I have been in Jerusalem four days on a tour with a U.S. Academic organization that is introducing us to Palestinian universities and faculty and to what life under Israeli occupation is like. We are also meeting with NGOs in each city we are visiting. We have spent several days touring Jerusalem, but have also been to the occupied West Bank each day. Our days have been intense and full, and often sad and dismaying; the graciousness of the pPalestinian people in the face of occupation is truly imoressive. They are the spirit of resilience! Today is the first day ive felt the need to combat my fatigue and write. It is all so overwhelming to try to narrate what we have seen and often I am too tired and too overwhelmed to write anything. Only now this morning do I have the mental space to write about my first days here. On Sunday morning we got a tour from a local man who lives here in east Jerusalem and who is part of a network of organizations that are trying to preserve the city of Jerusalem as an international city that represents the heritage, culture, aspirations, interests, and faiths of All peoples. Our guide,Mahmood, was born in this city and declares that is he is a human being first and Jerusalemite second.
We start at the gate nearest our hotel in East Jerusalem, (it is important to know that East Jerusalem has been under Israaeli military occupation since 1967) where Mahmood points out all the things that have changed about the wall surrounding the city since its Roman, Ottoman and now Israeli control. We enter the Old City and the first thing he shows us is the Indian hospice, one of many similar places inside the old city that represent its international character, and a place where people from around the world where people came to express their faith, worship, and build places of refuge for thie pilgrims.The Indian hospice is one of many buildings, he says, which represent the international status of Jerusalem, and one of the many reasons our guide lives here. "I believe Jerusalem is a model for the world of how people live together and cultivate peace and harmony, he says. from the Damascus gate, we wind our way through the city stopping to learn about the history of the various buildings and their significance to each faith.
But interspersed with this narrative is the story of what is happening in the Old city for Palestinians today. Since 1967 East Jerusalem has been under Israeli occupation. What that has meant for them is a growing effort to control their movements, their housing, and the spatial parameters of every aspects of their lives. Mahmood was born in Jerusalem, and yet he like all Palestinian Jerusalemites,must have a permit to live here and must show their permit at checkpoints surrounding the city if the armed Israeli soldiers request it. What I have also learned is that manyPalestinians simply cannot live in Jerusalem. There is a concerted effort on the part of the Israeli state to minimize, erase, and what is called "de-Palestinianize" Jerusalem. Mahmood described how most Palestinian East Jerusalemites have to go through to continue living here. If a Palestinian leaves his or her home for more than three months, the israeli authorities confiscate their homes and they are given to the israeli municipality or given to settlers. We saw several settlements in the old city they are homes that formerly belonged to Palestinians but which have been occupied by Jews (often ideologically right wing American jews who see this as reclaiming the biblical lands for themselves. We also learned a great deal about the regular and systematized policy of Palestinian home demolition in east jerusalem. Because of crowded living conditions there, no remodeling or additions can be done without an israeli building permit. On our walking tour we met a Palestinian man whose has lived in Jerusalem continuously for hundreds of years--and yet he must apply for a permit to the Israelis to fix his plumbing. He told us that he was doing the repairs without a permit because in his small house inhabited by ten people, he absolutely needed to do these repairs. Applying for Permits to repair, remodel, make additions to Israeli authorities often cost thousands of dollars and are routinely denied.
However, if a Palestinian family builds without a permit, their entire homes are subject to fines and often demolition. The man we spoke to had done one addition without a permit and he was forced to demolish it once.he rebuilt it a second time and told us they can show up at any time with bulldozers. It is a waiting game. In addition to the fines for not having a permit, they are forced to pay the israelis to actually demolish their homes or they must do the demolition themselves. Our guide asked the gentleman why he was building without a permit and the man replied, "because it is my right to live in Jerusalem! I must resist the occupation!" He also told us that many of his neighbors had had their homes completely destroyed since the 1967 occupation or routinely have their homes confiscated (they weld the doors shut) if they had stayed outside of Jerusalem for more than three months. Our guide showed us photos of several houses that had been razed during the 1967 military occupation of east jerusalem and numerous homes that have been occupied by settlers in recent years.
Mahmood showed us where he lived inthe oldcity--a compound of around five or six smaller houses that share a common courtyard. Among these families twenty people share two bathrooms. The families have applied fper a permit but because it costs and they were denied they gave up. These policies of requiring permits, routinely issuing demolition orders are part of a systematic campaign to minmize,erase, and control Palestinian life,space, movement and economics inJerusalem. Although east Jerusalemites pay plenty of taxes they no representation on the city council. Another thing you notice about the effects of Israeli occupation is that it seeks to undermine the image of Palestinians by denying them services in that city. Trash cans are hardly visible and trash is everywhere. Mahmood told us that for the entire sector of east Jerusalem, there are something like Two municipal trash collectors to serve the residents of the old city. So, guess what-- there is a lot of trash and it creates a perception which reinforces an image of Palestinians living in a ghetto which probably gets cemented in the minds of many that I cannot help seeing serves the interests of occupiers that resonAtes with an image that has been repeated overhand over in history: native Americans on reservations who sit around and drink; thE image ofdirtyjewas in Warsaw ghettoes; African americans who live in urban blight and poverty. This is segregation. I cannot say it any other way!
The policy of home demolition is part of the occupation strategy to try to forcePalestinian residents to leave the old city and east jerusalem by making living conditions unbearable through home demolition, economic deprivation, controlling sand confining their movement in the city, and allowing hostile settlers to move into their neighborhoods and have the protection of Israeli soldiers. Jerusalem is a beautiful city but this is the ugly underbelly of Israeli occupation that thousands of Christian pilgrims never see. This is occupation! I cannot sugarcoat it; I have seen it with my own eyes. I have heard the stories of Palestinians living under this system. I thought I understood what this was from reading books, articles, but this--the only way to say it is how they have told us over and over again:" this is suffering, this is inhumanity; this is indignity."
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| A preschool in the Old City. The Arab population had to fight and demonstrate to keep this area of the Old City from being razed by the Israelis. They made a case for keeping some Palestinian schools in the Old City but it was the result of a long fight starting in the 2000s. |
We start at the gate nearest our hotel in East Jerusalem, (it is important to know that East Jerusalem has been under Israaeli military occupation since 1967) where Mahmood points out all the things that have changed about the wall surrounding the city since its Roman, Ottoman and now Israeli control. We enter the Old City and the first thing he shows us is the Indian hospice, one of many similar places inside the old city that represent its international character, and a place where people from around the world where people came to express their faith, worship, and build places of refuge for thie pilgrims.The Indian hospice is one of many buildings, he says, which represent the international status of Jerusalem, and one of the many reasons our guide lives here. "I believe Jerusalem is a model for the world of how people live together and cultivate peace and harmony, he says. from the Damascus gate, we wind our way through the city stopping to learn about the history of the various buildings and their significance to each faith.
 |
| Garbanzo bean seller at the entry to the Damascus Gate. |
But interspersed with this narrative is the story of what is happening in the Old city for Palestinians today. Since 1967 East Jerusalem has been under Israeli occupation. What that has meant for them is a growing effort to control their movements, their housing, and the spatial parameters of every aspects of their lives. Mahmood was born in Jerusalem, and yet he like all Palestinian Jerusalemites,must have a permit to live here and must show their permit at checkpoints surrounding the city if the armed Israeli soldiers request it. What I have also learned is that manyPalestinians simply cannot live in Jerusalem. There is a concerted effort on the part of the Israeli state to minimize, erase, and what is called "de-Palestinianize" Jerusalem. Mahmood described how most Palestinian East Jerusalemites have to go through to continue living here. If a Palestinian leaves his or her home for more than three months, the israeli authorities confiscate their homes and they are given to the israeli municipality or given to settlers. We saw several settlements in the old city they are homes that formerly belonged to Palestinians but which have been occupied by Jews (often ideologically right wing American jews who see this as reclaiming the biblical lands for themselves. We also learned a great deal about the regular and systematized policy of Palestinian home demolition in east jerusalem. Because of crowded living conditions there, no remodeling or additions can be done without an israeli building permit. On our walking tour we met a Palestinian man whose has lived in Jerusalem continuously for hundreds of years--and yet he must apply for a permit to the Israelis to fix his plumbing. He told us that he was doing the repairs without a permit because in his small house inhabited by ten people, he absolutely needed to do these repairs. Applying for Permits to repair, remodel, make additions to Israeli authorities often cost thousands of dollars and are routinely denied.
 |
| The Lion's gate (facing the Mount of Olives) where the Israeli Defense Forces entered and forcibly took East Jerusalem and have been occupying it since 1967. |
However, if a Palestinian family builds without a permit, their entire homes are subject to fines and often demolition. The man we spoke to had done one addition without a permit and he was forced to demolish it once.he rebuilt it a second time and told us they can show up at any time with bulldozers. It is a waiting game. In addition to the fines for not having a permit, they are forced to pay the israelis to actually demolish their homes or they must do the demolition themselves. Our guide asked the gentleman why he was building without a permit and the man replied, "because it is my right to live in Jerusalem! I must resist the occupation!" He also told us that many of his neighbors had had their homes completely destroyed since the 1967 occupation or routinely have their homes confiscated (they weld the doors shut) if they had stayed outside of Jerusalem for more than three months. Our guide showed us photos of several houses that had been razed during the 1967 military occupation of east jerusalem and numerous homes that have been occupied by settlers in recent years.
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| Our wonderful guide Mahmood and one of the other professors, Jess. |
The policy of home demolition is part of the occupation strategy to try to forcePalestinian residents to leave the old city and east jerusalem by making living conditions unbearable through home demolition, economic deprivation, controlling sand confining their movement in the city, and allowing hostile settlers to move into their neighborhoods and have the protection of Israeli soldiers. Jerusalem is a beautiful city but this is the ugly underbelly of Israeli occupation that thousands of Christian pilgrims never see. This is occupation! I cannot sugarcoat it; I have seen it with my own eyes. I have heard the stories of Palestinians living under this system. I thought I understood what this was from reading books, articles, but this--the only way to say it is how they have told us over and over again:" this is suffering, this is inhumanity; this is indignity."
 |
| This Palestinian family in the Old City has already had their home demolished by the Israelis several times. When we saw him the owner was installing new plumbing without a permit. He knew that he might face yet another demolition by the Israelis but said, "We have to live, and we have to resist their efforts to drive us out, to cleanse us from our homes." |
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