A Decade Behind the Separation Wall: Jerusalem’s 100,000 Outcasts
Israeli
civil rights NGO sends letter to Netanyahu saying state has violated
basic rights of an entire population, and that government's policy
'constitutes ...
HAARETZ.COM
Ten years after the separation wall was built in Jerusalem, it transpires that the state and municipality have broken almost all their promises to the tens of thousands of Israelis left on the eastern side of the fence.
The decade that has passed since Ariel Sharon’s cabinet decided to minimize the disruption in the lives of the residents east of the fence “was marked by systematically breaking all the government’s commitments,” the Association for Civil Rights in Israel wrote in a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The association accuses the state of violating the basic rights of an entire population, and says the government’s policy “constitutes criminal negligence” and the “abandonment” of the residents beyond the wall.
“The government’s policy has turned the neighborhoods into a no man’s land, in which nobody is interested and for which nobody is responsible,” wrote attorneys Nasrin Alian and Ronit Sela.
In July 2005 Sharon’s cabinet issued a detailed decision, intended to satisfy the Supreme Court that the wall would not disrupt the lives of the Palestinians residents, most of them Israeli citizens, on the eastern side of it. The cabinet tasked the government ministries and Jerusalem municipality to ensure continued health, education, infrastructure, municipal and government services to the people beyond the wall, in the neighborhoods of Ras Khamis, Ras Skhada, Hashalom, Kfar Akav, Semiramis and the Shoafat refugee camp. But practically none of this was carried out.
For example, no new schools, clinics or hospital branches opened beyond the wall, no branches of the transportation, labor or interior ministries operate there, no roads or infrastructure were built, no access for emergency vehicles was provided into the neighborhoods, no hotline for municipal services was set up at the roadblocks as promised, the waiting time at the roadblocks wasn’t shortened, and on and on.
In addition, the garbage in the neighborhoods beyond the wall is only partially collected and there is no supervision on construction, which has led to rampant illegal building. These buildings were quickly inhabited by poor people who couldn’t afford to live anywhere else and the population has multiplied. As a result, the water and sewage systems have collapsed, there is a severe shortage of public buildings, schools and classrooms and the traffic is clogged.
Mayor Barkat brushes off charges
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat recently implied he feels no responsibility for the city’s residents beyond the wall, although they live in the capital’s jurisdiction. Asked by a BBC reporter about the neighborhoods east of the wall, and especially in the Shoafat refugee camp, the mayor said, “Let me tell you something about refugees. Do you know there aren’t Jewish refugees in the world, not even one? If we find them we’ll bring them home and look after them. … With all the Arab world’s wealth they couldn’t find the time and money to help their refugees. The world must know that you can pour billions of dollars and find them good homes, not at Israel’s expense.”
The authorities themselves don’t know how many people live beyond the wall, in Jerusalem’s neighborhoods, the ACRI letter to Netanyahu says. A recent report by the Ir Amim NGO estimates the number of residents at more than 100,000 – about a third of East Jerusalem’s Palestinian population.
The Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies’ 2012 statistical yearbook estimates the number of residents beyond the wall at about 40,000, but officials believe the number is at least double that, if not more.
Since the Oslo agreements stipulate that the Palestinian Authority may not operate in Jerusalem, utter chaos reigns in the neighborhoods beyond the wall.
“Apart from policemen and soldiers, who stand at the roadblocks at the neighborhoods’ entrance, there’s no presence of Israeli authorities in these areas,” Alian and Sela wrote.
“This policy has critically breached the basic rights of tens of thousands of men and women, including the right to dignity, health, education, freedom of movement, etc. Continuing the current policy constitutes criminal negligence toward an entire population. … The men and women in the Jerusalem neighborhoods beyond the wall are completely cut off from their urban city center. They have been abandoned by the Israeli authorities. The difficult conditions they are subjected to and the intolerable restrictions on their movement at the roadblocks, as detailed in this letter in brief, constitute an ongoing violation of the government’s commitments,” they wrote.
“After 10 years, nothing has moved,” Alian said. “We’re waiting for Netanyahu’s response and then we’ll consider our moves, perhaps back to court,” she said.
The Prime Minister’s Office declined to comment on the matter.
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Nir Hasson
Haaretz Correspondent
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