- The UN General Assembly's 1947 Resolution 181 internationalized
Jerusalem as a separate body (a corpus separatum), administered by a UN
Trustee Council, a policy still binding but not followed. Nor have other
resolutions or international law provisions Israel rejects, ones interfering
with its military occupation, affecting E. Jerusalem Palestinians repressively
since June 1967, more still after passage of the July 30, 1980 Basic Law,
declaring "Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel."
-
- Yet on June 30, 1980, the Security Council unanimously
adopted Resolution 476 (America abstaining), declaring "all legislative
and administrative measures and actions taken by Israel, the occupying
Power, which purport to alter the character and status of the Holy City
of Jerusalem have no legal validity and constitute a flagrant (Fourth Geneva)
violation."
-
- Following Israel's non-compliance, the SC unanimously
passed Resolution 478 (America again abstaining), "censur(ing Israel)
in the strongest term" for enacting the Jerusalem Basic Law, calling
it a violation of international law, saying the Council doesn't recognize
it, and telling member states to withdraw their diplomatic missions from
the city.
-
- The Security Council and General Assembly reaffirmed
their positions that East Jerusalem is occupied territory, that expropriating
its land is illegal, and that all Israeli legislative and administrative
measures, altering the city's character and status, are null and void and
must be rescinded forthwith. To this day, Israel never complied, continuing
its relentless policies of land seizures, home demolitions, and dispossessions,
flagrantly flouting its obligations under international law.
-
- Also its illegal occupation in defiance of Hague Regulation
43, stating:
-
- "The authority of the legitimate power having in
fact passed into the hands of the occupant, the latter shall take all the
measures in (its) power to restore, and ensure, as far as possible, public
order and safety, while respecting, unless absolutely prevented, the laws
in force in the country."
-
- In addition, temporary administrative powers only are
authorized, legitimate sovereignty to be restored as soon as possible,
never indeterminately held by the occupier, what Israel has done for over
43 years, preventing the restoration of the pre-war status quo.
-
- Under Article 64, Fourth Geneva explained it further,
stating:
-
- "The penal laws of the occupied territory shall
remain in force, with the exception that they may be suspended by the Occupying
Power in cases where they constitute a (legitimate) threat to its security
or an obstacle to the application of the present Convention....
-
- The Occupying Power may, however, subject the population
of the occupied territory to provisions, which are essential to enable
the Occupying Power to fulfill its obligations under the present Convention,
to maintain the orderly government of the territory, and to ensure the
security of the Occupying Power, of members and property of the occupying
forces or administration...."
-
- The Occupier may do nothing to enhance the economic or
political deterioration of territory it controls, or permit societal chaos
in it by its actions or inaction. Nor may it deprive the public of their
rights and protections under Geneva or do anything in violation of international
humanitarian law, such as imposing collective punishment, forcible transfers,
or confiscations of private property. It may enact no laws or impose any
measures that violate its legal obligations.
-
- For the past 43 years, especially since July 30, 1980
in East Jerusalem, Israel has systematically and willfully flouted the
law, severely repressing Palestinians, (protected persons under Fourth
Geneva), aimed at displacing them.
-
- In her 1999 book, "Separate and Unequal: The Inside
Story of Israeli Rule in East Jerusalem," former Advisor on Arab Affairs
under Teddy Kollek, (Jerusalem's mayor from 1965 - 1993), Amir Cheshin,
explained Israeli policy saying:
-
- "Israel's leaders adopted two basic principles in
their rule of East Jerusalem. The first was to rapidly increase (its) Jewish
population....The second was to hinder growth of the Arab population and
to force Arab residents to make their homes elsewhere."
-
- Since 1967, it was binding Israeli policy, evident today
from the Haaretz Akiva Eldar and Nir Hasson June 28 article, headlined
"Jerusalem master plan: Expansion of Jewish enclaves across the city,"
saying:
-
- "The Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee
is set to approve an unprecedented master plan that calls for the expansion
of Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem....The committee's proposal would
codify the municipality's planning policy for the entire city," those
objecting allowed 60 days to respond. However, at this "stage in the
planning process," rarely ever are plans altered, its approval "a
fate accompli," regardless of criticisms voiced.
-
- Envisioned for years, architects have been working on
it for over a decade to replace an earlier 1959 plan, eight years before
the Six Day War. Once approved, accelerated Palestinian home demolitions
and dispossessions will follow, Al Jazeera reporting on June 22 that 22
Silwan neighborhood homes will be replaced by a new tourist center, Jerusalem
Mayor Nir Barkat announced, final approval pending, Silwan residents saying
it "fast-track(s the city's) Judaisation," preempting "the
possibility of Jerusalem ever being a shared city, or indeed capital of
a Palestinian state. This in itself precludes peace."
-
- Israeli officials said all 88 Silwan homes are illegal.
The remaining 66 may retroactively apply for construction permits, but
under a Kafkaesque approval process, all may be demolished, replaced by
parks, open spaces, restaurants, boutique hotels, and Jewish only housing
- 70 Jewish families already living in Silwan. Others will follow, the
same pattern repeated throughout the city - Palestinians displaced, their
homes demolished and land expropriated to make all Jerusalem exclusively
Jewish, in violation of international law, Fourth Geneva prohibiting property
destruction and land seizures in occupied territory.
-
- On June 26, the Palestine Monitor reported that "Hundreds
of Israelis joined Palestinians and international peace activists in (Silwan)
streets, (protesting) the decision to destroy Palestinian homes, (a) historic
show of support....," likely to fare no better than opposition to
other Israeli plans over the past decade, failing to stop about 900 demolitions
displacing Palestinians.
-
- Through June 2009, the Israeli Committee Against House
Demolitions (ICAHD) reported thousands more - an estimated 24,145 in the
West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza since 1967, 4,247 alone during Cast
Lead, others occurring regularly, illegal under international law, what
Israel disdains and rejects, even though a signatory to many, including
Geneva.
-
- Under its illegal expropriation policy, B'Tselem reported
that the "the Israeli government has choked (Palestinian) development
and building...." In June 1967, it annexed nearly 18,000 acres in
East Jerusalem and the West Bank, incorporating them within Jerusalem's
borders, over one-third expropriated, most of it Arab-owned, then used
for thousands of Jews only housing, none for the city's Palestinians.
-
- "The Jerusalem Municipality did not establish outline
plans for the Palestinian areas. The few (approved) plans....were primarily
to prevent new construction by declaring broad expanses of land 'green
areas,' restricting" construction. Overall, the Municipality enforces
building laws "much more stringently" on Palestinians than on
Jews, "even though the number of violations is much higher in the
Jewish neighborhoods."
-
- East Jerusalem "Aggressive Urbanism"
-
- The Civic Coalition for Defending Palestinians Rights
in Jerusalem (CCDPRJ) is a non-profit NGO, "dedicated to the protection
and promotion of Palestinian rights in Jerusalem." In December 2009,
it published a report titled, "Aggressive Urbanism: Urban Planning
and the Displacement of Palestinians within and from Occupied East Jerusalem,"
accessed through the following link:
-
- http://www.ccdprj.ps/new/pdfs/Aggressive%20Urbanism%20Report.pdf
-
- Since 1967, Israel has pursued a systematic home demolition/expropriation/displacement
policy, illegally affecting thousands of Palestinian residents on the pretext
of "unlicensed construction," to achieve a "demographic
balance" to consolidate Israel's control of the city, taking it then
to the next level, Judaizing all Jerusalem to make it exclusively Jewish.
-
- To accomplish it, the Jerusalem Municipality and Interior
Ministry "drafted, adopted and vigorously implemented a series of
discriminatory laws, policies, and practices that collectively constitute
the Israeli planning regime in occupied East Jerusalem," authorizing
confiscation of Palestinian land, restricting construction on the remainder,
reducing building density, imposing a Kafkaesque building permit process,
the result being to deny Palestinian rights on their own land, impose severe
hardships, and force them to move and lose more, including their residency
permits to return.
-
- Without Israeli permission, those building new homes
or extending existing ones risk demotions, fines, and displacement, a patently
illegal process. Yet the Municipal authority "dictates where and when
Palestinians can build," as well as whether they can do it at all
under the 1965 Israeli Planning and Building Law, providing "a thin
veil of legitimacy" by systematically denying permits, prohibiting
construction, and demolishing homes in violation.
-
- This law, others, and official policies constitute Israel's
discriminatory, illegal planning system, implemented ruthlessly against
Palestinians, given no recourse but to object and be denied nearly always.
As a result, East Jerusalemites face an acute housing crisis, their right
to live freely on their land denied, many forced to relocate or build without
permits, risking recrimination and dispossession.
-
- Amir Cheshin explained more about her experience under
Teddy Kollek, saying:
-
- "Israel has transformed urban planning into a tool
in the hands of the Government whose object is to prevent the spread of
the non-Jewish population of the city. This was (and remains) a cruel policy,
if only by reason of the fact that it disregards the needs (and rights)
of the Palestinian residents. Israel regarded the institution of a stringent
urban planning policy as a way to restrict the number of new houses being
constructed in Palestinian neighbourhoods (sic), and thus ensure that the
percentage of Palestinian residents in the city's population - 28.8% in
1967 - would not increase."
-
- "If we permit 'too many' new homes to be built in
Palestinian neighbourhoods, that will mean 'too many' Palestinian residents
in the city. The idea is to move as many Jewish residents as possible to
Occupied East Jerusalem and to move as many Palestinians as possible out
of the city altogether. Housing policy in Occupied East Jerusalem has focused
on this numbers game."
-
- By so doing, it flouts international law, denies Palestinians
their legal rights, imposes repression and violence under occupation, making
Israel a rogue state, under lawless governments, defiling democratic principles
of human rights, civil liberties, judicial fairness, and fundamental freedoms,
ones afforded solely to Jews - how Israel has always been run.
-
- Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com
and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the
Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays
at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs
are archived for easy listening.
-
- http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
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