is not dissimilar. It is quite easy for U.S. citizens to fund the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories when the Conflict receives such little exposure in the mainstream media. Consequently, we don’t have a strong understanding of the on the ground realities in Palestine and Israel or see the destructive impacts of the occupation’s prison-like restrictions on the lives of Palestinians.

Israeli without the Middle East

Recently, several friends and I accompanied Dr. Mahdi Abdul Hadi, chairman of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (PASSIA), to the "Israel and the Middle East" Conference at Tel-Aviv University where he was scheduled to be a speaker. It was a two-day conference sponsored by a variety of Israeli and French academic institutions and was comprised of several sessions, including a forum on Israel and the Palestinians.

Dr. Mahdi was the last of three presenters, along with Alain Dieckhoff and Asher Susser, in the Israel and the Palestinians session and labeling the response of the audience to his speech as 'cool' would be an injustice. Literally every time Dr. Mahdi mentioned the words Nakba, which refers to the process of Palestinian dispossession before, during, and after the War of 1948, massacre, in reference to the recent War on Gaza, and apartheid, in regards to the closure and permit regime in the West Bank, the crowd irrupted in a frenzy of booing and heckling. The jeering became so overwhelming that at one point Dr. Mahdi directly addressed the audience and essentially stated, if you don't want to hear what a Palestinian has to say then don't invite a Palestinian to speak; however, the taunting continued throughout his twenty minute speech. At no point were the six or seven most raucous protesters asked to leave by the conference organizers or even asked to refrain from making remarks during his presentation.

The response of the audience to a Palestinian perspective of the conflict exemplifies the difficulty Israelis have in understanding and accepting the valid presence of a collective Palestinian narrative and further reiterates the difficulty in achieving a just solution to the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict. Perhaps even more elucidating, five sessions at the Conference involved Israel and other countries in the Middle East (Israel and the Palestinians, Israel and the Lebanese Equation, Israel, Turkey, and the Persian Gulf, the Iranian Nuclear Question, and Israel, the Middle East and the United States under Obama), but of the 11 presenters at these sessions Dr. Mahdi was the only Arab speaker. This reinforces the reality of Israel's unilateral vision of the region and one of the major stumbling blocks towards achieving peace in the Middle East.

Map of my bus route from Ramallah to Jerusalem

On the top of my web page I have posted a map (adapted by Imad Farrah from a map published by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) which traces my route between Ramallah and Jerusalem (black and orange line). The red and black circles on the map with white lines through them are the locations of Israeli checkpoints to regulate Palestinian movement and entrance into Jerusalem. The areas in light brown are Palestinian villages or cities, and the areas in purple are Israeli settlements, which are located outside the green line (pre-1967 borders) and are illegal under international law. Lastly, the black and red lines represent the completed Separation Wall between Jerusalem and the West Bank, black and white lines represent the portions of the Wall currently under construction, and the red and white lines represent locations where the Wall is planned for construction.

From Ramallah to Jerusalem: A bus ride through the occupation - Part II: The Jerusalem Light Rail Project

After passing through Qalandiya checkpoint and entering occupied Jerusalem, which is comprised of portions of the West Bank, or "unified" Jerusalem in Israeli lingo, I hop on a bus and pay five shekels for my remaining 30-45 minute ride to PASSIA. About 10 minutes into the ride I arrive in the Palestinian village of Shu'fat and witness one of the most visible and intrusive examples of Israelization of Jerusalem, the Jerusalem Light Rail - Mass Transit System (click on the Light Rail - Full System map above left for an enlarged version of the map).

Construction of the first phase of the light rail project began in April 2006, and upon completion (9 miles in total length) it will link the Israeli settlement of Pisgat Ze'ev with the West Jerusalem city center (see map above). Although, a segment of the light rail line lies within and on the green line (pre-1967 borders), which is represented by the dotted line on the map above, much of the rail line lies outside of the green line in Palestinian East Jerusalem, particularly along the main road linking the West Bank and the Old City in Jerusalem. These actions are clearly in violation of International Law (UN Security Council Resolution 465 of March 1, 1980), which states that "all measures taken by Israel to alter the physical character, the demographic composition, the institutional structure, or status of the Palestinian territories including Jerusalem, have no legal validity."

The rail construction in East Jerusalem has severely constricted traffic, cutting in half the amount of road available for vehicular travel (see photograph above). Therefore, nearly every morning and evening, when traffic between the West Bank and Jerusalem is heaviest, a bottleneck results and traffic becomes backed up for 15 minutes at the intersection of Shufat Road and Route 1 north of the Old City (see slideshow on right). The pot-holed roads throughout East Jerusalem are already in poor condition, as Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem receive less than 10% of the development budget for the Jerusalem Municipality while paying nearly 35% of the taxes levied by the municipality. As a result of the extremely limited funds available for Palestinian neighborhoods, there are 9,000 children not attending school and a shortage of 1,500 classrooms. Furthermore, 67% of Palestinian families in East Jerusalem are under the poverty line, compared to 23% of Israeli families in West Jerusalem.

Although, the Jerusalem Light Rail System was created under the guise of reducing congestion in Jerusalem and serving both Jewish settlements and certain Palestinian neighborhoods, the reality is much different. Neither the Palestinian Authority nor leaders from the Palestinian communities in Jerusalem were involved in the decision making process for the light rail project, although Palestinians are allegedly benefiting from the new transit system. Furthermore, given the widening cultural and social divide between Palestinians and Jewish Israelis in Jerusalem coupled with the $1.37 suggested fare for the light rail, which is nearly twice that of the Palestinian minibus transportation system, it is highly unlikely that significant numbers of Palestinians will use the light rail line.

In this context, the Israeli objectives of the Jerusalem Light Rail Project are clear and two-fold, link the the core of West Jerusalem with Hebrew University and the Israeli settlements in Greater Jerusalem, and most importantly create new, irreversible facts on the ground which solidify the ultimate goal of preserving Jerusalem as the "unified" and "eternal" capital of Israel.

Please click on the slideshow on the right, which contains a series of images of the Jerusalem Light Rail Project in East Jerusalem and Qalandiya checkpoint.

From Ramallah to Jerusalem: A bus ride through the occupation - Part I: Qalandiya checkpoint

Every morning I ride the bus from Ramallah to Jerusalem and every evening I return. This roughly 15 km commute between the de facto capital of Palestine, Ramallah, and the capital and sacred holy city in the hearts of Palestinians, Jerusalem, is a journey through the Palestinian reality of Israeli occupation. This commute should take only 30 minutes, but typically I arrive at the office of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs (PASSIA) nearly two hours after I begin.

I live in Kafr 'Aqab a village just south of Ramallah in an apartment building on the main road between Ramallah and Qalandiya checkpoint. My work day begins by picking up a service taxi (multi-person taxi) to go to Qalandiya, and I typically arrive at the checkpoint 10 minutes after stepping out of my apartment building. After completing the quickest and easiest part of my journey to Jerusalem, I am forced to navigate through Qalandiya checkpoint, one of the best and most famous examples of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Jerusalem.

Until about a month ago, traveling through Qalandiya was relatively easy. Every morning, I would say to the taxi driver "an duk laws a macht" and then hop out of the taxi and get into a bus going to Jerusalem. Being an international I could go through Qalandiya on the bus and simply show my passport and VISA to the soldier who checks IDs and passports at the vehicle checkpoint (see slideshow to the right). Women with babies, school-aged children (depending on the mood of the particular soldier), men and women over 50, and those with medical conditions also were allowed to ride through the checkpoint on a bus.

However, in mid-March, the ride through policy was abruptly changed and all Palestinians and internationals were then required to walk through the checkpoint terminal. These changes occurred with absolutely no notice, explanation, or justification. No soldiers or police at Qalandiya either would or could tell anyone why the ride through policy had been halted. Now instead of it taking 15 minutes to load up the bus at the checkpoint and ride through, I often spend 45 minutes waiting in line and walking through checkpoint security, including four different turnstiles.

The walking terminal resembles a cross between an entrance to a concentration camp and a livestock corral, and the entire terminal is comprised of either concrete or metal. After entering a 'waiting area' where a sign eloquently states "please keep the terminal clean," I take my place at the end of one of three lines of people waiting to enter three corresponding metal corrals (picture above left) leading to a manned checkpoint station where you pass through a metal detector, have your bags x-rayed, and have your identification examined (picture above right). After spending 15-20 minutes waiting in line in the 'waiting area' and in the corral, I pass through a turnstile and line up behind another turnstile leading to the manned checkpoint station (see slideshow to the right). Each of these stations have on average 15 people waiting behind the turnstile.

It is in these lines that I have witnessed some of saddest and most humiliating and degrading scenes in my life. Often at the busiest times, when there are roughly 25 people waiting at each station, all sense of order and compassion for others breaks down. Everyone starts pushing and shoving to enter the turnstile with 2-3 people squeezing into each revolving space on the turnstile, which are designed to fit one person. These are men who are trying desperately to get to work on time, students in primary and secondary school and university who need to make it to class, women with children younger than six who are simply trying to make it through the chaos safely. I've seen teenagers getting in shouting matches with adults, I've seen fights (the police blow their whistles to break them up), I've seen children start crying after getting crushed between people shoving their way into the turnstile, I've seen women with babies get pushed out of the way, I've seen people forced to go to another station for no apparent reason after waiting in one line for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, what are the Israeli soldiers and police who are monitoring the checkpoint with assault rifles doing to help? Literally, nothing. Their ambivalence and lack of concern towards Palestinians going through the checkpoint reveals much about the root of the conflict. This is particularly apparent when one tries to pass through the 2nd turnstile into the manned checkpoint station where your ID is checked by a soldier in a 'control room' behind bulletproof glass. The soldiers behind the glass control access to the station and electronically open and close the turnstile, allowing only three people in at a time. Often the soldiers wait 2 minutes, 4 minutes, 5 minutes, or however long they wish before opening the turnstile to allow people through, thus slowing the process tremendously and increasing the number of people in line.

When you look through the metal bars into their 'control room,' you see the soldiers eating food, laughing, and talking on their cell phones, completely unconcerned about the lives of the people behind the turnstile. On one occasion, when I was waiting to walk through the metal detector and have my passport checked, a Palestinian girl no more than 15 years old walked out of the interrogation room bawling followed by the checkpoint commander. While I was waiting for five minutes to pass through, he stood by her while she continued to cry in full view of all the people waiting in line behind me.

Incidents such as this and those described above are particularly disturbing because they are in sharp contrast to Arab-Palestinian culture. This culture, which is based on a tremendous respect for elders and a preferential treatment of women with children, fractures and is fundamentally debased as a result of checkpoints such as Qalandiya.

I will never forget the words of man at Qalandiya when after being stuck in a corral together for 15 minutes he turned to me and said, "Where is Obama now?"

I encourage you to click on the photograph slideshow on the right, which contains a series of images of Qalandiya that will give my description of the checkpoint a visual perspective. I have also provided a map (created by Imad Farrah) at the top of my blog that outlines my bus route from Ramallah to Jerusalem.