The UN perspective of East Jerusalem

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian territory (OCHA) promotes inter-agency coordination for more effective humanitarian assistance. The office is concerned with all occupied Palestinian territory, but this blog will focus on its information about East Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in 1967 and annexed in 1980.

Around 293,000 Palestinians live there, in addition to 200,000 Israeli settlers in settlements built contrary to international humanitarian law (Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention). About 4 million Palestinians from the remainder of the occupied Palestinian territory cannot enter East Jerusalem without Israeli-issued permits, which are difficult to obtain.

Most Palestinians living in East Jerusalem are "permanent residents" rather than citizens of Israel, and they have to prove that their "center of life" is within the Israeli-defined municipal  boundary. More than 14,000 East Jerusalem Palestinians have had their residency revoked since 1967. The family reunification process for a spouse from outside East Jerusalem has become virtually impossible since Israel passed the Nationality and Entry Into Israel Law in 2003. It is hard to register children when one parent is not a Jerusalem resident, and there may be 10,000 unregistered children in East Jerusalem. OCHA says "Combined with land expropriation, restrictive zoning and planning, demolitions and evictions, and the inadequate provision of resources and investment in East Jerusalem...this residency policy not only increases humanitarian vulnerability but risks undermining the Palestinian presence in East Jerusalem."

35% of land in East Jerusalem has been confiscated for Israeli settlement use; only 13% of East Jerusalem is zoned for Palestinian construction, much of which is already built up. At least 33% of all Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem lack Israeli-issued building permits, which are difficult to obtain, potentially placing at least 93,100 residents at risk of displacement. Since 1967 Israeli authorities have demolished over 2,000 houses in East Jerusalem. (See below for the latest demolition.)

OCHA office in East Jerusalem

OCHA says about 2,000 settlers live in the heart of Palestinian neighborhoods, concentrated in the so-called "Holy Basin" that includes several communities, among them Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah. In those two places alone one Palestinian was killed and least 430 have been injured in settler attacks and clashes with Israeli forces and private security guards in the last four years.

For more information and maps from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian territory, see http://www.ochaopt.org/

House demolition in At-Tur

We witnessed another home demolition today on the last working day of our EAPPI volunteer assignment. In the village of At-Tur it took the giant bulldozer two hours to destroy the addition of the home of a family of 45, 17 of whom were living in the addition. It was the fourth time it has been demolished. The family says the bulldozer just happened to be in the neighborhood, and could not get close enough to destroy the house that was on the schedule.

Owner Kayed Jaradat talks to the media by the rubble