Decimation of Palestinians in Occupied Territories of Palestine
The Society of St Yves wishes to bring to the attention of Christians
in the world that the Israeli government has begun to implement systematically
policies and practices that are intended to wipe out the Christian community
of East Jerusalem and the West Bank in occupied Palestine. The following
steps are now being put fully into effect:
1.Resident Aliens
Christians and Muslims who live in occupied Palestine
are resident aliens according to Israeli legal practice.They
are not recognized as natives, or indigenous people having the right to
live where they were born - rights known as the ius soli - nor do they
have the rights to live here as the descendants of local natives - rights
known as the ius sanguinis.
Israel does not recognize the rights of non Jews to family in areas under
its domination. This means of course that nonJewish society and its needs
is not taken into consideration at all by the Israeli authorities.
2. JERUSALEM DENIAL OF HOUSING
The Israelis have forbidden all new buildings and proper external
renovations of Christian property in the Christian quarter of the Old City
of Jerusalem and have thus managed to restrict the number of Christians
living in the Old city. Living conditions are over-crowded, unsanitary
and inadequate in most cases, as a result of these laws.
3.Spot Zoned
The East Jerusalem Arab villages and neighbourhoods
have been "spot" zoned: that is, 90% of Arab owned land
is left unzoned so that it cannot legally be used. Therefore of no economic
value and cannot be sold. The 10% that has been zoned most of which is
defined as "open landscape area" has left Arabs
with a shortfall of approximately 23,000 apartments.
4. Living Sapce
In East Jerusalem Arabs have about 3 sq. m. living space per person:
in Jewish areas of both East and West Jerusalem, Jews have about 19 sq.
m. living space per person. To exemplify this disparity, the figures are
such that between 1990 and 1993, 6607 houses were built by the public authorities
for Jews, while private Palestinians could only build 463 houses.
5. Location of buildings
Where building can take place, Arabs have to pay now about $30,000 for
a licence and levies. Jews have their housing built with a pre-prepared
infrastructure which is included in the price, and for which they receive
subsidised mortgages. Also there are no land costs in Jewish building.
6. New Jewish Neighborhoods
The Israelis have built only new Jewish neighbourhoods in occupied East
Jerusalem on confiscated and expropriated Arab land sometimes using the
pretext of law as a justifcation. There is no public housing with public
subsidies for Arabs.
7. Moving out & lack of housing
These policies and practices have forced people to move out
of Israeli-defined Jerusalem into the neighbouring towns of Ramallah and
Bethlehem and the adjacent villages.
This lack of housing now is now being used against the Palestinians who
live in the West Bank even though they have Jerusalem identity cards, thus
denying them their rights in Jerusalem
DENIAL OF SOCIAL BENEFITS AND RIGHTS
In the latest clamp down by the Israeli authorities - the Ministry
of Interior, the Ministry of Internal Security (sic: formerly the Police
Ministry) Christians working in Jerusalem and carrying Jerusalem identity
cards who have been living in Bethlehem and Ramallah and other villages,
are about to lose
their right to work in Jerusalem, and with it their rights to social security,
child support and health insurance, for which they have paid during their
entire professional lives.
FORCED EXPULSION AND ETHNIC CLEANSING
10. The loss of work and the attendant loss of income, together
with the loss of benefits these identity cards confer, will create a situation
whereby Christians are being forced to turn to their relatives abroad in
order for them to find a place where they can find work, and take care
of their
families.
11.Such emigration is the direct result of Israeli policies and is in fact
a form of expulsion, or "voluntary transfer," as Israeli politicians
euphemistically call it.
12. People who have been living abroad because of the need to work there
or to study, are now being denied a renewal of their Jerusalem identity
cards and therefore are automatically losing their rights to Jerusalem
residency with all its attendant consequences. They are being turned into
exiles!
LOSS OF PROPERTY RIGHTS
13. The loss of a Jerusalem identity card also means that heirs
to Jerusalem property who are no longer living in Jerusalem will lose their
property to the Israeli government under the guise that this is now Absentee
Property according to Israeli law. This is one of the basic goals of Zionist
policy.
LOCAL CHRISTIANS - ALIEN RESIDENTS
14. At the same time, there are Christians who have been living
in Jerusalem for many years who have been refused Jerusalem identity cards,
and they live in abject terror of the Israeli authorities finding them.
Their children have difficulty attending schools, particularly if they
are in either
Ramallah and Bethlehem. These people have no rights whatsoever.
DESTRUCTION OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION
15. Christian schools have been severely hit by these regulations,
which have seriously affected teachers and pupils living in Bethlehem or
Ramallah.
These schools will probably have to close down or move out of Jerusalem.And
this after more than one hundred years of operation.
WEST BANK
16. The confinement of Christians and all Arabs to Palestinian micro-areas
- ghettos or "palestans" - is the implementation of the new political
and economic dispensation of Oslo: hafrada in Hebrew and apartheid in Afrikaans.
This is part of the continuing Zionist policies of all Israeli government
to make the Jewish state as free of non-Jews as possible. For all governments
this covers "Greater Israel" which means all of Palestine west
of the Jordan river.
17. The practices in Jerusalem apply equally in the West Bank. The removal
of identity cards for people living abroad, and loss of property rights
applies here as well. The lack of housing as a result of
non-planning, and the general de-development of this territory leaves people
with no work. There are also no economic prospects for the future.
18. The residents of the West Bank suffer a serious shortage of water in
order to permit the Jews to have water on tap without restriction in the
West Bank and Israel proper. Jews are allocated 280 litres/day and Arabs
65 litres/day according to Israeli sources. Palestinians pay up to 6 times
as
much for their water than Jews do!
19. West Bank Christians are seriously contemplating leaving the area as
they are faced with chronic unemployment and ultimate starvation. As a
result of these deliberately created atrocious living conditions, we are
now about to witness an enforced exodus of Christians from the Holy Land
where they have been witnesses for the past 2000 years. The celebration
of Jesus, birth in the year 2000 will be in the presence of a dying remnant
of Christians in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
The Society of St. Yves maintains that the governments of Israel are creating
those conditions which inevitably lead to the death of the Palestinian
Christian community in the occupied territories including East Jerusalem.
Please send this message to everyone you know. Write a letter for clarification
of these issues to the Israeli embassy nearest to you in protest. Please
forward theirresponses to us and we will give you the truth as against
their prevarication.
Please come to our aid and please start campaigning to prevent this exile!!
Lynda Brayer, Advocate
Executive Legal Director
Society of St. Yves - Catholic Legal Resource and
Human Rights Center
Jerusalem/Bethlehem
********* I am my brother's keeper ********
Please help us with your prayers and take a stand to speak about Justice
and
Peace in the Holy Land. Thanks
POB 20531 Jerusalem Email- styves@netvision.net.il
Tel.972-2-286-729 Fax: 972-2-286-339