J.K. | Summer Camp Participant
Reconstruction of the two houses is going well. White finishing coat of plaster and tile floor installation are progressing in the big house, and wiring and plumbing are nearly completed in the small house, which still requires external plaster.
Meir Margalit: Home demolition in East Jerusalem
After the midday meal, Meir reviewed home demolition based on his extensive experience as a municipal official. East Jerusalem has about 270,000 Palestinians, 33% of the municipality’s population, and pay 30% of the taxes, but receive only 10% of the municipal budget. Palestinians in East Jerusalem are included as residents but, unlike new Jewish immigrants, not citizens.
Why this discrimination? The “demographic phantom” – the fear that by 2015 or 2020, Palestinians in the Jerusalem municipality will outnumber Jewish Israelis and will therefore be able to elect the mayor, a terrifying prospect. So everything possible is done to encourage them to leave, including denial of building permits and demolition of houses.
The process of demolition begins with serving the demolition order. This doesn’t have to go into the hands of the owner – it’s sufficient to cello-tape it to the wall of the building. As we have seen, in this environment a piece of cello-tape is not necessarily going to hold a paper to the wall. It may drop off, blow away, whatever. Thus many whose houses are under a demolition order don’t find out until the soldiers come to demolish the house, perhaps years later.
There are about 1000 “illegal” houses built a year, but the demolition budget is only about $1,000,000 (4.6m NIS), not nearly enough to demolish them all, which is why they don’t do more.
Example: the little house we watched cost about 70,000NIS to destroy. They demolished several other houses that day and spent about $300,000.
Demolition orders never expire, so some families live in fear for years or even decades waiting for the blow to fall. Others are taken by surprise, never having seen the order, and when they ask are shown perhaps a 15-year-old piece of paper.
When the soldiers come for the demolition, they approach and surround the area – perhaps a whole village – usually at 4 or 5 in the morning. This leads to a period of terrific stress as they slowly close in: whose house will it be? Mine? My neighbor’s? My cousin’s? Meir related the story of one woman who chose to terminate her pregnancy during this time of stress.
At last the soldiers arrive at the house. If ICAHD is informed, sometimes they can work quickly to find an error in the process or some other way and get a freeze order, postponing the demolition.
At such times, when the municipality tries to contact the demolition crew and let them know about the freeze order, often the cell phones of the demolition crew and other lines of communication suddenly stop working. Perhaps they’re in an area with no cell coverage, or there’s some network problem. Or the call doesn’t come until just after the demolition is over. Or they hurry up – before the furniture is removed, even – and get a couple of good bangs in against the house, and then afterwards the municipal engineers examine the house and declare it unsafe – so it has to be demolished anyway.
Matrix of Control Tour
A tour of East Jerusalem and environs followed, led by Catherina. She explained that there are three rings of control, beginning with houses purchased by Jews in the heart of the Palestinian Old City, followed by Jewish “neighborhoods” such as French Hill, and finally the major outlying settlements exemplified by Ma’ale Adummim. We viewed first the Shu’fat refugee camp, which is across the wall from Anata. The camp is distinguished by grey concrete, since the refugees are not required to build in white Jerusalem stone. Outside the Palestinian village of Shu’fat are the Jewish settlements of Pisgat Ze’ev and Pisgat Omer. The wall carefully allocates all greenery to the Israelis’ territory. We passed through E1, where a large police station is under construction, to Ma’ale Adummim. Government subsidies have induced 33,000 Israelis live there currently, but the plan is to expand it to 70,000 inhabitants. The palm trees, flowers and grass throughout this settlement, which was build in desert, contrast dramatically with the surrounding environment. Per capita Israelis use five times the water that Palestinians do and pay a usage rate one fourth that paid by Palestinians. The road from Jerusalem to Jericho passes through Al Eizariya, an old Palestinian village, but that road has been cut by the wall. We viewed the wall from both sides at this point. About 20 minutes was required to drive to Ras al Amud, the village on the other side at the same point along the wall. Along the way we noted that Mt. Scopus and Hebrew University are inside the “Green Line,” but the French Hill is outside, making it a Jewish settlement. Shops and businesses along the Jericho road have closed or failed as a consequence of the decline in traffic. The difference in road quality, signage and trash collection between Israeli and Palestinian areas is dramatic. “Ideological settlements” inhabited by militant Zionists, i.e., individual buildings in Palestinian East Jerusalem purchased by wealthy U.S. Jews, were identified along our route. Finally we visited Nof Zion, a non-ideological settlement perched dramatically high on a hill overlooking most of Jerusalem. The houses here are too expensive for all but the wealthiest Israelis, and will be purchased mainly by Americans, who will visit primarily during Jewish holidays. The rest of the year Nof Zion is likely to be a “ghost” settlement.
Read more about the Matrix of Control here.
Ilan Pappe, new historian
In the evening, Ilan Pappe spoke at Dalia about his latest book and current research. He outlined the two paradigms of Israeli history and the current situation. The first he identified as the UN Resolution 242 paradigm, which is accepted by political elites in Israel, the U.S., Europe, Russia, and Palestine. This is the “land for peace” paradigm, which was reinforced by the treaty with Egypt, which traded Sinai for peace. But this paradigm has a sinister sublayer, which is to find an internationally acceptable process that satisfies Israel’s hunger for land while maintaining a Jewish demographic majority. Military ethnic cleansing was the means to realize the Zionist project, which sought to control 80-90 percent of Palestine while removing all Palestinian inhabitants. “Satisfying the beast,” according to Pappe, would allow Israel to reside in peace. He believes that now Israel would be satisfied with additional absorption of 50-55 percent of the West Bank and relocation of the Palestinians who live there. Relocation would occur through gradual attrition. No Israeli leader wants an open, dramatic dispossession of Palestinians that can be traced.
The other paradigm, according to Pappe, is the UN Resolution 313 civil society paradigm consisting of acknowledgment, accountability, and acceptance. South Africa provides an example of a country that acknowledged its role in suppressing and exploiting a different people. Israel could do the same. Accountability would be satisfied by permitting disposed Palestinians to return. Acceptance of Israel within the fabric of the Mid-East by Palestinians and other Arabs could follow. Pappe emphasized that elaborate, culturally sensitive implementation mechanisms would be necessary to bring about these three steps. He opined that a separate Palestinian state would not be economically viable, and advocated a single, binational state. As an example of how far the discussion has progressed in Israel, he noted that in two weeks the Israeli Communist Party is scheduled to debate the viability of a two-state solution, to which it previously clung.
Pappe asserted that a regime change is necessary in Israel. To bring about this change he believes that boycotts against Israel, divestment, and sanctions will be necessary. This “mad” state in the Mid-East should be contained. He opined that end of the occupation is a prerequisite to termination of the conflict.
In response to questions, Pappe indicted that he is not opposed to academic boycotts directed against either institutions or individuals. He noted that Israeli universities do not subscribe to any tenant of the European constitution. Based on recently declassified documents, he observed that in 1948 Arab states were responding to outcries from their own populations, provoked by Jewish massacres of Palestinians, when the took armed action against Israel. The Arab armies stopped at the UN designated boundaries. Incidents in 1958, 1960 and 1965 suggest that the IDF was looking for an excuse when they finally attacked in 1967.
