14. 
 Jerusalem 



1 4 . 1 
 
 HISTORY
 

 Historical Significance: Linking Past to Present

Throughout its 5000 years of history, Jerusalem has continued to thrive as an important political and cultural center, and a
house of faith for the three monotheistic religions. This city has withstood many wars and conflicts, and despite some
turbulent events in the past, it has retained a peaceful image of unity and sacredness. However, due to its added
importance as a political symbol and a geographic center in the region, it has aroused great struggle over who has the
exclusive right of its possession. Its recent history, borne out of the Arab-Israeli conflict, has fueled a long conflict regarding
its future, and has rendered Jerusalem a vital but unresolved question in Middle East politics. Till today, the city remains the
heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The rulers of Jerusalem through history have employed continuous and well-planned
strategies of territorial, demographic, religious, and property claims in order to maintain control over the city’s sovereignty.

 Jerusalem throughout the Ages

Throughout the ages, Jerusalem has had its prosperous times of co-existence and justice as well as some
dark periods of oppressive rule and bloodshed. The earliest traces of permanent settlement in Jerusalem
dates back approximately 5000 years. The first known tribes were the Caananites and the Jebusites.
Around 3000 years ago King David conquered the city from the Jebusites and this era constitutes the
foundation of the Jewish claim to the city. The Jews were later on driven out of Jerusalem by the
Babylonians but allowed back by the Persian King Cyrus around 500 BC. A number of foreign rulers
followed and in 63 BC the Romans gained control over Jerusalem. The city remained under the rule of
the Eastern Roman Emperor until the 7th century until it opened its doors to the Caliph Omar Ibn Al-
Khattab, to whom the keys of Jerusalem were handed over by the Patriarch Safronios in 638 AD. The
Arab Muslim Caliph granted the citizens of the city, the status of “protected people” or dhimis, which
gave them the freedom to practice their religion. This was a period in which harmony and tolerance
reigned. (Armstrong, 1996)
Ibn Al-Khattab Covenant
A darker period ensued at the beginning of the 11thth Century, when the
Egyptian Caliph Al-Hakim persecuted Christians and Jews, and destroyed
the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. A later conquest of the city by the Seljuk Turks caused many
oppressive reprisals on the inhabitants of the city. The city then remained under Islamic-Arab
rule until it was captured by the Crusaders in 1099 AD. The Crusaders (“Al-Firanja”) massacred
Muslims and Jews, and turned Jerusalem into a Christian city where non-Christians were not
permitted to live. Christian rule lasted until 1187 AD when Salah Eddin conquered the city.
Salah Eddin restored Jerusalem’s true role; he left the Holy Sepulcher open to Christians and
reopened the city in 1192 for pilgrimage. Again, following the fall of Jerusalem to Fredrick II in
1229 the city was forbidden to Muslims and Jews, and in 1244 the city came under the rule of
Egypt (the Mamluks). (PASSIA Archives)
Salah Eddin Al-Aqsa Mosque
The Mamluks governed Jerusalem from Cairo (1260-1516) and were followed by the
Ottoman empire (1516-1918). The Mamluks and the Ottomans transformed the city’s
physical attributes, endowing it with splendid religious monuments. The Ottomans
built the walls and gates of the Old City (1537-1541) and renovated the Dome of the
Rock. Jerusalem remained in their hands until 1917. (Armstrong, 1996)

The British Mandate (1917-1948)

Following the 1915 Hussein-McMahon correspondence and the 1916 Sykes-Picot

Agreement concerning the future political status of the Arab lands of the Middle
East, General Edmund Allenby’s troops and the Arab Revolt defeated the Turks.
Jerusalem was captured on 9 Dec. 1917 and under the British Mandate (1917-
1948), it was recognized as the administrative and political capital of Palestine. A
municipality was formed with a balanced share of power between the three
monotheistic religions. In April 1920, the San Remo Conference awarded
administration of the former Ottoman territories of Syria and Lebanon to France,
and Palestine, Transjordan and Mesopotamia (Iraq) to Britain. Ronald Storrs
became the first British military governor of Jerusalem. (1917-26) On 24 July
1922, the League of Nations Council approved the Mandate for Palestine without
the consent of Palestinians (the terms of the Mandate became official on 29
General Edmund Allenby Sept. 1923).
Sir Ronald Storrs

392
Palestinian resistance against the British rule pressured the Mandate authorities to find a solution to the conflict in Palestine.
The British White Paper of 1922, limiting Jewish immigration to Palestine, infuriated the Zionist organizations in Palestine who
put pressure on the British through various means to allow more Jewish immigration. The Arabs continued to resist the British
Mandate policies and there were a number of uprisings and revolts against the British (1921, 1923, and 1936). The British,
however, were not consistent in their restrictions of Jewish immigration, and in many ways supported Zionist groups in their
attacks against Arabs. Following the 1939 St. James conference, Britain issued a second White Paper, which put restrictions on
Jewish immigration and promised an independent Palestine within ten years. In 1946, the Morisson-Grady Plan provided for a
British trusteeship over a federation of two autonomous provinces, one Arab and one Jewish. In 1947, the British Foreign Sec-
retary proposed a unified state under temporary British trusteeship with autonomous Arab and Jewish cantons. (Abdul-Hadi, 1985)

In February 1947, Britain announced that is was not prepared to continue to administer Palestine and turned to the newly
created United Nations for a solution. The Palestinians together with five Arab states called for an independent state in
Palestine. The United Nations did not include this demand in its agenda and instead named in May 1947 a special committee
(UNSCOP – The United Nations Special Committee on Palestine) to study the question of Palestine. In the 1947 Partition Plan
(Res. 181) UNSCOP recommended the partition of Palestine into an Arab State and a Jewish State, and that "The City of
Jerusalem (extending to Bethlehem) shall be established as a corpus separatum under a special international regime and
administered by the United Nations.” The city’s boundaries were to include the 1947 municipality of Jerusalem plus the
surrounding villages and towns. [At the time, Jerusalem – the Old City and Palestinian neighborhoods such as Talbiyeh,
Baq’a, and Katamon southwest of the city – was surrounded by 66 Palestinian villages (e.g., Deir Yassin, Lifta, Malha, Ein
Karem), while the mainly ultra-orthodox Jewish
population was concentrated in part of the Old City
and neighborhoods north-west of it.] The Jewish UN Partition Plan, Jerusalem, 29 Nov. 1947 (Res. 181)
leaders accepted the plan but the Palestinians
turned the resolution down because they considered
it unfair. The partition assigned to the proposed
Jewish state 56% of the areas of Palestine, while
Jews constituted only 33% of the population and
owned only 6% of the non-urban land. The plan
was thus never implemented.

Prior to the 1948 War, Palestinians formed the over-

whelming majority in the Jerusalem district and
owned most of the land. The last British Survey of
Palestine (Dec. 1946) made the following demo-
graphic estimates:

Population
of Jerusalem in Sub-Districts

Palestinians 65,010 150,590

Jews 99,320 102,520
Other 110 160
Total 164,440 253,270

Property Ownership 1948:

West Jerusalem Jerusalem Sub-District Western Villages

(Source: A Survey of Palestine, Britain, 1946; Sami Hadawi, Palestinian Rights and Losses in 1948. London, 1988.
NB: ‘Public’ includes land owned by Palestinian religious institutions and government land.)

393
 The 1948 Arab-Israeli War - Al-Nakba

While Arabs refer to the 1948 War as

Al-Nakba (“the catastrophe”), Israelis
call it the War of Independence.

On 14 May 1948 the Jewish Agency declared

the establishment of the State of Israel in the
part of Palestine allocated to the Jews in UN
Resolution 181. This events was one of the
starting points for the first Arab-Israeli War.

The balance of power in the war was very

unequal, with a well-equipped and trained
Zionist army fighting against poorly armed
Palestinian resistance groups, and many
Palestinian civilians fled in panic after Jewish
forces committed massacres in some villages.

Palestinian refugees crossing the

destroyed Allenby Bridge into Jordan Before the entry of the Arab armies, the Zionist forces launched two offensives –
one from Tel Aviv and one from Jerusalem itself (Dec. 1947-May 1948) – which
resulted in the conquest of West Jerusalem and the corridor leading to the coast - in
violation of the UN Partition Resolution. Until today the international community,
including the US, has never explicitly recognized Israeli sovereignty over even West Jerusalem. During the course of the War
of 1948, Jewish forces captured much of the territory assigned to the proposed Arab state, including 85% of Jerusalem
(mainly in the city’s western part and surrounding neighborhoods). The Jordanian Arab Legion took control of the West Bank,
including 11% of the eastern part of Jerusalem (including the Old City and adjacent villages).The remaining 4% of the
Jerusalem area was considered no-man's land in which the UN headquarters were established.

Some 64,000-80,000 Palestinians were

Partitioned Jerusalem, 1948-1967 forcibly driven out of or left the western
part of Jerusalem and the villages in the
immediate vicinity. In June 1948, their
property (including 10,000 homes, furniture
and businesses) came under the control of
the Israeli ‘Custodian of Absentee
Property’ (Cattan, H. Jerusalem, New York,
1981). Some 40 Palestinian villages in and
around Jerusalem were depopulated
and many of them destroyed.

The 1949 ceasefire/armistice agree-

ment between Jordan and Israel formally
divided the city into Jordanian-controlled
East and Israeli-controlled West Jeru-
salem. In 1950, the Israeli government
passed the ‘Absentee Property Law’,
which transferred the ownership of ‘left’
property to the Jewish state. This event
marks the first division of Jerusalem into
East and West Jerusalem.

On 2 Feb. 1949, Israeli PM David Ben-

Gurion unilaterally declared that Israeli-
held (West) Jerusalem was no longer oc-
cupied territory but an integral part of the
Israeli state, and on 13 Dec. 1949, West
Jerusalem was illegally (according to
international law) declared the capital of
Israel.

On 19 Dec. 1949, the UN General Assem-

bly voted for Res. 303, restating its
intention to place Jerusalem under a per-
manent international regime, which
should envisage appropriate guarantees
for the protection of the Holy Places, both
within and outside Jerusalem, and
confirm the provisions of the Partition
Resolution 181 of 1947. However, this
plan was never to be implemented.

394
 Israeli Occupation 1967:

Israel occupied the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in the course of the June War of 1967. Ever
since, Israeli objectives and policies regarding Jerusalem have followed a clear pattern: to establish irreversible facts in the
city that allow Israel to secure and maintain exclusive control. Immediately after the June War of 1967, the Israeli
government began to redefine the municipal boundaries of both parts of Jerusalem.

The Arab East Jerusalem municipal boundaries, comprising 6.5 km2, were expanded through the annexation of an
additional 70 km2 (70,000 dunums) of East Jerusalem and some 28 surrounding villages into the State of Israel's territory
(added to the 38,000 dunums of West Jerusalem at the time) (B’Tselem. A Policy of Discrimination. Jerusalem, 1995). (See
Dictionary of Palestinian Political Terms for explanation of Dunums) The new municipal boundaries, now embracing 108 km2
(East and West Jerusalem) and representing an area of 28% of the West Bank, were designed to secure geographic in-
tegrity and a demographic Jewish majority in both parts of the city. Thus, many Palestinian populated areas such as Ar-
Ram, Abu Dis, Izzariya and Qalandia Camp were excluded. On
28 June 1967, the Knesset amended the Law of 1950, which
proclaimed Jerusalem as Israel's capital, to extend illegally
Israeli jurisdiction to the eastern part of the city. One of
the first moves after the war was the forceful eviction of over
6,000 Palestinians from the Old City’s Mughrabi Quarter and
the destruction of their houses (numbering at least 135) in
order to create a plaza in front of Al-Buraq (Western Wall). On
4 July 1967, UN General Assembly Resolution 2253 called
upon Israel to “rescind all measures taken (and) to desist
forthwith from taking any action which would alter the status
of Jerusalem.” In total disregard of the resolution, Israel
confiscated over 25,870 dunums of Palestinian land in Jerusa-
lem in the first three years of occupation alone (UN. Report of
the Security Council Commission, Nov. 1980 – S-14268).
The Western Wall in 1967

 Israeli Policies Since 1967:

Israel’s strategies regarding Jerusalem,

enacted at municipal level with the uncon-
ditional support of the national government,
were masterminded by former mayor Teddy
Kollek whose plans and policies, which are
carried out until this day, resulted in cutting
the ‘Greater Jerusalem' off from the West
Bank.

The Israeli strategy of what some would

call 'Judaization' has involved coloniza-
tion of the Old City and its immediate and
extended surroundings, and the building of
suburbs with new road links in order to
populate heavily the metropolitan area of
annexed East Jerusalem. Palestinian-owned
land was referred to as vacant or unused in
order to justify expropriation and to block
Palestinian development and housing to
drive Palestinians out of the city. As stipu-
lated in the Land Ordinance; Acquisition
Public Purposes of 1943, the Israeli Finance
Minister was authorized to issue expropria-
tion orders for privately owned land if a
‘public purpose’ existed, which had simply
to be defined as such by the Finance Minis-
ter. Between 1967-1996 some 23,500
dunums were expropriated from Palestini-
ans in Jerusalem under this ordinance (B’Tse-
Source? lem. A Policy of Discrimination. Jerusalem, 1995).

On 30 July 1980, the Israeli govt. reaf-

firmed the 1967 de facto annexation and
declared Jerusalem the ‘eternal undivided capital’ of Israel through its Basic Law on Jerusalem. Constituting a harsh vio-
lation of international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention, it was condemned by UNSC Resolution 478 (20 Aug.
1980), which declared “that all legislative and administrative measures and actions taken by Israel, the occupying power,
which have altered or purport to alter the character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem, and, in particular, the recent
‘Basic Law’ on Jerusalem, are null and void and must be rescinded forthwith.”

395
1 4 . 2 
 
 LEGAL
STATUS
 

Under international law, East Jerusalem is occupied territory, which means that the Fourth Geneva Convention is
applicable and Israel has no claim to East Jerusalem by virtue of having taken control of it militarily. The international
community rejects Israel’s claim to both West and East Jerusalem as its “eternal undivided capital” and has consistently
denounced Israeli attempts to change the status of the city.
Those attempts and Israel’s ongoing policies and practices in the city violate the Fourth Geneva Convention as well as
International Covenants and Conventions (e.g., the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Right, the
Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination) and dozens of UN resolutions repeatedly emphasizing
the illegitimacy of Jerusalem’s annexation and that Jerusalem is an integral part of the Occupied Territories.

The Jerusalem ID:

After the 1967 annexation of East Jerusalem, most Palestinians refused the offer of receiving Israeli
citizenship, as this would have required them to take an oath of allegiance to the Israeli state. Upon
this refusal, the Israeli authorities decided to acknowledge Palestinians living in Jerusalem as
“permanent residents” and issue “Jerusalem Identity Cards” for them. In 2005, approx. 93% of the
Arab population of Jerusalem had the status of permanent resident (about 3% of these
received this designation as a result of family re-unification), approx. 5% had the status of
citizenship and about 2% were in a status pending clarification. However, residency can be
revoked by Israel if one chooses to live abroad or in the Palestinian territories for an
extended period of time. (See also Chapter on Residency Rights below).
(Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, Jerusalem – Facts and Trends, Jan. 2008).

Under Israeli law, the legal status of East Jerusalem is thus different from that of the rest of the territories occupied in
1967, which are under military occupation. As permanent residents, Jerusalem Palestinians are entitled to certain benefits
denied to Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip (National Insurance and health insurance), they can travel
freely and have access to employment in Jerusalem and in Israel. However, they must also pay all the government and
municipal taxes that Israel's citizens pay, cannot leave the country without travel documents (laissez-passés) issued by
Israel's Ministry of the Interior, and are subject to discriminatory laws and policies intended to reduce the Palestinian
population in Jerusalem (e.g., the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law, building and planning laws).
Arabs of East Jerusalem are entitled to participate in municipal elections (both to vote and to be elected) but since they
refuse to recognize the Israel’s illegal annexation of East Jerusalem, only a small percentage does. Thus, one-third of
Jerusalem's population is not represented in the city council.

1 4 . 3 
 
 JERUSALEM
IN
NEGOTIATIONS
 

Peace Talks in Madrid in Oct. 1991 delayed settling the issue of Jerusalem, because Israel refused to accept it on the agenda
of the negotiations. Israel also demanded that the Palestinian delegation to the peace talks not include representatives from
Jerusalem. Neither the “official” talks in Washington during 1992-93 nor the Sept. 1993 Declaration of Principles,
resulting from the secret Oslo talks, or any of the subsequent Oslo Accords (of May 1994 and Sept. 1995) added any
significant momentum to the issue of Jerusalem. Only “The Framework for the Conclusion of a Final Status Agreement” (known
as Abu Mazen-Beilin Agreement), which was drawn up by then PLO Sec.-Gen. Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Deputy FM Yossi
Beilin in Oct. 1995 (but was denied its existence for five years) dared to draft concrete proposals for the solution of the
Jerusalem Question, including dividing the city, with Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem becoming part of the Palestinian
state, the capital of which would be Abu Dis, and Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem being part of Israel.
The first time the issue of Jerusalem was officially tackled in negotiations was in the July 2000 Camp David Summit,
where the Israeli side, led by PM Ehud Barak, offered the Palestinians, led by President Arafat, responsibilities over some
neighborhoods in Jerusalem, and where plans for the joint administration of the Old City were discussed. However, Israeli
demands that Palestinians recognize its settlements established within the West Jerusalem Municipal (WJM) boundaries as
well as the historic and religious relationship of the Jews to the Haram Ash-Sharif and thus their right to share “sovereignty”
over the site, was unacceptable and led, inter alia, to the failure of the Camp David Summit. Negotiations continued
nevertheless and gaps between the parties on various issues were narrowed. In a last ditch effort, US President Clinton
offered his "Parameters" to Israeli and Palestinian negotiators at a White House meeting on 23 Dec. 2000, to serve as
guidelines for final accelerated negotiations, which, he hoped, could be concluded in the coming weeks before he would leave
office in Jan. 2001. Both sides eventually accepted those parameters, though with questions and reservations, and they laid the
foundation for the Jan. 2001 Taba talks that took place before the election of Ariel Sharon in Feb. 2001 (which effectively
ended the peace process). With regard to Jerusalem, Clinton’s general principle was “that Arab areas are Palestinian and
Jewish ones are Israeli”, that “maximum contiguity for both sides” should be created, and that the Haram Al-Sharif/Temple
Mount was less an administrative than a symbolic issue of sovereignty and should be treated as such.
Since then, peace initiatives including the 2002 Saudi peace plan, the Quartet’s Road Map (2003) and the Geneva Docu-
ment (2003), which, however, have all failed to bring the issue of Jerusalem any closer to a solution. Meanwhile, Israel
continues to create facts on the ground, which further obstruct, if not have made impossible, a viable solution for the city.
Two major documents signed by over 100 Palestinian personalities were published in major newspapers and passed on to
Palestinian leadership, one in Jerusalem (12 Nov.) and one in Amman (15 Nov.). Both documents emphasize the Palestinian
national position on Jerusalem in anticipation of the International Jerusalem Conference which gathered over 5,000
personalities from the Arab and Islamic world in Istanbul (17 Nov.), and the Annapolis International Meeting (27 Nov.)
under the auspices of US Pres. Bush between Pres. Abbas, PM Olmert and the representatives of over 30 nations, the UNSC
and the Quartet. In a speech at Annapolis, Pres. Abbas reiterated the Palestinian national position on the urgent need to
end the 40-year Israeli occupation and to recognize an independent Palestinian state.

396
 1 4 . 4 
 
 POPULATION
 

Since 1967 there has been a clear strategy employed by the Israeli government to limit the Damascus Gate
number of Palestinians living in Jerusalem. Immediately after the occupation of Jerusalem in
1967, the Israeli government conducted a census that counted 66,000 Palestinians living in East
Jerusalem within the new municipal borders (44,000 in pre-1967 East Jerusalem and 22,000 in
the area newly annexed by Israel). While these Palestinians were classified as permanent
residents of Jerusalem (according to the Law of Entry into Israel 1952, Entry to Israel Regulations
1974), those who were not recorded due to absence – whether studying abroad, visiting relatives
elsewhere, etc. – had later to apply for family reunification to the Ministry of the Interior (see
Residency Rights). In 1967, the population ratio in the city - according to Israeli records -
was 25.8% Arabs and 74.2% Jews (Jerusalem Institute of Israel Studies, Statistical Yearbook of
Jerusalem, 2005). A 1973 ministerial committee (“Gafni Commission”) laid down the policy that the
city’s demographic balance must be maintained at a ratio of 70%:30%.

Ever since 1967, Israeli governments have encouraged Jews to settle in East Jerusalem and
provided numerous incentives (e.g., favorable apartment purchase terms, subsidies, exemption
from/reduction of municipal taxes). As a result, the settlers in East Jerusalem comprise an es-
timated 75-80% of the total increase in Jerusalem's Jewish population since 1967.
Nevertheless, by 2006, the population ratio had changed in favor of the Palestinian
population with 34% Arabs to 64.5% Jews (Jerusalem Institute of Israel Studies, Statistical Yearbook of Jerusalem, 2007/08).

The Jerusalem Institute of Israel Studies counts a total population of 746,300 at the end of 2007, of which 489,480 were
Jews & Others and 256,820 Palestinians. Though the city's population grew by 13,000 (or 1.8%) in 2007, its migration
balance was negative (-6,390), as 18,750 residents left and only 12,360 moved from elsewhere to Jerusalem. Between 1990-
2007, 284,850 residents left the city, while only 174,560 moved in, thus leaving a negative balance of migration of -110,200.
(Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, New data on Jerusalem, 30 May 2008).

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics estimates the Palestinian population in the Jerusalem Governorate at
363,649 in its 2007 census, incl. 225,416 living in Israeli-annexed Jerusalem.

According to a report by the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, the Arab population of Jerusalem is growing at almost
twice the rate of the Jewish population, and the percentage of the city’s Jewish population will drop from its current level of
66% to 50% by the year 2035. (Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, 2007).

In addition, the Palestinian population is significantly younger than the Jewish. In 2004, the median age for Jews & others
was 25.4, it was only 19.8 for Arabs (see also table below).

Total Population by
Annual Growth Rates (%) by Population Group and Area Population Group

5 12,841
4.5 4.5

4 4
3.8 3.7 3.7
3.5 3.4 3.4 3.4 3.5 146,844
3.2 3.1 3.2 3.1
3 2.9 3 243,979
2.6 2.7 2.7 2.6
2.5 2.4 2.4 2.4 2.4
2.2 2.3
2 2 2.1 2.1
1.9 1.8 1.9 342,636
1.5 1.6 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.6
1.3 1.3 1.4 1.3 1.3 1.3
1.2 1.1 1.2 1.2
1 1 0.9 0.9
0.7
0.5
0
Ultra-Orthodox
Religious/Secular Jews
Arab Muslims
Arabs, Jerusalem Jews & Others, Jerusalem Jews in Israel Arab Christians

According to the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, in 2006, some 59% of Jerusalem residents lived in areas of the city
that came under Israeli rule after the 1967 War, i.e., in illegally annexed East Jerusalem, 44% of whom were Jewish settlers,
constituting 39% of the city’s Jewish population. (Ha’aretz, 24 May 2006).

Some 18,400 Jews left Jerusalem in 2007, compared to 12,000 who moved to the city, leaving the overall annual
migration level at -6,400. The primary reasons cited by people who have left the capital in years past are the search for
better job opportunities and more affordable housing. (Jerusalem Institute of Israel Studies, 2008).

397
 Demographic Features

Jews & Others Palestinians Total

Total Population (end of 2007) 489,480 (66%) 256,820 (34%) 746,300
of which - settlers in East Jerusalem ca. 200,000
- Muslims 243,979
- Arab Christians1 12,8411
Population Growth Rates (%) 2006 1.2 3.1 1.9
- total 1967-2002 132.3 223.3 155.7
Population ratio 2007 (%) 66.0 34.0 100
Projected ratios 2010/15/20 64.6 / 62.2 / 61.2 35.4 / 37.8 / 38.8
Population by age (2006) in %
- 0-14 yrs. 31 41.5 (Muslims:42.7, Christians: 21) 34.6
- 15-44 yrs. 41.3 43.8 (Muslims:43.7, Christians: 45.1) 42.1
- 45-64 yrs. 17.0 11.3 (Muslims:10.7, Christians: 21) 15.1
- 65+ yrs. 10.7 3.4 (Muslims:3, Christians: 12.9) 8.2
- Median age 25.4 19.8 23.4
Birth Rate (2007 - birth per 1,000 pop.) 25.8 30.5
Fertility Rate (2006) 3.9 4.0 3.9
Internal Migration Balance (2007) -6,390 -6,390
(1990-2007) -110,200 -110,200
1
Arab Christians account for 2% of the city's population (in comparison: 1946 they constituted 19% of the population) and for 83%
of the city's Christians. Approx. 44% of the Christians in Jerusalem live in the Old City.
(Source: Jerusalem Institute of Israel Studies, Statistical Yearbook of Jerusalem, 2007/08; New data on Jerusalem, May 2008. For
footnote 1: The City in Numbers – Christians in Jerusalem, 2008).

It is against the background of such demographic development that the Israeli government has used various methods to
counter the trend, including drafting various plans to expand the municipal boundaries; isolating East Jerusalem from
the rest of the West Bank through its settlement policies and by building the separation barrier; discriminating in land
expropriation, planning, and building, and house demolition; revoking residency and social benefits; dividing the municipal
budget in favor of the west part of the city, with harmful effects on infrastructure and services in East Jerusalem.

Between 1979 and 1987, there was a negative annual migration of some -600 residents, which significantly rose between
1988 and 2007 from -1,100 to -6,400 in 2007. In recent years, 50% of those leaving the city proper have moved out to the
surrounding metropolitan area. Between 2000 and 2006, 19,200 new immigrants chose to settle in Jerusalem (not including
returning Israeli citizens). They comprised 9% of all immigrants to Israel.(Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, The City in
Numbers – The Balance of Migration of the Jewish Population of Jerusalem, 2008.)

 Palestinian Neighborhoods in Israeli-Annexed East Jerusalem

Neighborhood Area in Population Remarks

dunums
At-Tur 1,745 22,867 Pop. includes Sawaneh
Ath-Thori 1,736 14,833 includes Hirbet Beit Sahur
Jabal Mukabber 2,949 16,820 incl. Arab As-Sawahreh, except area
Al-Issawiyya 2,394 12,269
Bab Az-Zahrah 823 6,515 includes Nablus Road area
Beit Hanina 5,294 25,644
Beit Safafa 1,577 8,364 Pop. incl. Sharafat, Zuhu and Der Karmizan
Sheikh Jarrah 711 2,766
Shu’fat 2,546 35,781 incl. Shu’fat Camp (347 dunums)
excl. Anatot industrial area (1,731 dunums)
Silwan 537 11,461
Sur Baher/Im Tuba 5,333 13,978
Wadi Al-Joz 347 8,093
Old City 900 37,075 incl. Jewish Quarter and 3,932 Jews
Arab As-Sawahreh 2,342 incl. in Jabel Al-Mukabber incl. Um Leisan
Wadi Hilweh 506 4,400
Kufr Aqab 2,441 12,353 pop. incl. Atarot Industrial Zone
Ras Al-Amud 1,262 15,540 area includes Wadi Qadum
Sharafat 8,939 incl. in Beit Safafa incl. Zuhur, Der Karmizan
Sawaneh 851 Pop. included in At-Tur
(Source: Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, Statistical Yearbook of Jerusalem, 2006/07.)

398
 Municipal Area of Jerusalem since 1967 (in thousand dunums)

Jerusalem is the largest city in Israel in terms of municipal area and population (some 10.3% of Israel’s population).

Excluding 6 km2 (incl. the Old 140 126.4

City) of the Jordanian East
Jerusalem municipality (1948-67). 120 108 108.5

100

First municipal jurisdiction defined 80

by the British. Under British rule,
and up to 1967, the area of juris- 60
38.1
diction was gradually extended to
38,100 dunums. 40
19.5
20

Source: Jerusalem Institute of Israel 0

Studies, Statistical Yearbook of 1917 pre-War 1967 post-War 1967 Mar-85 May-93
Jerusalem, 2002/03.

 Palestinian Neighborhoods in Israeli-Annexed East Jerusalem

Neighborhood Area in Population Remarks

dunums
At-Tur 1,745 22,867 Pop. includes Sawaneh
Ath-Thori 1,736 14,833 includes Hirbet Beit Sahur
Jabal Mukabber 2,949 16,820 incl. Arab As-Sawahreh, except area
Al-Issawiyya 2,394 12,269
Bab Az-Zahrah 823 6,515 includes Nablus Road area
Beit Hanina 5,294 25,644
Beit Safafa 1,577 8,364 Pop. incl. Sharafat, Zuhu and Der Karmizan
Sheikh Jarrah 711 2,766
Shu’fat 2,546 35,781 incl. Shu’fat Camp (347 dunums)
excl. Anatot industrial area (1,731 dunums)
Silwan 537 11,461
Sur Baher/Im Tuba 5,333 13,978
Wadi Al-Joz 347 8,093
Old City 900 37,075 incl. Jewish Quarter and 3,932 Jews
Arab As-Sawahreh 2,342 incl. in Jabel Al-Mukabber incl. Um Leisan
Wadi Hilweh 506 4,400
Kufr Aqab 2,441 12,353 pop. incl. Atarot Industrial Zone
Ras Al-Amud 1,262 15,540 area includes Wadi Qadum
Sharafat 8,939 incl. in Beit Safafa incl. Zuhur, Der Karmizan
Sawaneh 851 Pop. included in At-Tur
(Source: Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, Statistical Yearbook of Jerusalem, 2006/07.)

 The PA Jerusalem Governorate

The Jerusalem governorate of the PA has different district boundaries

than the Israeli municipal area of Jerusalem, which includes illegally
and unilaterally annexed East Jerusalem. Consequently, the statistical
areas both sides refer to differ in scope and range.

The map on the right shows the PA governorate in dark and the Israeli
municipal area in lighter shade.

The total land area of the Jerusalem governorate comprises 319,790

dunums, 117,551 of which are located within the part that was annexed
by Israel in 1967. (PCBS)

According to the PCBS 2007 Census, 363,649 Palestinians were living in

the Jerusalem Governorate, 225,416 of whom inside the Israeli
municipal boundaries and 138,233 outside. (In comparison, the numbers that had been projected for 2007 based on the
1997 Census and an average growth rate of 3.4 - were 420,409 for the governorate, with 259,896 inside and 160,513
outside the municipal boundaries).

399
 Estimated Palestinian Population - Jerusalem Governorate, excl. Israeli-Annexed East Jerusalem, 2007

Locality Pop. 2007 Built-up Locality Pop. 2007 Built-up

area area

Abu Dis 10,782 2,033 Beit Hanina Al-Balad 1,071 393

Al-Izzariyya 17,606 2,101 Beit Diqqu 1,621 450
Sawahreh Ash-Sharqiya 5,800 1,307 Beit Surik 3,887 777
Sheikh Sa’ad 1,949 387 Beit ‘Anan 3,980 1,545
Az-Za’yim 3,402 287 Bir Nabala 4,817 1,158
Anata 12,049 1,275 Hizma 6,271 644
Biddu 6,798 1,601 Kharayeb Im Al-Lahm 363 5
Nabi Samwil 258 104 Rafat 2,374 447
Jab’a 3,183 342 Qatanna 6,458 2,740
Al-Judeira 2,276 288 Qalandia 1,179 190
Dahiet Al-Barid 20,359 3,178 Qalandia Camp 8,831 320
Ar-Ram Kufr Aqab 10,873 1,922
Al-Jib 4,220 475 Mikhmas 1,447 406
Al-Qubeia 3,172 477 Bedouins (Jahalin, Tajamu) 1,447 --
Beit Ijza 698 379
Beit Iksa 1,895 279 Total 138,233 24,510
(Source: PCBS, Population Census, 2007.)

 The average household size in the Jerusalem Governorate was 5.2 in 2007 (compared to 5.5 in the remaining WBGS), and
the average housing density (persons per room) 1.6 (equal to that in the West Bank). (PCBS, Population Census, 2007).

Built-up Area, Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem

Locality Build-up area
(dunums)
Beit Hanina 1,611
Shu’fat (incl. Shu’fat Camp 1,338
Al-Issawiyya 545
At-Tur 781
East Jerusalem (Al-Quds) 3,629
Silwan 723
Jabel Al-Mukabber 152
As-Sawahreh Al-Gharbiyya 44
Beit Safafa 1,341
Sharafat 101
Sur Baher 1,421
Um Tuba 146
Total 11,832
(Source: PCBS, Jerusalem Statistical Yearbook, No. 8, 2006.)

1 4 . 5 
 
 RESIDENCY
RIGHTS
 

Israeli demographic strategies vis-à-vis Palestinian Jerusalemites – such as restrictive residency and housing policies – aim
at both separating them from the Palestinians in the West Bank and driving them out of the city in order to secure a long-
term Jewish majority. Until this day, any Palestinian who is not classified by the Israeli government as a permanent resident
of East Jerusalem - incl. spouses, children and other relatives of East Jerusalem permanent residents – must apply for family
reunification to reside legally there. The decision to grant or deny these applications is, according to Israeli Law, ultimately
at the discretion of the Interior Minister, who is not required to justify refusal.

Israel applies a number of discriminatory methods to control the number of Palestinians who legally reside in the city. The
confiscation of ID cards under bureaucratic pretexts is one of these. Instrumental in this are the 1952 Law of Entry to Israel
and the 1974 Entry to Israel Regulations, both of which regulate residence in Israel. The following restrictive provisions do
not apply to Jewish permanent residents or Israeli citizens but only to Palestinian Jerusalemites. Those who:

• wish to travel abroad must obtain an Israeli re-entry visa; otherwise, they lose their right of return;
• hold or apply for residency/citizenship elsewhere lose their residency right in Jerusalem; this policy relates to a
Dec. 1995 decision by the Interior Ministry to make permanent residency status depending on proofs of whether one’s
"center of life" was within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem. Over some 3,000 individuals lost their ID cards on
those grounds between 1995-99. In March 2000, then Interior Minister Sharansky submitted an affidavit to the High
Court of Justice, ceasing this policy and restoring some residency rights that had been revoked.
• live abroad for more than seven years lose their residency rights; in 1996, the Israeli government decided that any
Jerusalemite who lives in the ‘territory’ (West Bank) more than seven years, would also cease to be an Israeli resident;

400
• want to register their children as Jerusalem residents can do so only if the father holds a valid Jerusalem ID card; as a
consequence, there are countless cases of ‘unregistered’ children of couples living ‘illegally’ in Jerusalem – who are de-
nied access to the city’s educational and health services – and of Jerusalemite women who are forced to leave the city.
• marry non-resident spouses (from the WBGS or abroad) must apply for family reunification in order to live legally
with their spouses in Jerusalem. Most of these applications are turned down, with no need for justification.

The Israeli policy of ‘quiet deportation’ in East Jerusalem – through court judgments, legal and administrative tactics – has
resulted in the revocation of over 8,200 ID cards from Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem since 1967; this number
does not include the dependent children of those who lost their ID cards.

According to statistics gathered by B'Tselem, over 1,360 Palestinians from Jerusalem had their ID cards revoked in 2006 –
more than in any previous year since 1967 and a 500% increase over the number of revocations in 2005.

Year No. of revoked Year No. of revoked Year No. of revoked Year No. of revoked
ID Cards ID Cards ID Cards ID Cards
1967 105 1977 35 1987 23 1997 1,067
1968 395 1978 36 1988 2 1998 788
1969 178 1979 91 1989 32 1999 411
1970 327 1980 158 1990 36 2000 207
Till April
1971 126 1981 51 1991 20 15
2001
1972 93 1982 74 1992 41 2002 No Data
1973 77 1983 616 1993 32 2003 272
1974 45 1984 161 1994 45 2004 16
1975 54 1985 99 1995 91 2005 222
1976 42 1986 84 1996 739 2006 1,363
Total 8,269
Source: B’Tselem. http://www.btselem.org/English/Jerusalem/Revocation_Statistics.asp.

In October 2000, several days after the outbreak of the second Intifada, Israel imposed a new policy: freeze on processing
family unification requests. In May 2002, the Israeli government officially decided to stop processing all family unification
applications submitted by non-Jerusalemite Palestinians. On 31 July 2003, the Knesset approved by a vote of 53 to 25 a bill to
prevent Palestinians who marry Israeli citizens from receiving Israeli citizenship or permanent residency status, thus prohibiting
them from residing in Israel or Jerusalem. The law is to become an amendment to a clause in the Citizenship Law relating to
family unification (Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law - Temporary Order 2003) and applies retroactively. The pretext
for this policy is ‘security’ though the real reason is demographically motivated: to prevent further increase of the Arab
population in Israel. Also children born in the Occupied Territories to permanent residents of Israel are affected as they will only
be recognized as Israeli residents upon an approved family unification application; however all such applications were frozen in
May 2002. On 21 July 2004, the Knesset voted to extend the Citizenship Law by another six months. On 14 May 2006, the
Israeli High Court upheld the law; the court’s president, Aharon Barak, described it as an infringement of human rights but was
outvoted by six to five on the grounds that it was appropriate to limit human rights in order to enhance Israel's security.
According to the latest version of the law only Palestinian women over the age of 25 and men over the age of 35 have the right
to join their partners in Israel. A draft bill to replace the law rather than seek a second renewal following the expiry of its
application in Jan. 2007 sought to expand the areas targeted by the law beyond PA-controlled areas to include other regions
with which Israel is in a state of military conflict. The Law has been re-extended since, most recently in July 2008.

It is estimated that if Israel would begin again to handle family unification requests and apply the quota set in 2000
(i.e., 4,000 a year), it would take at least 30 years (!) to process the more than 120,000 requests that have so far accumu-
lated. (B’Tselem, Hamoked. Perpetual Limbo: Israel's Freeze on Unification of Palestinian Families in the Occupied Territories, 2006).

(On the impact of the separation barrier on residency issues see also chapter 14.6 on Land & Settlement below.)

1 4 . 6 
 
 HOUSING
&
HOUSE
DEMOLITIONS
 

 Facts & Figures

• As Israel’s policy in East Jerusalem is politically motivated, aimed at maintaining a Jewish majority in the city, it is very
difficult for Palestinians to obtain building permits. According to figures by the Israeli Interior Min. and the WJM some
15,000-20,000 buildings in East Jerusalem have been built without permits, i.e., about 40% of the total number of
buildings. It is estimated that for every building erected under permit, ten have been built without permit. (Meir Margalit,
No Place Like Home – House Demolitions in East Jerusalem, ICAHD, 2007).
• One of the main obstacles in obtaining building permits is that large areas of East Jerusalem land have been declared
‘unfit for building’ or as ‘green’ or ‘open space,’ where construction is forbidden. The same goes for areas allocated in
Israeli future building plans for public buildings and in areas lacking infrastructure (e.g., roads, water and sewage). In
addition, there is in many cases the difficulty of proving land ownership as Palestinians did not document their land
ownership under Ottoman rule, the British Mandate, Jordanian or Israeli rule. A complicating factor is the fact that land is
often owned by several inheritors some of whom are difficult to locate in order to obtain the required letter of approval. A

401
 series of new procedures were put in place in 2002 to make things even more difficult, notably: requirement to prove
ownership of the land by means of registration, personal particulars and signatures of all landowners, confirmation from
the Ministry of Justice that there are no additional claims to the lands appearing in the Jordanian Table of Claims,
confirmation from the Custodian of Absentee Property that the land is not under its management, and confirmation from
the Israel Mapping Center that the land is plotted and that it has no competing claims. (Meir Margalit, No Place Like Home –
House Demolitions in East Jerusalem, ICAHD, 2007.)
• Also problematic are the high costs for issuing a building permit – incl. fees for: opening a file, roads and sidewalks
development, land development, water and sewage, water mains connection and development, and betterment levy –
which hare often higher than the actual building costs (estimated at almost NIS 110,000 for a 200 m2 house on a half-
dunum lot (Ibid.).
• Unlicensed construction provides the WJM with a pretext to demolish Palestinian homes. ICAHD reports the following
numbers for the years 1994-2006, stating also that there are over 10,000 outstanding demolition orders pending against
Palestinian buildings in East Jerusalem, which can be enforced at any time without warning.

House demolitions, 1994-20061

1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
WJM 7 15 6 9 12 17 11 32 36 66 128 76 73
Interior
22 10 11 7 18 14 7 9 7 33 24 18 10
Ministry
TOTAL 29 25 17 16 30 31 18 41 43 99* 152 94 83
1
Not included in the table are homes demolished by owners themselves as part of a plea bargain whereby they destroy their own
home in return for a reduced monetary fine. Their number is estimated at only slightly less than those destroyed by the authorities.
* Excl. four homes in Silwan destroyed for “security reasons.” (Margalit, M. No Place Like Home – House Demolitions in East
Jerusalem, ICAHD, 2007)

• B’Tselem’s statistics count 752 demolitions of houses and structures in East Jerusalem in the period 1987-2006. In 2007, 65
homes were demolished and in 2008 – as of 30 Sept. – 61, rendering 241 and 234 people,
respectively, homeless.
• According to the ARIJ Database (as of 15 July), Israeli authorities have demolished 37
Palestinian houses in East Jerusalem in 2008 and handed another 78 houses demolition
notifications.
• Illegal construction is punished twofold: with a monetary fine plus the requirement either
to produce a permit or restore the status quo ante, i.e., demolish the building. Until 2001,
house owners who paid the fine were left alone, even if they did not obtain a building permit
but in 2001, the WJM started re-opening their cases, charging them not only with illegal
construction, but also with failing to comply with a court order and occupying a building
without a permit. Another form of punishment is the confiscation of construction equipment and requesting high fines
for their release, aimed at intimidating contractors and cause them sufficient economic damage so that they refrain from
providing services to people without building permits. Increasingly common is also the 3-6 month imprisonment of East
Jerusalem residents for failure to obtain a building permit or demolish their own homes, which are still due despite the prison
term. (Meir Margalit, No Place Like Home – House Demolitions in East Jerusalem, ICAHD, 2007).
• Between 2001 and 2006, the Municipal Court collected the massive amount of NIS 153,240,833 ($34,053,518) in
financial penalties for unlicensed construction. Some 70% of that amount came from Palestinians as did the entire
amount collected by the Interior Min. (Meir Margalit, No Place Like Home – House Demolitions in East Jerusalem, ICAHD, 2007).
• In July 2008, ICAHD reported that the WJM has begun issuing notices to residents of homes scheduled to be demolished
telling them that they have 10 days to remove all of their belongings on their own. After 10 days, their homes will be
demolished and the WJM "will not be responsible for any damage done to property that was not removed." This will safe
the WJM funds it can then use to demolish more homes without increasing its budget, which currently stands at US$1
million annually, enough to demolish 80-90 homes (which is only around 10% of the houses that get demolition orders
each year). (ICAHD, Policy Change Towards House Demolitions Will Increase Operating Budget, 17 July 2008).
• According to records on residential municipal taxes, there were 184,006 apartments in Jerusalem at the end of 2006:
146,539 (80%) in Jewish and 37,467 (20%) in Arab neighborhoods. The average apartment size was 77 m2 in Jewish
and 74 m2 in Arab neighborhoods, while the average housing density in Jerusalem was 19 m2 per person: 24 m2 per
person in Jewish and 11 m2 per person in Arab neighborhoods. (Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, Jerusalem – Facts and
Trends, Jan. 2008).
• Israeli strategy to restrict Palestinian construction in the city also includes the Town Planning Scheme (TPS): without an
approved TPS that complies with the infrastructural, zoning, and housing requirements of the WJM’s planning goals, no
building permits will be issued. TPSs are comprehensive, costly and require extensive coordination with the municipal
authorities; their stipulations make it nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain permits for development and housing plans.
• Another restriction applied to East Jerusalem are the plot ratios, which define the total floor area of buildings permitted to
be erected on a site and range - on the pretext of preserving the “rural character” of the area - only between 35-75% in most
East Jerusalem areas, while in West Jerusalem it is in the range of 75%-120%. Consequently, while up to six housing units
per dunum can be constructed in 3-4-storey buildings in West Jerusalem, it is only two land-attached housing units in the
East, except in settlements, where the discrimination is most blatant: while Jabal Mukabber and Ras Al-Amud are allowed only
25% and up to 50% respectively, Nof Zion and Ma’ale Zeitim - located in the heart of these neighborhoods – were given
115% plot ratios. (Meir Margalit, No Place Like Home – House Demolitions in East Jerusalem, ICAHD, 2007).

402
1 4 . 7 
 
 L A N D 
 & 
 S E T T L E M E N T 
 
 
 
 
 1 dunum = ¼ acre = 1,000 m2 / 1 acre = 4 dunums = 4,000 m2

• At least 66% of today’s Jerusalem is territory seized
by force (5% of the old Jordanian municipality and Land Control in East Jerusalem
61% of former West Bank territory). Within this area,
Israel has expropriated approx. 24,500 dunums -
over one-third of the land illegally annexed to Jeru-
salem, most of which was privately owned by Pales-
tinians - mainly to establish the 12 settlements exist-
ing today in the city. (B’Tselem, Land Grab, Draft Re-
port. May 2002). These settlements - with a popula-
tion of 185-200,000 - are intended to secure Israeli
superiority over the entire Jerusalem region. They
form two rings around the city - the inner ring in East
Jerusalem and the outer ring (‘Greater Jerusalem’)
reaching far into the West Bank - isolating Arab East
Jerusalem, cutting the West Bank in half, and im-
posing economic strangulation as the city is the natural center for all trade and movement routes in the Palestinian Territories.

• The total area of East Jerusalem - Palestinian neighborhoods east of the Green Line, exclusive of the Jewish
settlements - amounts to some 46,000 dunums, of which only 24,655 dunums are covered by 25 approved zoning plans
(another seven plans are yet unapproved). Of the 24,655 dunums, only 37% is allocated for residential purposes while
construction is prohibited on the rest of the land (some 40% is defined as ‘open land’ or ‘green areas’ and 20%
designated for public institutions and roads. In fact, these areas serve as land reserves for settlements construction or
expansion: formerly designated ‘Green Areas’ are rezoned to allow for Jewish building). In addition, in most areas zoned
for construction, building cannot be carried out due to lack of infrastructure. (Meir Margalit, No Place Like Home – House
Demolitions in East Jerusalem, ICAHD, 2007).

124,000 dunums Land Allocations in Jerusalem

Total Jerusalem Municipal
Area (based on: Meir Margalit, No Place Like Home – House
Demolitions in East Jerusalem, ICAHD, 2007

54,000 dunums 70,000 dunums

Total Area of West Total Area of East Jerusalem
Jerusalem

24,000 dunums 46,000 dunums

Expropriated for Area of Palestinian
Israeli Settlements East Jerusalem

21,000 dunums 25,000 dunums

Total Area unplanned Total Area planned

16,000 dunums 9,000 dunums

Green areas, public Zoned for
buildings, roads, etc. construction
Municipal Area

Land Expropriation in East Jerusalem

Neighborhood Date of expropriation Amount of land Size of neighborhood
taken (dunums) (dunums)
French Hill & Mt. Scopus 8 Jan. 1968 2,019
3,345
Ramot Eshkol & Givat Hamivhar 8 Jan. 1968 588
Ma'alot Dafna (East) 8 Jan. 1968 485 380
Neve Ya'akov 14 April 1968/30 Aug. 1970 765 / 470 1,759
Old City (Jewish Quarter) 14 April 1968 116 122
Ramot Alon 30 Aug. 1970 4,840 2,066
Shu'afat 30 Aug. 1970 No Data
2,240
East Talpiyot 30 Aug. 1970 1,196
Gilo 30 Aug. 1970 2,700 2,859
'Atarot (incl. the airport) 30 Aug. 1970/1 July 1982 1,200 / 137 3,327
Ben-Hinnom Valley 30 Aug. 1970 130 -
Jaffa Gate 30 Aug. 1970 100 -
Ramat Rachel area 30 Aug. 1970 600 264
Pisgat Ze'ev 20 March 1980 4,400 5,468
Har Homa 16 May 1991 1,850 2,523
Total 23,378 22,571
Source: B’Tselem. http://www.btselem.org/English/Jerusalem/Land_Expropriation_Statistics.asp

403
 Israeli Settlements in East Jerusalem

Settlement Year Est. On Land belonging to Area in Population Pop. Density/

dunums (person/dunum)
Ramot Eshkol 1968 Lifta 985 6,200 6.3
Ramot Allon 1973 Beit Iksa, Lifta, Beit Hanina 4,979 40,837 8.2
Neve Ya’acov 1972 Hizma, Beit Hanina 1,759 20,149 11.4
Pisgat Ze’ev 1985 Hizma, Beit Hanina 5,468 41,653 7.6
Atarot 1970 Qalandia, Beit Hanina 3,327 - -
East Talpiot 1973 Sur Baher 1,196 12,078 10.1
Gilo 1971 Sharafat, Beit Jala, Malha 2,859 27,173 9.5
Mt. Scopus 1968 Shu’fat, Issawiyya, At-Tur 1,048 1,140 1.1
Givat Shapira 1968 Shu’fat, Issawiyya 970 6,724 6.9
Ramat Shlomo 1994 Shu’fat 1,126 14,658 13.0
Givat HaMatos 1991 Beit Safafa, Beit Jala 310 343 1.1
Har Homa 1991 Um Tuba, Sur Baher 2,523 5,697 2.3
(Source: Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, Statistical Yearbook of Jerusalem, 2006/07; except column three: PCBS.)

Recent settlement activities: (see also the Old City/Jerusalem Maps in this Diary’s map section)

Since spring 2007, partly due to the rejection of the Safdie Plan for expanding Jerusalem westward, and especially following
the Nov. 2007 Annapolis conference, plans to build new Jewish neighborhoods in and around Jerusalem have
increasingly made headlines. Until August 2008, tenders for the construction of some 1,761 housing units in East Jerusalem
were issued. In comparison, during all 2007 until the summit in Nov. only two tenders for 46 housing units were issued.
(Peace Now, Eliminating the Green Line, August 2008). The total number of housing units proposed and planned in Israeli
settlements in East Jerusalem exceeds 50,000, accommodating at least 160,000 settlers, which is in accordance with the
WJMs master plan (TPS 2000) for the city (stipulating the addition of 65,000 housing units to settlements in and around
Jerusalem by the year 2020). Below is a description of current plans and undertakings:

• The Old City: Israel handed de facto control of the national park that surrounds the Old City on its south and east to
the extremist settler group El Ad. Also at stake is the fate of two hotels on Omar Ibn Khattab Square inside Jaffa Gate
(apparently purchased from the Greek Orthodox Church) and the Burj Al-Laqlaq area in the northeastern corner of
the Old City where the WJM approved the construction of 21 housing units on a 3.8-dunum site. So far, over ten
structures have been demolished in the area in preparation of the plan’s implementation. In addition, excavations are
carried out in the existing Western Wall tunnel underneath the Haram Ash-Sharif compound, which have caused
damage to several adjacent properties, incl. the Waqf office, Ribat Al-Kurd, the historic Uthmani and Al-Tankazi Schools,
and work continues on a 100-m tunnel from the Hamam Al-Ein area (Muslim Quarter) towards the Al-Aqsa compound.
In Oct. 2008, the “Ohel Yitzhak" synagogue was opened in the same area, causing an outcry among Palestinians.
• Plans to construct 11,000 housing units in Atarot near Qalandia and link it with the settlements of Kochav
Ya’acov and Bet El through an under road tunnel were announced shortly after the Nov. 2007 Annapolis conference but
dropped in Dec. 2007. Since it was not the first time that the area in question made headlines as a new settlement
scheme, it is not unlikely that efforts to implement the plan will reemerge.
• In March 2008, the WJM revealed plans to build 400 new housing units on some 80 dunums in Neve Ya’akov; in Aug.,
Israeli authorities ratified the plan and approved 300 units.
• On 12 Feb. 2008 the Israeli govt. announced plans for 750 new apartments in Pisgat Ze’ev, in April the WJM announced
plans to build 600 new apartments, and in early Aug. the ILA and the Israeli Housing Min. issue tenders for the
construction of 735 housing units.
• On 28 Jan. 2008, a Town Planning Scheme was deposited for public review, indicating construction plans for approx. 1,300
units in Ramot settlement, 105 of which beyond the Green Line, filling the gap between Ramot and Beit Iksa village.
• In Ramat Shlomo (or Rekhes Shuafat) construction was underway in Jan. 2008 on a new elementary school for girls in a
previously empty area close to the Palestinian neighborhood of Shufat. On 13 June 2008, the WJM’s Regional Committee for
Housing and Planning agreed to construct 1,300 new housing units in the settlement, all on a plot originally designated as
'Green Area' (i.e., where any development is forbidden in order to preserve its ecological diversity).
• In Aug. 2008, settlers made first attempts to establish a new outpost (“Sha’ar Mizrahi” - Gateway to the East) on a hill
located between French Hill and Anata, near Shufat RC and the Bypass Rd. #1, which links Ma'ale Adumim to
Jerusalem. The plan is to establish some 2,000 housing units on the estimated 180 dunums, currently defined as
agricultural property and the only open space available in the area between Shu'fat RC, Anata and Al-Issawiyya. If
realized, the project will prevent the territorial contiguity of a future Palestinian state while adding to Jewish continuity
between Ma'ale Adumim and Jerusalem.
• On 14 July 2008, the Israeli High Court of Justice issued an evacuation order for the Al-Kurd family, one of 28 house owners
facing evacuation and demolition in Sheikh Jarrah, where a new Jewish neighborhood is planned to form the missing link
between Mount Scopus, Shimon Hatzadik Tomb area (residence to some 8 Israeli families and over 50 yeshiva students), and
a cluster of various governments institutions (e.g., the Border Police HQ and the Interior Min.). In Jan. 2008, the Nahalat
Shimon company begun building 200 housing units on some 18 dunums next to the tomb of Shimon Hatzadik. Also
involved is Palestinian expropriated property (the Shepherd Hotel) controlled since the 1967 War by the Israeli Custodian of

404
 Absentee Property, from which it was apparently acquired by Jewish millionaire Irving Moskowitz in 1985 (Ha’aretz, 3 Nov.
2005) and subsequently rented to the Israeli Border Police. In late 2005, the WJM’s conservation committee has decided that
the hotel can be knocked down since it has no special architectural value (not yet carried out). Beneath the actual 30-dunum
hotel compound, the Karm Al-Mufti land stretches an additional 110 dunums downhill towards the site of the new Israeli
Min. of Interior complex (initially earmarked to house a Palestinian girls’ school) on the edges of the Wadi Al-Joz Industrial
Zone. The area, which is mostly cultivated with olive trees, is now threatened with losing its open and public space status and
being reclassified as a residential area once plans are developed to build a Jewish neighborhood above it, incl. 90 apartments,
a kindergarten and a synagogue. The entire plan is to connect the dots and create a Jewish continuum surrounding the
Old City, while cutting it off from the Palestinian neighborhoods in northern Jerusalem.
• In April 2006 settlers took over two four-storey buildings in At-Tur (Mt. of Olives) just to the left of the Seven Arches
Hotel in an apparent new effort to create an outpost in East Jerusalem. The new building - called "Choshen" – also
includes a synagogue.
• Ma'ale Adumim and E-1: At the end of Dec. 2007 Peace Now revealed that the 2008 budget includes NIS 49 million for
the construction of 250 new homes in Ma'ale Adumim. Israeli plans to develop the 12 km2 E-1 area, including 3,500
housing units for up to 20,000 settlers, hotels, an industrial park, commercial and entertainment buildings, are – for the
time being - off the agenda for political reasons (making a Palestinian state practically impossible as the West Bank would
be cut into two). However, the new “Judea and Samaria District Police” building is already located the heart of that area
(by May 2008, 99% of the police units had already moved in).
• In mid-Jan., the Knesset Finance Committee approves a request by treasury officials for an additional 16 million NIS
(US$4.6 million) to fund private security services for some 2,000 settlers in the Abu Dis area, which already receive
NIS 38 million from the Housing Min. In March, Shas Chairman Eli Yishai demanded that PM Olmert immediately unfreeze
the construction of the “Kidmat Zion” settlement near Abu Dis, where 300 housing units are planned to be built on
some 1,000 dunums and where several settler families, who purchased homes from
Arab owners, already live.
• In July 2005, the right-wing 'Bukharan Community Committee' and Israel Police (through
National Police Commissioner Moshe Karadi) signed an “exchange deal” according to which
the Committee would build the new police station in the E1 area and receive, in return, the
current police building, located in Ras Al-Amud, to use it for residential purposes,
originally meant to double the adjacent Ma’ale HaZeitim settlement (Ha’aretz, 26 April
2006). In Jan. 2008, construction begun on another 60 housing units in the settlement,
where already 51 setter families live, and in April 2008, settlers moved into the vacated
police building to mark the founding of a new neighborhood - 'Ma'ale David’ - which will
eventually comprise of 110 housing units over 10 dunums of land. The main drive behind
settling in Ras Al-Amud is to impede the creation of a Palestinian corridor between the
eastern West Bank and Al-Aqsa Compound - via the old Jericho road and Lion’s Gate –
which has been raised in the past in talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
• El Ad continues to expand its activities in Silwan, acting as a quasi-governmental body controlling tourism in the area and
with full authority over archeological activities. On 15 Jan. 2008, 11 settler families, protected by Israeli troops, took over
11 houses in the Wadi Al-Hilweh area, thus increasing the total number of Jewish families in Silwan to 70. In May 2008,
the WJM begun to approve a plan by El Ad for a new housing complex, incl. 10 apartments, a synagogue,
kindergarten, a library and underground parking, in the heart of the village. The land in question is located 200 meters
from the Old City walls and belongs to the ILA, which has leased it to El Ad. On 30 July 2008, the Jerusalem District Court
rejected a petition by right-wing settlers and ordered them to immediately evacuate a seven-story building they call "Beit
Yehonatan", which was built illegally by Ateret Cohanim. However, the building has still not been demolished. In
addition, the Israeli Antiquities Authority, funded by El Ad, is excavating a tunnel of eventually 600 m length, leading from
underneath Ein Silwan Mosque to the southern edge of the Haram Al-Sharif compound.
• Nof Zion is being erected on 44 dunums of land confiscated from Palestinians of nearby Jabal Mukabber. The first
stage of construction began in 2004 and in 2008, 91 housing units out of the envisioned 480 had been built and
marketed. Once completed, the settlement will include also public buildings, a synagogue, kindergarten, shopping center,
sports club and a deluxe hotel. The project is entirely private sector-driven.
• Har Homa area: Right after the Annapolis conference, on 4 Dec. 2007, Israel issued tenders for the construction of 307
new homes in Har Homa, and at the end of that month Peace Now revealed that Israel’s 2008 budget included NIS 50
million for the construction of 500 new homes in the settlement. On 12 Feb. 2008, Ha’aretz reported on Israeli govt. plans
for 350 new apartments there and in early June Israeli Housing Min. Ze’ev Boim announced tenders for 121 housing units.
Building plans for 910 units in Har Homa C to the south and east of the current construction line were submitted for
public review on 9 July 2008, while another 73 units are awaiting submission for public review. A related issue of concern
is that - in direct contradiction to a Feb. 2005 order of Atty. Gen. Menachem Mazuz ("immediate cessation of the
application of the absentee law on East Jerusalem assets"), large parts of the lands slated for further construction in
Har Homa belong to Palestinians from the Bethlehem-Beit Sahur area who were declared “absentees” after the 1967 War.
• In late Dec. 2007, Israel published tenders for construction of 400 new units in East Talpiot, adjacent to the Palestinian
neighborhoods of Sur Baher and Jabal Mukabber.
• In Feb. 2008, WJM city manager Yair Ma'ayan revealed construction plans for Givat Hamatos. Although the complex and
complicated ownership issue - involving Israeli, Palestinian, and church property - seemed it unlikely that the plans will be
implemented soon, building plans for a total of 3,150 of the total of 4,000 units were submitted for public review in March and
May 2008, and in July, construction of 2,500 housing units was approved.
• At the end of Dec. 2007, Israel published tenders for an unspecific number of new construction projects in Gilo, effecting
the Palestinian neighborhoods of Beit Safafa and Sharafat. In addition, there are a number of private sector development
projects underway in Gilo. On 16 March 2008, tenders for 75 housing units were granted. Currently 150 other units are

405
 awaiting submission for public review and further 850 units are in planning phase by the WJM’s Local Planning Committee
(Moridot, Gilo west).
• In Aug. 2004, the ILA had approved building plans for Har Gilo settlement (established in 1972 on lands belonging to
Beit Jala and Al-Walaja) that included 200 housing units as part of phase one of an overall plan to build 1,084 new duplex
apartments. Construction on 286 (not 200!) housing units began in April 2005 and is now almost completed so that
preparations for phase two are underway, aimed at adding 480 further units.
• In Walajeh (close to Bethlehem - inside and beyond the WJM border), ‘Givat’ or ‘Nof Yael’ settlement was launched in
June 2004 to eventually provide 13,600 housing units for some 60,000 settlers on 2,000 dunums of land with the aim to
link Jerusalem and the Etzion bloc. Plans are also underway to confiscate some 2,100 dunums of village land for the
construction of the separation barrier; should this be implemented, the village will be left with only 2,400 dunums.
• The Ring Road Israel is currently building in Jerusalem is intended to reinforce Israeli settlements, connect them with
West Jerusalem, and consolidate Israeli control over the occupied Palestinian parts of the city. The project involves
confiscation of over 1,237 dunums of privately owned Palestinian land and demolition of Palestinian houses. The Ring
Road is comprised of two main sections, an eastern road and a western road, along with three extensions, the Train Road
in the south, Road #9 in the center, and Road #20 in the north. All sections of the Ring Road are now completed, with
the exception of a 11.5-km-long part of the Eastern Ring Road, which requires the construction of three tunnels and
five bridges as it goes through several densely populated Palestinian neighborhoods (running from Az-Zaim, At-Tur, Ras
Al-Amud, Al-Izzariyya, Abu Dis, Sawahreh Al-Gharbiya, Al-Qunbar, and Sheikh Sa'ad to Sur Baher).
In addition to its support of private construction by settler groups in East Jerusalem, the state also provides private
security services for East Jerusalem settlers. The protection of 2,000 settlers costs the government an average of NIS 38
million per year, taken from the Housing Ministry’s budget. On 14 Jan. 2008, a Knesset Finance Committee session
approved an additional NIS 15 million for these services, specifically intended for the protection of new settlers in Abu Dis
and the Mt. of Olives. (Ir Amim, State Funding of Security for East Jerusalem Settlers, 2008.)

 Israel’s Separation Barrier around the City - The ‘Jerusalem Envelope’

• After work on the separation barrier was halted for several months due to budget problems, the allocation of NIS 250
million was announced in mid-Feb. to the renewal of construction, with a large portion directed specifically at the
'Jerusalem Envelope'.
• There are currently 12 routes and crossings to enter Jerusalem from the West Bank. Palestinian traffic into Jerusalem is
limited to four Barrier crossings: (1) Qalandia from the north, (2) Gilo from the south, (3) Shu’fat Camp from the east, and (4)
Ras Abu Sbeitan for pedestrian residents of Abu Dis, and Al-Izzariyia. The eight other routes and crossing points into
Jerusalem, now closed to West Bank Palestinians, will remain open to residents of Israel and non-Israelis with valid visas, are
Ar-Ram, Beitunia commercial crossing, Hizma, Az-Za’im, the tunnels on north-south bypass Road 60, Ein Yalo near Gilo,
Ramot Alon, and Bir Nabala-Atarot. In addition, there are four more crossing planned: one each near Bethlehem, in Ras Al-
Amud, in Nabi Samwil, and in Shikh Sa’ad/Jabel Mukabber. (UN OCHA, Humanitarian Updates).
• The barrier around Jerusalem will, once completed, be 167.3 km long, incl. E-1 and the Ma'ale Adumim area; so far it is
estimated that nearly 50% of the construction is completed. (Ir Amim, Progress of the Separation Barrier in Jerusalem: July 2008).
2
• The Wall in the Jerusalem area now de facto annexes 228.2 km or 3.9% of the West Bank. It will separate or isolate over
230,000 Palestinian Jerusalemites from the rest of the West Bank and will further separate over 2 million Palestinians living on
the “eastern” side of the Wall from East Jerusalem. The Wall will further de facto annex to Israel three major settlement
(colony) blocs surrounding metropolitan East Jerusalem - Givon, Adumim, and Etzion - land critical to Palestinian population
growth and economic development. (PLO – NAD. Barrier to Peace: Assessment of Israel’s Wall Route, July 2008).

1 4 . 8 
 
 THE
OLD
CITY

Founded around 4000 BC, the Old City is divided into four quarters: Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Armenian. The present walls
surrounding the Old City were built by the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman Al-Qanouni in 1542. The walls stretch over approx. 4 km
and encompass an area of barely 1 km².
Population and Areas in the Old City
Quarter Population Area in Persons per 1
Incl. the 135 dunums of Al-Haram Ash-
dunums dunum Sharif compound. If this area is not
Muslim 26,646 4611 57.8 counted, the population density in the
Christian 5,419 192 28.2 Muslim Quarter rises to over 79!
Armenian 2,464 126 19.6 2
Excl. some 600 settlers occupying houses
Jewish 2,546 122 20.9 in the Muslim and Christian Quarters.
Total 37,075 900 41.2
(Source: Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, Statistical Yearbook of Jerusalem,
2007/08).

Since 1982, the Old City of Jerusalem is listed on the World Heritage List as well as
on the List of World Heritage in Danger.

406
The Old City houses 25 mosques, 65 churches and 20 synagogues. The wall surrounding Jerusalem’s Old City has 11
gates, seven of which are presently open: Damascus Gate, Herod's Gate, Jaffa Gate, Zion Gate, Al-Magharbeh Gate, Lions'
Gate/St. Stephen's Gate, and New Gate, while the Golden Gate remains closed (was sealed during the Crusader Period).
Open Gates:
• Damascus Gate: Located on the northern side, Damascus Gate is the main gate into Jerusalem's Old City. It was built
in 1542 by Ottoman Emperor Suleiman the Magnificent. Arabs refer to it as Bab Al-Amud ("Gate of the Column")
because of a pillar that stood there in Byzantine times. It consists of one large center gate originally intended for use by
persons of high station, and two smaller side entrances for commoners.
• Jaffa Gate: was given this name because it is on the road that leads to the city of Jaffa. For the same reason it is
called Bab Al-Khalil (“Hebron Gate”) in Arabic. This is the only gate on the western side of the Old City. A low part of the
wall was torn down and the Crusader moat of the Citadel filled in 1898 for the visit of the German Kaiser Wilhelm II. It
was here that General Allenby entered Jerusalem in 1917.
• Lion’s Gate/St. Stephen’s Gate: St. Stephen's Gate is so named because, according to some traditions, St. Stephen
was martyred near there. It has also been called Lion's Gate because of the four lions that decorate it on the outside.
Finally, it has also been called St. Mary's Gate because of the nearby tomb of St. Mary. This is the only Jerusalem gate
that opens to the east of the Old City.
• Zion Gate: Located along the southern wall of the Old City, Zion Gate was built by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1540 CE. The
name comes from the belief that the southern extension of the nearby hill was the biblical Mt. Zion. Arabs call it "Bab Nabi
Daoud," which means "Gate of the Prophet David" because tradition has it that the tomb of David was located nearby on Mt.
Zion. In the Middle Ages it was also called the Gate to the Jewish Quarter because it led to the Jewish section of the Old City.
• Dung Gate/Al-Magharbeh Gate: Found in the south wall and is a main passage for vehicles. Derives its name from
the fact that in the 2nd century, refuse has been hauled out of the city through this gate. The name Magharbeh Gate
stems from the Moors' history in the area.
• Herod’s Gate: The entrance into the Muslim quarter through the northern wall. The name was given by pilgrims, who
erroneously believed that it led to Herod's palace. It is known in Arabic as Bab Az-Zahra (“the Flower Gate”).
• New Gate: named so because it was constructed relatively recently - in 1889 - with permission of Sultan Abdul Hamid II.
The gate is located near the northwestern corner of the city and leads into the Christian quarter. During the 1948 Arab-
Israeli war, when Jordan captured East Jerusalem (which includes the Old City of Jerusalem) it was sealed off. It was
reopened again in 1967 after Israel's capture of East Jerusalem during the 1967 War.
Closed Gates:
The Golden Gate: is the oldest of the current gates, probably built in the 520s CE, on top of the ruins of an earlier gate.
Another theory suggests it was built in the later part of the 7th century by Byzantine artisans employed by the Umayyad
khalifs. In Arabic it is known as Bab Al-Rahmeh (Gate of Mercy). Jewish tradition has it that the Messiah would enter
Jerusalem via this gate when he comes, so Muslims during the reign of Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-
1566) sealed the Golden Gate to keep him out.

407
408
 Al-Haram Ash-Sharif
1. Islamic Museum
2. Bab Al-Maghrarbeh (Moroccans Gate)
3. Bab As-Silsileh (Chain Gate)
4. Bab As-Salaam (Tranquility Gate)
5. Silsileh (Chain) Minaret
6. Bab Al-Matarah (Ablution Gate)
7. Bab Al-Qattanin (Cotton Merchants Gate)
8. Bab Al-Hadid (Iron Gate)
9. Bab An-Nazir/Majlis (Council Gate) (Waqf office is outside the gate)
10. Minaret of Ghawanimah
11. Bab al-Atim (Gate of Darkness)
12. Bab Al-Huttah (Gate of Remission)
13. Minaret Al-Asbat
14. Bab Al-Asbat (Gate of the Tribes)
15. Bab Az-Zahabi (Golden Gate)
15a. Bab Ar-Rahma (Door of Mercy)
15b. Bab At-Tauba (Door of Repentance)
16. Cradle of Jesus
17. Al-Mussallah Al-Marwani (Solomons’ Stables – substructure)
18. Al-Masjidul Aqsa – Al-Aqsa Mosque
19. Fakhriya Minaret
20. Dome of Yusuf Agha
21. Station of Buraq
22. Al-Kas (The Cup)
23. Minbar of Buran Eddin
24. Dome of Yousef
25. Dome of An-Nahawiyyah (School of Literature)
26. Dome of Moses
27. Fountain of Qasim Pasha
28. Pool of Raranj
29. Fountain of Qayt Bay
30. Muezzin’s Dome
31. Dome of the Chain (Silsileh)
32. Dome of the Rock (Qubbat As-Sakhra)
33. Dome of the Prophet
34. Dome of the Miraj
35. Dome of Al-Khalili
36. Mihrab Ali Pasha
37. Dome of Al-Khidr
38. Dome of the Spirits (Ruh) 41. Dome of the Lovers of the Prophets
39. Fountain of Sha’lan 42. Fountain of Sultan Solomon
40. Solomon’s Dome 43. Solomon’s Throne

 Settlers in and around the Old City (see also the Old City/Jerusalem Maps in this Diary’s map section)

The Old City, adjacent Silwan, and, more recently the neighborhoods of Ras Al-Amud,
Sheikh Jarrah and Musrara are exposed to extremist Jewish settler groups, such as Elad,
Ateret Cohanim, Hay VeKayam and Amana, which enjoy government support in their effort
to take over as much Palestinian property as possible and form a ring of settlements around
and within the Old City, in order to prevent the city’s division along the 1967 border and
preserve Israeli control over its most significant holy and tourist sites. Currently, there are
approx. 600 settlers living in about 70 spots outside the Jewish Quarter in the Old City
alone.

Jewish settler spots outside of the major settlements in

East Jerusalem include the Muslim Quarter, St. John's
Hostel (Christian Quarter), Burj Al-Laqlaq (near Herod’s
Gate) and two hotels on Omar Ibn Khattab Square
inside Jaffa Gate (apparently purchased from the Greek
Orthodox Church) inside the Old City, as well as the City of David (Silwan), Bet Orot (Mt. of
Olives), Maale Hazeitim (Ras Al-Amud), Shimon Hazadik/Shepherd’s Hotel (Sheikh Jarrah),
and Ath-Thori (Abu Tor) around it.

In addition, the Israeli Government handed over to the Ateret Cohanim settler organization
a new project to “restore” a 3000-year-old quarry running under the Muslim Quarter. In
Feb. 2007, excavation work began near Al-Buraq Wall, involving the destruction of a
historic pedestrian bridge connecting the Mughrabi Quarter to the Mughrabi Gate, an Al-
Haram Ash-Sharif gate facing westward, and its subsequent reconstruction.

409
1 4 . 9 
 
 ISRAELI
MUNICIPAL
POLICIES
 


NB: Palestinian Jerusalemites are considered Israeli residents – not citizens – and are subject to Israeli law, police and
courts.

 Municipal Budget, Taxation and Infrastructure

Arab Jerusalemites make up 33% of the city's residents but got only 11.72% of the municipal budget in 2003. For
instance, they received only 12.1% of the welfare budget, even though their poverty rate is more than double that of
Jewish residents, 14.75% of the education budget, 8% of engineering services, 1,72% for society & youth, 1,6% for sport,
1.2% of the culture and art budget, and nothing for religious affairs, guardianship & security, parking department, and
absorption (Meir Margalit. Discrimination in the Heart of the Holy City, Jerusalem: ICCP, 2006)

Israeli neighborhoods of Jerusalem are served by paved roads, sewage and water lines, regular garbage collection, schools,
city parks, and building regulations that allow for orderly development of the city. Palestinian neighborhoods, on the other
hand, suffer from a lack of sewage lines, a shortage of 1,500 classrooms (roughly 50 schools), virtually no park areas, and a
still-to-be-approved town plan that will allow residents to build homes legally on their own land. Although both populations
pay city taxes, Palestinians, who make up about 35% of Jerusalem's population, benefit from only about 10% of the
municipal budget for services. (Jerusalem Post, 2 June 2008)

Another discrepancy is reflected in the poverty rate: which stood at 27% among the Jewish population in Jerusalem as
compared to 68% among the Arab population (or 39% and 77% respectively in the case of children living in poverty).
(Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, New data on Jerusalem, 30 May 2008).

In addition, Palestinians are exposed to an unfair tax system (e.g., arnona tax), which requires them to pay the same
rates as their Israeli counterparts whose per capita income is approx. 8 times higher. Arnona tax covers residential taxes -
depending on the neighborhood, the state and construction quality of the building and its size -, and business taxes, where
commercial property is graded by size, and not by economic activity or income. In top areas (‘Area A’) the average arnona
amounts to NIS 245 per m2. The arnona tax burden has forced many Palestinian businesses, especially inside and around
the Old City, to close.

Similarly unfair is the treatment of Palestinian Jerusalemites by the National Insurance Institute (health and social welfare
system whose benefits include income maintenance, wage substitution, child allowances, pensions, maternity benefits, and
rehabilitation). Palestinians - unlike Jews - must prove their residency in Jerusalem, and while the NII investigates the properness of
claims, no benefits are paid. About 70% of investigated claims are eventually approved (B’tselem). On 7 Aril 2002, the Israeli
govt. approved a proposed revision to the National Insurance Law that would make families of Palestinians, who died while
carrying out attacks in Israel, ineligible for orphan and widow entitlements.

The NII also investigates eligibility for health insurance for children whose parents are recognized as residents; those
children remain without health insurance until completion of the investigation. Physicians for Human Rights estimate that
there are currently some 10,000 children residing in East Jerusalem who are not covered by medical insurance.

 Education

The education system in East Jerusalem itself is divided into the ‘government schools'
maintained by the WJM, but teaching a separate "Arab Educational System" and non-
municipal schools, which are owned and run by either churches, the Waqf in
coordination with the PA, or private bodies, and serve approximately the same number
of students.

The curricula in East Jerusalem is Jordanian-Palestinian (as opposed to the Israeli one)
and do neither promote Palestinians’ integration into Israeli society and work market nor
do they prepare them for higher studies in Israeli institutions.

Palestinians in East Jerusalem have "permanent resident" status in Israel, which grants them the same social entitlements
granted to every citizen, incl. the right to public education. The Israeli Compulsory Education Law requires that all
children are registered for school and their attendance is assured. However, only about half the Palestinian children in
Jerusalem currently attend public schools, while several thousand others must pay for private or unofficial education, attend
Waqf schools, or do not attend school at all.

In Aug. 2001, the Israeli High Court ruled that the Jerusalem Education Authority must register
all school aged children, even if no classrooms are available to serve them. Also in 2001, the
Ministry of Education and the WJM obliged themselves to the Court to allocate funds for, and
to build, 245 additional classrooms within four years. However, only about half of the
Palestinian children in East Jerusalem – about 39,400 out of about 79,000 students – presently
study in the municipal school system. The other half is denied access to the free public
education and attends private or unofficial schools, which are operated by churches, the Waqf,
the UN and various Palestinian groups. Studies in many of these schools are quite expensive.
Approx. 9,000 students are not registered in any of the above mentioned frameworks. (Ir

410
Amim, The Scandal Continues: An Assessment of the Arab-Palestinian Educational System in East Jerusalem in the 2007-2008 School
Year, Sept. 2007.)

Palestinian School-Aged Children in East Jerusalem in 2007, according to Type of School1

Type of School No. of Students % of known Students
Municipal Schools 39,402 49.9 %
Recognized Unofficial Schools 17,279 21.9 %
Waqf 11,000 13.9 %
Private Schools 7,583 9.6 %
UNRWA 3,741 4.7 %
Total Number of Known Students 79,000 100 %
Total School-Aged Population 87,940
School-Aged Population unknown to the 8,940 approx. 10.1 %
Education Authorities
1
Based on estimates from the Israeli CBS, according to which at the end of 2005 the number of children aged 5-18 in
Jerusalem was 77,176 and the population increase in East Jerusalem is 4% annually on average, resulting in a number
of children in East Jerusalem aged 5-18 of 87,940 in 2007.
Source: Ir Amim, The Scandal Continues: An Assessment of the Arab-Palestinian Educational System in East Jerusalem
in the 2007-2008 School Year, Sept. 2007.

According to 2006 figures from the WJM’s Jerusalem Education Authority, there are 163 public educational institutions,
96 of which are kindergartens (94 for children age five, and two for children younger than age five), 48 primary and post-
primary schools and 19 special education schools are currently in operation in East Jerusalem. In addition, there are 76
unofficial recognized educational institutions, 55 of which are kindergartens and 21 are primary and post-primary
schools, are in operation. (Over 10,000 of the 65,000 children in all educational institutions in East Jerusalem attend one of
the 21 unofficially recognized schools, which are privately established, licensed by the Department of Unofficially Recognized
Education in the Israeli Education Ministry, and mostly operated by non-profit organizations) (Wargen, Yuval, Education in East
Jerusalem, The Knesset Research and Information Center, Jerusalem, Oct. 2006, quoted in Hever, Shir. The Economy of the
Occupation 13-15: Report on the Educational System in East Jerusalem. Jerusalem: Alternative Information Center, 2007.)

Israeli Municipal Education, 2005/06

Jews Palestinian Total
J’lem Education Ultra-Orthodox J’lem Education
Authority - Hebrew Division Authority - Arab
Education System Education System
Students at Preschools1 9,405 17,511 3,505 30,421
Primary Education 23,647 40,564 20,671 84,882
Post-Primary Education 27,656 24,048 17,210 68,914
Special education 1,631 1,100 677 3,408
Total 62,339 83,223 42,063 208,628
Total no. of classes 2,559 3,214 1,377 6,843
New classrooms built,
409 625 389 1,621
1994-2004
1
incl. non-municipal kindergartens (Source: Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, Statistical Yearbook of Jerusalem, 2006.)

According to the PCBS, there were 30,609 Palestinian pupils enrolled in the non-municipal school system in Israeli-
annexed Jerusalem in 2006-07; of these 9,006 attended one of the 29 government schools, 3,647 one of 7 UNRWA schools
14,161 one of the 37 private schools and 3,795 private kindergarens (PCBS, Jerusalem Yearbook No. 9, 2007).

In the school year 2006/2007, 76,066 pupils studied in the Arab education system of Jerusalem, 55,066 of them in
municipal schools (incl. 14.105 in "recognized non-official schools"). The number of pupils in the Arab municipal schools has
increased by 66% from 33,200 in 2001/2002 to 55,066 in 2006/2007. (Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, Jerusalem – Facts
and Trends: Arab Education, Jan. 2008).

 Transportation

In Jan. 2004, a project for public transportation in the rural neighborhoods was launched by the Ministry of
Transportation, the Jerusalem Municipality, and the organization ‘Master plan for Transportation in Jerusalem.’ In 2006, the
number of daily journeys reached 4,461 and the number of daily passengers 85,000. By 2007, 269 buses (249 small, 20
large) providing 5,778 seats were operating and there were 330 bus stations in East Jerusalem, a quarter of which had
roofs. (Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, The City in Numbers-Public Transportation in East Jerusalem, 2008).

The light rail project is 'marketed' as an ecological and economic necessity to lessen the congestion in Jerusalem and as a
project to benefit and serve both Jewish settlements and certain Palestinian neighborhoods, there is little doubt that the
main aim is to provide a link for the settlements in East Jerusalem (Neve Ya’acov, Pisgat Ze’ev, French Hill, Ma’alot Dafna,
and Ramot) with the West Jerusalem city center.

411
The plan altogether contradicts International Law, which stipulates, inter alia, that “all measures taken by Israel to alter the
physical character, the demographic composition, the institutional structure, or status of the Palestinian territories including
Jerusalem, have no legal validity” (UNSC Resolution 465 of 1 March 1980).

Recommended
Research
Sources:

http://www.passia.org/index_jerusalem.htm (PASSIA, Jerusalem) http://www.jerusalemites.org/
http://www.arij.org (Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem) http://www.jcser.org/english/
http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf (go to ‘subject’, then to Jerusalem) http://www.jerusalemquarterly.org
http://www.pcbs.gov.ps (Statistical Yearbooks on Jerusalem) http://www.multi-sector.org/
http://www.orienthouse.org/ http://www.ir-amim.org.il
http://www.stopthewall.org/downloads/pdf/jerusalemfinal2.pdf http://www.bma-alqods.org/
http://coalitionforjerusalem1.blogspot.com/2006/02/eu-report-on-east-jerusalem.html http://www.ipcc-jerusalem.org/

Abdul Hadi, Mahdi. Thoughts on Israel's Policies and Practices in Jerusalem. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985.
Access to Public Education for Palestinian Residents of East Jerusalem, Jerusalem: IR AMIM, Oct. 2005.
Albin, Cecilia. The Conflict over Jerusalem. Jerusalem: PASSIA, 1990.
Alternative Information Center (AIC), Settlers at the Heart of the Conflict: Settlement in Jerusalem's Old City, March 2008.
Amirav, Moshe. Israel’s Policy in Jerusalem Since 1967. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1992.
Armstrong, Karen. Jerusalem - One City, Three Faiths. New York: Alfred Knopf, 1996.
Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI). East Jerusalem - Facts and Figures, June 2008,
Benvinisti, Meron. City of Stone. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.
Breger, M.J. & T.A. Idinopulo. Jerusalem’s Holy Places and the Peace Process. Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 1998.
B’Tselem. A Policy of Discrimination: Land Expropriation, Planning and Building in East Jerusalem. Jerusalem, 1995.
B’Tselem.A Wall in Jerusalem – Obstacles to Human Rights in the Holy City. Jerusalem, 2006.
B’Tselem. Ground to a Halt: Denial of Palestinians' Freedom of Movement in the West Bank, Aug. 2007
B’Tselem and HaMoked. The Quiet Deportation: Revocation of Residency of East Jerusalem Palestinians. Jerusalem, 1997.
Chazan, Naomi. Negotiating the Non-Negotiable: Jerusalem in the Framework of an Israeli-Palestinian Settlement. Cambridge:
American Academy for Arts and Sciences, Occasional Paper Series No. 7, March 1991.
Documents on Jerusalem – Four Volumes. Jerusalem: PASSIA, 2007.
Dumper, Michael. The Politics of Jerusalem Since 1967. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.
Elon, Amos. Jerusalem - City of Mirrors. London: George Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd., 1989.
Felner, Eitan. A Policy of Discrimination: Land Expropriation, Planning and Building in East Jerusalem. Jerusalem: B’Tselem, 1995.
Friedland, Roger and Richard Hecht. To Rule Jerusalem. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Halabi, Usama. The Jerusalem Arab Municipality. Jerusalem: PASSIA, 1993.
Ir Amim, Beyond the Wall, Jan. 2007.
Ir Amim, The Old City and the Historic Basin - Issues of Concern and Recent Developments, March 2007.
Ir Amim, The Scandal Continues: An Assessment of the Arab-Palestinian Educational System in East Jerusalem in the 2007-2008
School Year, Sept. 2007.
Karmi, Ghada ed. Jerusalem Today - What Future for the Peace Process. Ithaka Press, 1996.
Khatib, Khaled A. The Conservation of Jerusalem. Jerusalem: PASSIA, 1993.
Koechler, Hans, ed. The Legal Aspects of the Palestine Problem with Special Regard to the Question of Jerusalem. Vienna: Wilhelm
Braumueller GmbH, 1981.
Latendresse, Anne. Jerusalem: the Palestinian Dynamics of Resistance and Urban Change, 1967-94. Jerusalem: PASSIA, 1995.
Margalit, Meir. Discrimination in the Heart of the Holy City, Jerusalem: ICCP, 2006.
Margalit, Meir. No Place Like Home – House Demolitions in East Jerusalem, ICAHD, 2007.
Musallam, Sami. The Struggle over Jerusalem - A Program of Action for Peace. Jerusalem: PASSIA, 1996.
Nusseibeh, Sari, Bernard Sabella & Yitzhaq Reiter. Jerusalem- Religious Aspects. Jerusalem: PASSIA, 1995.
PASSIA. Israeli Settlement Activities & Related Policies in Jerusalem. Special Bulletin, April 2007.
PCBS & Badil, Impact of the Wall and its Associated Regime on the Forced Displacement of the Palestinians in Jerusalem, June 2006.
Perpetual Limbo: Israel's Freeze on Unification of Palestinian Families in the Occupied Territories. B’Tselem and Hamoked, July 2006.
PLO Negotiations Affairs Department, Israeli Settlement Activity in and Around the Old City, February 2008.
Tamari, Salim (ed.). Jerusalem 1948. Jerusalem/Bethlehem: Institute of Jerusalem Studies and Badil Resource Center, 1999.
UN. The Status of Jerusalem. Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. New York: UN, 1981.
Walid Mustafa. Jerusalem – Population and Urbanization from 1850-2000. Jerusalem: JMCC, Sept. 2000.

1 4 . 1 0 
 
C H R O N O L O G Y 
 O F 
 E V E N T S 
 – 
 2 0 0 8 

JANUARY
Jan. 1: Al-Quds reports that the WJM has ordered shop owners in Salah Eddin and Suleiman Streets to replace their stores’
current front shades with plastic ones at a cost of NIS 4,000 or otherwise face penalties.
- Al-Quds reports that the ILA has authorized the construction of 440 new housing units in Talpiot East on land belonging to
Sur Baher and Jabal Mukabber.
- The Israeli High Court rules that eight settler families must evacuate the 7-storey house in Silwan they are occupying since
2004 must.
Jan. 4: Ha’aretz reports that the Housing and Construction Min. intends to move forward with plans to construct over 1,000
housing units in Har Homa on absentee land belonging to Palestinians despite the opposition of Atty. Gen. Mazuz and a
promise to the US not to invoke the absentee law in Jerusalem.
Jan. 6: Ha’aretz reports that 18 dunums of the 24-dunum area slated for construction of 300 units to complete Stage B of
the Har Homa plan, belongs to residents of Beit Sahur who were declared “absentees” after the 1967 War. This is in direct
contradiction to the February 2005 instructions of Atty. Gen. Menachem Mazuz, ordering the "immediate cessation of the
application of the absentee law on East Jerusalem assets."
Jan. 7: Ha’aretz reports that the Israel Police has delayed moving into a new building in the E-1 area.
- Ha’aretz reports the start of construction of 60 housing units in Ma’ale HaZeitim settlement of Ras Al-Amud.

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- Ma’ariv reports that right-wing groups have purchased 20 dunums of land between Bethlehem and the Tantur Ecumenical
Institute south of Gilo settlement, where they intend to build a small new neighborhood.
Jan. 9: PM Olmert tells visiting Pres. Bush that Israel will not accept the American demand to stop building in East Jerusalem's
Jewish neighborhoods and in the settlement blocs, saying that “Jerusalem's status is different than that of the settlements.”
Jan. 12: Al-Quds reports that settlers have attacked the home of Hashim Salaimeh in Sheikh Jarrah, destroying furniture
and other properties.
Jan. 14: The Knesset Finance Committee approves a request by treasury officials for an additional 16 million NIS (US$4.6
million) to fund private security services for some 2,000 settlers in the Abu Dis area, which already receive NIS 38 million
from the Housing Min.
Jan. 15: Ha’aretz reports that construction has begun on another 60 housing units in the Ma’ale HaZeitim settlement in the
heart of Ras Al-Amud, where now 51 settler families live.
Jan. 16: Israeli bulldozers destroy the houses and barracks of the Abu Dahouk tribe in Arab Jahalin near Al-Jib and Nabi
Samwil to make way for the construction of the separation barrier.
- In Silwan’s Wadi Al-Hilweh area, 11 settler families, protected by Israeli troops, take over 11 houses belonging to the
Baidoun and Ajlouny families.
- Near the Old City’s Mughrabi Gate, settlers, with the help of the El Ad association, take over two apartments and some 5
dunums of land, claiming ownership.
Jan. 17: Ha’aretz reports that the Jerusalem Planning and Construction Committee has approved the expansion of the
women’s section of the Wailing Wall bordering the Mughrabi Gate.
- In Silwan, Israeli bulldozers and settlers demolish a wall surrounding land of the the Shaban family and raze another plot
to prepare for a car parking for the settlers who took over the 11 houses a day earlier.
Jan. 20: The Israeli High Court decides to evict the family of Abdel Mu’atee Abu Qtaish from their house in Sheikh Jarrah,
where he had lived since 1967, giving him 45 days to move his belongings. The court based its decision on the ownership
claim of two Jewish families, saying the land on which the house was built was theirs. Abu Qtaish is also ordered to pay a
penalty of NIS 140,000.
- In Beit Hanina, Israeli bulldozers raze some 10 dunums of land and uproot hundreds of trees belonging to Al-QUds
University to make way for a bypass road.
Jan. 22: The WJM announces plans to build 40,000 new apartments throughout Jerusalem over the next decade, incl.
several thousand in various settlements.
- Under the protection of Israeli soldiers, a group of settlers push their way into Al-Aqsa compound and try to conduct
religious practices there.
Jan. 26: Al-Quds reports that the WJM has begun replacing the Arabic names in Silwan with Jewish ones.
Jan. 28: Israeli bulldozers demolish the 5th and 6th floor of a six-storey building belonging to Khalaf Mahmoud Ideiss and
Ahmad Hassan Al-Qam in Shu’fat for being not licensed.
Jan. 31: The Israel Antiques Authority begins erecting a new tunnel underneath the Muslim Quarter in the Old City.
- Ha’aretz reports that the Yemin Yehuda non-profit association has begun building 200 housing units in Sheikh Jarrah. As
part of the project dozens of Palestinian homes are slated for demolition. The new settlement is to stretch over 18 dunums
next to the tomb of Shimon Hatzadik and is designed to create a Jewish continuum surrounding the Old City and to cut it off
from the Palestinian neighborhoods in northern Jerusalem.

FEBRUARY
Feb. 1: Arutz 7 reports that construction has begun on 200 new housing units to be constructed on 4.5 acres in Sheikh Jarrah.
Feb. 2: Ha’aretz reports that construction of the new Agan Ayalot neighborhood in the Givat Ze'ev settlement in the
‘Greater Jerusalem’ area has been suspended in the wake of the recent Annapolis conference. (see also March 10).
Feb. 6: Israeli forces demolish a two-story house on Al-Buraq Street in the Old City for being built without a permit.
Feb. 7: Israel renews closure orders for Palestinian institutions in East Jerusalem – incl. Orient House and the Palestinian
Chamber of Commerce, closed since 2001, despite the renewal of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians and the
international conference in Annapolis in Nov. 2007, where both sides had agreed to immediately implement their respective
obligations under the road map.
Feb. 11: WJM forces demolish the house of Sa’di Aramin in Wadi Al-Joz without pre-notification for being built without a permit.
Feb. 12: Ha’aretz reports that the WJM plans to go ahead with its plans to build over 10,000 new housing units in the
settlements in East Jerusalem, incl. in Har Homa and Pisgat Ze’ev.
- Ha’aretz reports on plans to construct 4,000 new housing units on 3,000 dunums of land in Givat Hamatos near Beit Safafa.
- Israeli forces demolish the store of Saeb Al-Khatib in Hizma.
Feb. 14: Five Israeli companies have won the ILA tenders to build 307 housing units in Har Homa.
Feb. 15: It is announced that a sum of NIS 250 million would be allocated to renew construction, specifically at the
'Jerusalem Envelope', of the separation barrier, which had been halted for several months due to budget problems.
Feb. 16: Israel extends the closure of Orient House, the Chamber of Commerce, the Arab Studies Society and the
Palestinian Prisoners’ Society for another year.
- Settlers uproot over 30 olive trees belonging to Mohammed Siam in Silwan.
Feb. 19: Israeli Housing Min. Ze’ev Boim announces plans for 1,000 new housing units in Har Homa.
Feb. 20: The WJM’s Planning and Construction Dept. publishes an official notification for a plan to construct 393 new
housing units in Neve Ya’akov.
Feb. 21: According to a Yedioth Ahronoth report PM Olmert’s statement that negotiations over Jerusalem would be postponed
spurred Palestinian officials to renew efforts to offer services in the city, with Jerusalem affairs advisor to Pres. Abbas, Hatem
Abdel Khader, saying, “In the first stage we are renewing the activity of several departments that operated in the Orient
House… This refers to the youth and sports department, the education, relief and welfare department, and the conflict
resolution department, which serves as a substitute for the legal department.” Some 30 of the 140 Orient House staff have
reportedly resumed working, though not from within the sealed building, with their salaries paid by the PLO office in Amman.
Feb. 22: Ha’aretz reports that the Canadian Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by Eliyahu Veffer, who had petition
to have his Canadian passport show that he was born in “Jerusalem, Israel,” rather than “Jerusalem.”
Feb. 24: In Silwan, Israeli forces destroy two lethal workshops belonging to Jamil Abassi for not being licensed.
- Israeli forces destroy the roof of the Nofal family in the Old City and charge them with a 20,000 NIS fine.

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Feb. 25: Israeli forces destroy two houses belonging to the Matour family in Beit Hanina and the home of Fayez Irshed in
Ath-Thori for not being licensed.
- Ha’aretz reports that 3% of immigrants to Israel settle in the West Bank and 19% settle in East and West Jerusalem.
Feb. 28: Israeli forces destroy the house of Ahmed Abu Nab in Beit Hanina for not being licensed.
Feb. 29: Kol Ha’Ir reports that the ILA plans to sell five construction plots in the Har Homa settlement.
- The family of Mohammed Al-Fuheidat receives a demolition order for its house in Anata under the pretext that it was too
close to a military camp, the separation barrier and a by-pass road.'
MARCH
March 1: The Times reports that Jewish settler groups are digging an extensive tunnel network under Muslim areas of the
Old City while building a ring of settlements around it to bolster their claim to the disputed city in any future peace deal. The
tunnels are largely based on historical water wells or buried pilgrim routes, stretching from the Pool of Siloam in Silwan to
the south and joining up with the Western Wall.
March 6: An armed Palestinian, Alaa Abu Dhaim from Jabal Mukabber, opens fire at the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva in
Jerusalem's Kiryat Moshe neighborhood, killing eight yeshiva students and wounding another nine, before being shot dead
himself. According to Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV an organization calling itself ‘Galilee Freedom Battalions-the Martyrs of Imad
Mughniyeh’ claims responsibility for the attack.
March 9: PM Olmert has approves the construction of 750 new housing units in Givat Ze’ev.
March 10: Israeli Housing Min. Ze’ev Boim announces plans for some 2,000 new housing units in settlements, incl. 750
each in Givat Ze’ev’s Agan Ayalot neighborhood and in Pisgat Ze’ev, 360 in Har Homa, and 52 in Ma’ale Adumim.
- Shas Chairman Eli Yishai demands that PM Olmert immediately unfreeze the construction of the Kidmat Zion settlement
near Abu Dis, where 300 housing units are planned.
- Ha’aretz reports about WJM plans to build 400 new housing units in Neve Ya’akov. EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana
immediately deplores the announcement, saying "That may put in jeopardy the peace process".
- A British Foreign Office spokesman states, "We are concerned by reports that Israel plans to build in the settlement of Givat
Ze'ev. We see this as unhelpful - particularly when Israelis and Palestinians should be focusing on full implementation of their
obligations under phase one of the road map, which include freezing all settlement activity, including natural growth."
- UN Sec.-Gen. Ban Ki-Moon calls on the Israeli govt. to halt settlement construction, saying in a statement that "Any
settlement expansion is contrary to Israel's obligations under the road map and to international law."
March 11: Israeli forces demolish the unfinished 250 m2 house of Na’im Al-Ayyan in Al-Issawiyya for not being licensed.
March 12: Israeli Min. of Industry, Trade and Labor Eli Yishay expresses his intention to demand that PM Olmert unfreeze
construction of the "Kidmat Zion" settlement in Abu Dis, where 220 housing units are planned for settlers.
March 17: The Israeli Court orders the Israeli Min. of Antiquities and El Ad settler association to stop excavation works
under the property of Ahmad Siam in the Wadi Hilweh area of Silwan.
March 18: Israeli forces raid a body building center in Al-Izzariyya, damaging properties.
March 19: In Hizma, Israeli forces destroy two houses, belonging to Yousef An-Nunu and Saed Sa’adeh for being located in
Area C. In Al-Jib, another house, belonging to Fawzi Ka’abneh, is destroyed to make way for the construction of the
separation barrier.
- A Palestinian stabs a settler in the Ramot settlement.
March 20: Settlers from the Ateret Cohanim group take over a store belonging to Wissam Arnaout near the Dung Gate in
the Old City.
March 25: Israeli forces raid the shop of Walid Zarba in Al-Wad St., Old City, and confiscate some electronic devices for not
having paid arnona tax.
- Israeli police break up an event at the Palestinian National Theater meant to announce the winner of an art contest
designing a logo for Jerusalem's selection as the 2009 "Capital of Arab Culture.”
March 28: Israeli authorities announce the construction of 813 new housing units – out of a planned 4,000 units - in Givat
Hamatos settlement near Beit Safafa.
March 30: The WJM has approved the construction of 600 new housing units in Pisgat Ze’ev settlement.

APRIL
April 1: During a tour of Betar Illit settlement, Shas leaders say that PM Olmert had promised to thaw frozen construction
plans in all the settlements near Jerusalem, incl. on 800 homes in Betar Illit.
- The WJM announces plans to build 600 new apartments in Pisgat Ze'ev.
April 2: PNN reports that Israeli forces have razed some 2.5 dunums of land in Sheikh Jarrah belonging to the Barakat
family, claiming it has been rented by the Custodian of Absentee Property.
April 4: Israeli forces demolish two houses of the Hamdan family in Anata for being built without a license.
April 7: The Jerusalem District Court postpones the evacuation of 27 Palestinian homes in Sheikh Jarrah, where settlers
plan to build a new settlement consisting of 200 units.
- Jerusalem Post quotes Ir Amim as criticizing the Knesset Finance Committee for approving the allocation of another NIS 15
million towards security for settlers in East Jerusalem, bringing the total to NIS 47 million per year.
April 8: WJM bulldozers demolish the house of Khaled Shuman in Beit Hanina for being built without a license.
April 10: The house of Abdul Raziq Asileh near the Old City’s Dung Gate is partly destroyed along with a yard due to Israeli
excavation work underneath it.
April 14: Israeli forces demolish the house of Yunis Sbeih in the Salam area near Shu’fat RC for being built without a
license and being located close to the separation barrier.
April 16: In Al-Jib, Israeli forces raze land planted with olive and almond trees to make way for the separation barrier.
April 21: An Israeli Committee has endorsed the construction of a new settlement (“Ma’ale David”), consisting of initial 110
units, on 10 dunums of land in Ras Al-Amud.
April 22: Ha’aretz reports that the Jewish right wing group “Fund for Lands of Israel” plans to seize some 1,150 dunums of
land in the Atarot area belonging to villagers from Judera and Bir Nabala.
April 28: Ha’aretz reports that settlers plan to take over the police station in Ras Al-Amud once the police has completely
moved to its new complex in the E-1 area, from where it has already begun operating.
- The WJM forces Khaled As-Sayyad to demolish parts of his house in At-Tur for being unlicensed.

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MAY
May 4: The Israeli Property Taxation Authority, accompanied by police, raids Palestinian shops in and around the Old City.
May 6: The Israeli army raids tens of houses and buildings in Shu’fat RC, causing loses and damages.
- The Israeli Property Taxation Authority, accompanied by police, raids Palestinian homes and stores in Al-Issawiyya.
- Ma'ale Adumim municipality places a new caravan in the disputed E-1 area, with mayor Benny Kashriel claiming that the
move was “in coordination with the Ministry of Defense."
May 12: Peace Now reports that settler leaders, with the help of Israel’s DM, have begun placing a mobile home in the E-1 area.
- The Israeli Min. of Antiquities has reportedly been earmarked to receive NIS 3,5 millions to continue its excavation works
near the Mughrabi Gate of the Old City.
May 14: Ha’aretz reports that the WJM is in the process of approving a plan by the El Ad association to establish a new
settlement, including synagogue, kindergarten, underground parking and 10 apartments in Silwan.
May 15: WJM officials hand administrative demolition orders to 18 house owners in Jabal Al-Mukabber under the pretext of
lacking building permits.
May 16: Kol Ha’Ir reports that the Jerusalem Committee on Planning and Construction has approved 150 additional housing
units for Gilo settlement.
May 19: The Jerusalem Post reports that the new Police HQ on a hilltop in the E-1 area has quietly opened and 99% of the
police units have already moved in.
May 20: Israeli forces demolish four apartments belonging to Amin Al-Abbasi and two apartments belonging to Majed
Salaimeh in At-Tur for being unlicensed.
- Ha’aretz reports that the WJM has begun the process of approving a plan, submitted by the Elad association, for a new
housing complex, incl. 10 apartments, a synagogue, kindergarten, a library and underground parking, in the heart of Silwan.
The land in question is located 200 meters from the Old City walls and belongs to the ILA, which has leased it to Elad.
May 22: Ma’ariv reports that approximately 50,000 Palestinians have moved into Israeli neighborhoods in West Jerusalem
because of a lack of affordable housing in East Jerusalem.
May 27: Ha’aretz reports that the WJM has sealed the house Ibrahim Abu Idhaim in Jabal Mukabber for having added 300
m2 structure to the existing building without license.
May 30: Israeli forces demolish the house of Zaidan Al-Shweiki in Beit Hanina for the second time since 2006.

JUNE
June 1: Israel's Housing Min. Ze’ev Boim announces the construction of 884 houses in East Jerusalem with spokesman Eran
Sidis saying: "We will invite tenders for the construction of 121 housing units in Har Homa and 763 others in Pisgat Ze’ev."
Peace Now Dir. Yariv Oppenheimer slams the announcement, saying: "More settlements in Jerusalem will mean that the
physical ability to have compromises between Israelis and Palestinians will be harder,” and telling Israel Army Radio that the
move "constitutes one more nail in the coffin of the Annapolis understandings… The Olmert government is opening a 'going out
of business sale' when it comes to houses in settlements. Sadly, the legacy of the current government will not be a peace deal
with the Palestinians, but rather turning the final status agreement into something nearly impossible to achieve."
- Israeli Police prevents Palestinian Jerusalemites from holding an event commemorating the 9th anniversary of the death of
the late Faisal Al-Husseini at Al-Hakawati Theater.
- Pres. Abbas’ office calls Israel’s decision for new construction in Jerusalem settlements a "dangerous threat" to the peace
process, saying that it "cannot advance without a complete and total halt to settlement activity."
- A poll released by Ir Amim reveals that 78% of Jewish Israelis believe that Jerusalem is already divided, while 65% agree
that in the context of a final status agreement, Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem would come under Palestinian rule.
- For the second time in two years, religious-Zionist rabbis enter the Haram Ash-Sharif.
- Al-Quds reports that the Israeli Antiquities Authority has begun with the restoration of the Old City’s wall.
June 2: The ILA publishes tenders for 47 housing units in Pisgat Ze’ev.
- In Jabal Mukabber, Israeli Authorities have handed the Surour and Mashahra families military warnings to demolish 18
buildings for not having permits.
- Israeli authorities inform Beit Hanina Village Council of the decision to confiscate 5,500 dunums of its lands to construct
segments of the separation barrier.
June 4: The Knesset approves in a preliminary reading an amendment to the Israeli Basic Law making Jerusalem not just
the capital of Israel but of the entire Jewish people.
- Israeli bulldozers demolish the house of Zeidan Ra’fat Al-Sheiwaky in Beit Hanina for not being licensed.
- Israel conducts extensive land leveling in the vicinity of the Har Homa settlement.
June 6: Israeli forces survey lands of Walajeh after giving the Village Council a notification of the proposed route of the
separation barrier.
June 7: Al-Quds reports that the Israeli Local Committee for Building and Construction has endorsed the first stage of a
plan to build 2,337 new housing units, 1,837 of which in Givat Hamatos settlement and 500 for Palestinians of Beit Safafa.
June 8: A group of settlers assault Palestinian stores near Dung Gate in the Old City, causing damage and losses.
June 10: In At-Tur, Israeli bulldozers destroy for the second time the house of the Faqih family for lacking a permit.
- In Al-Issawiyya, Israeli forces demolish the house of Khamis Tahhan, rendering 9 family members homeless.
- In Beit Hanina, Israeli forces destroy the house of Fatina Al-Ajrab, home to 8 people, without any prior warning.
June 11: Nabil Al-Imwasi is forced to demolish his family house in Beit Hanina to avoid being fined NIS 80,000 in case the
WJM carries out the demolition.
- Al-Quds reports that a second stage of constructing 60 housing units in Ma’ale HaZeitim settlement in Ras Al-Amud has begun.
- The WJM issues eviction and demolition orders against three adjacent houses in the Ras Khamis area of Shu’fat RC,
belonging to Maher Rajabi, Suleiman Turk and Amjad Abu Turki. All three houses are located near the barrier separating
Ras Khamis from Pisgat Ze’ev.
June 12: Israeli forces demolish the 50-m2 house of Ihab Zuhdi At-Tawil in Beit Hanina’s Wadi Al-Dam – Housh Al-Tawil
area for the second time since 2005 for being built without a permit in a “Green Area”.
June 13: The WJM’s Regional Committee for Housing and Planning has agreed to construct 1,300 new housing units in
Ramat Shlomo settlement.

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June 15: The Jerusalem Planning Committee approves the construction of 40,000 housing units across the city, incl. in East
Jerusalem settlements, and for the first time, in Palestinian neighborhoods, among them Al-Issawiya, Shu’fat, and At-Tur.
- The Israeli Company of Developing Jerusalem and WJM employees try to take over a 2-dunum plot owned by the
Orthodox Patriarchate in Silwan to construct a parking plot.
- The WJM hands out military warnings to demolish three houses in Ras Khamis in Shu’fat RC being unlicensed and located
close to the separation barrier.
- The WJM distributes demolition orders against 18 houses and buildings in Jabal Al-Mukabber for lacking permits.
June 16: Wafa and Al-Quds report that a settler group calling themselves "Yeshiva Hayim Ha’olam“ hands military warnings
to the Kastero and Al-Hashim family in Aqbat Al-Khalidiyya area near Al-Aqsa Mosque to evacuate their houses within 14
days, claiming their ownership of the buildings since 1948. The nearby house of Mohammad Sidawi had already been
targeted by the same organization seven months ago.
- Israeli forces demolish two houses belonging to Ihab Tawil and the Jaba’ari family in Beit Hanina and another house
belonging to Anwar Assila in in Ras Al-Amud for lacking building permits.
June 20: The Israeli army distributes a military order to confiscate 1,500 dunums of Palestinian land to construct the
separation barrier between Beit Hanina and Ramot settlement.
June 23: Israeli bulldozers uproot some 300 olive trees and raze lands in Beit Hanina Al-Tahta near Ramot settlement to
make way for a section of the separation barrier.
June 24: A WJM court issues an order to stop the evacuation of Mohammed Al-Kurd’s house in Sheikh Jarrah.
June 25: Israeli forces raid several car workshops in Hizma, Anata, Az-Zaim and Al-Izzariyya, confiscating cars and properties.
June 28: At night, hundreds of Israeli forces raid the 5-story building of Majed Abu Aisha near the Dajani Hospital in Beit
Hanina, home to seven families. Its over 60 residents are violently forced to leave, before the entire house is demolished
and eventually blown up by remote control burying all the furniture and property of its inhabitants. Hundreds of
Palestinians, incl. national and religious figures, demonstrate nearby against the demolition, but are attacked and partly
injured or arrested by police.
June 29: The Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee tours East Jerusalem to prepare for the first reading of a
bill requiring a two-thirds Knesset majority to transfer control or authority in the city.
June 30: With a focus on East Jerusalem and the Golan, the Knesset approves with 65:18 the first reading of a referendum
bill, which mandates a national referendum or a two-thirds Knesset majority vote prior to a withdrawal from any territory
under Israeli control.

JULY
July 1: Al-Quds reports that an Israeli restraining order stops the demolition of the Abdel Fattah Abed Rabbo cave and the
confiscation of 50 dunums of lands located in the northern part of Al-Walaja, where the Givat Ya’el settlement is planned.
- Al-Quds reports that the WJM intends to revive a plan – frozen two years ago - of demolishing 100 Palestinian houses in
Silwan’s Al-Bustan neighborhood.
July 2: A Palestinian, Hussam Dwayat from Sur Baher, working for a construction firm laying the foundations for the city’s new
railway system, drives his bulldozer into a bus and several cars in Jaffa Road, killing three people, before being shot dead.
- Israeli authorities order close the headquarters of the Palestinian Housing Council in Jerusalem.
July 3: Israeli bulldozers demolish without any pre-notification the house of Kamil As-Sa’ou in Beit Hanina and another
house owned by Mohammed Nasser in Al-Issawiyya.
- In the wake of the bulldozer incident a day earlier, Vice PM Haim Ramon tells Army Radio that Israel should treat the East
Jerusalem neighborhoods of Jabel Mukabber and Sur Baher as West Bank villages, wall them off the city, and revoke the
permanent residency status of their residents.
July 6: In Sur Baher and Jabal Mukabber, groups of settlers try to attack the houses of the Dwayat and Abu Dhaim families,
whose sons had perpetrated the 2 March attack on a yeshiva and the bulldozer stack on Jaffa Road four days ago.
- Israeli bulldozers raze a piece of land owned by ‘Awad Samrin near Ein Silwan Mosque.
- The WJM forces Khaled Sharabati to demolish his house in Wadi Al-Joz under the pretext of lacking building permits.
July 9: The Interior Min. has tentatively approved a WJM plan to build 910 new homes in Har Homa’s Homat Shmuel C area.
- The Jerusalem Regional Construction and Planning Committee has approved another 900 housing units for Pisgat Ze’ev
settlement.
July 13: In Anata, Israeli forces raid garages and workshops, confiscating several yellow-plated cars under the pretext that
Palestinian Jerusalemites are not allowed to have their cars repaired at West Bank workshops.
July 15: Al-Quds reports that the Israeli Supreme Court has issued an evacuation order to Fawziya Al-Kurd from Sheikh Jarrah,
claiming her house was Jewish property (being one of 28 Palestinian houses in the area threatened under the same pretext.
- Israeli bulldozers demolish the two-storey house of Ishaq Hamdan in Al-Issawiyya and hand military warnings to the
owners of 20 other houses in the area for lacking building permits. For the same reason destroyed are two apartments
owned by Osama and Munther ‘Abdel Salam Ar-Razim in Beit Hanina.
- Over 47 residents of Al-Bustan neighborhood in Silwan receive military orders to demolish their houses within a week.
July 17: Al-Quds reports that the WJM has handed demolition orders to the owners of 32 buildings and housing units in Al-
Issawiyya under the pretext of being unlicensed. Another 28 buildings are threatened as well. Three days later, the Office of
the PM’s Legal Adviser for Jerusalem Affairs issues a precautionary order from the WJM court to prevent the demolition of
29 out of the 32 units.
- Israeli forces destroy the house of Ahmad Mohammad Al-Aramin in Al-Izzariyya.
July 22: Ghassan Abu Ter from Sur Baher rams his tractor into cars and a bus on King David St., injuring over 20 people
and destroying a bus and five cars before being shot dead by a motorist and a policeman. The attack is seen as a copycat
act of to the July 2 attack, although some witnesses and the perpetrator’s family claim he had lost control over the vehicle
and the incident had been an accident.
July 23: For the second consecutive day, Israeli forces raid Umm Tuba and Sur Baher, detaining a number of young people.
July 24: Israeli forces raid a stone, pottery and seedling shop at the Hizma intersection, confiscating large amounts of
stones under the pretext that it is prohibited to build houses and establish shops in the region.
- A poll published by Israel Radio shows that an equal percentage of Israelis (43%) support and oppose a physical
separation of Jerusalem in light of recent attacks.
July 26: The Israeli High Court of Justice has issued a ruling to evict Mohammad Kamel Al-Kurd and his family consisting
from their house in Sheikh Jarrah, claiming it belongs to Israeli settlers.

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July 27: Israeli bulldozers demolish the five-storey building of Majed Abu ‘Eisheh in Beit Hanina for being built without a
permit, rendering some 70 people homeless.
- Israeli forces raid the houses of Saleh Al-Khalid and Fayez Bishara in Shufat’s Ras Khamis area, claiming they are
searching for weapons.
July 28: With regard to another bulldozer incident in Jerusalem, PM Olmert says, "Whoever thinks it's possible to live with
270,000 Arabs in Jerusalem must take into account that there will be more bulldozers, more tractors, and more cars
carrying out attacks."
- Former Likud DM Moshe Arens acknowledges in an article in Ha’aretz that Israel's failure to meaningfully unite the city was a
factor in the recent attacks in Jerusalem, saying: "had progress been made over the years in properly absorbing the Jerusalem
Arab population into Israel, the task facing the Palestinian extremists would have been more difficult." He also states that the
wall built around Jerusalem "does not in any way alleviate the problem. It only exacerbates it. Jerusalem's Arab population -
rightfully feeling that the policy of the Israeli government and the Jerusalem Municipality discriminates against it - is being
fenced in. Nothing good can come of that. And the destruction of the homes of the families of the perpetrators of recent acts of
terror will only breed bitterness and resentment." Arens further argues that to integrate Jerusalem's Arab population, "equalizing
the municipal services provided to Arab and Jewish neighborhoods, as well as welfare, health-care and educational services,"
and "encouraging the participation of the Arab population in municipal elections" are needed.
July 29: Israeli Pres. Shimon Peres says that "Jerusalem has become a security problem of late. We have to make both a
wall and a bridge in Jerusalem. We have to ensure separation and also let [Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem] live
differently, otherwise [the city] will be like a pressure cooker that is liable to explode."
- A group of Israeli settlers forces itself into a Palestinian home in Shu’fat’s Ras Khamis area, claiming ownership of the 20-
dunum property, saying it belonged to Ramat Gan resident Eliyahu Cohanim and constitutes part of the 'Eastern Gate’
compound between the French Hill and the outskirts of the Pisgat Zeev settlement, where the WJM has previously proposed
to build a 2,000-unit settlement (‘Sha’er Mizrah’).
July 30: Al-Quds quotes MK Hanna Suweid as saying that some 15,000 Palestinian houses in Jerusalem are threatened by
demolition for not being licensed.
- An Israeli court issues a restraining order to stop razing the land of Al-Bustan neighborhood in Silwan, which is mainly
slated for the establishment of a touristic park.
- The Jerusalem District Court rejects a petition submitted by Israeli right wingers, ordering them to evacuate the 7-storey
building (“Beit Yehonatan”) they are evacuating in the heart of Silwan.

AUGUST
Aug. 1: A public opinion poll by the Tami Steinmetz Center at Tel Aviv University finds that 56% of Jewish Israelis believe
that for all intents and purposes the city of Jerusalem is already divided.
- The ILA and the Israeli Housing Min. issue tenders for the construction of 735 housing units in Pisgat Ze’ev.
- After objection filed with the WJM by Ir Amim, Israeli authorities decide to amend the plans regarding the bridge at the
Mughrabi Gate to include preservation of all archaeological findings, incl. those from the Ottoman period.
Aug. 4: Ha’aretz reports that the WJM is working to prevent the evacuation of settlers from a seven-story building (dubbed
“Bet Yehonatan”) in Silwan, which was ordered by the Jerusalem District Court on 30 July.
- Israeli bulldozers demolish for the second time the house of Amin Ibrahim Abbasi in At-Tur.
- Israeli forces also destroy a hut near the Panorama Hotel in Ras-Al-Amud and an yet unfinished house in Silwan’s Wadi
Qaddoum area.
Aug. 5: Israeli Internal Security Min. Avi Dichter renews the closure of East Jerusalem institutions, incl. Orient House, the
Chamber of Commerce, the Prisoners’ Club, the and Arab Studies Society, for another six months.
Aug. 7: Settlers and right-wing MKs tour a hill located between French Hill and Anata, near Shufat RC, where settlers attempt
to establish a new outpost (“Sha’ar Mizrahi” - Gate of the East) on an estimated 180 dunums defined as agricultural property.
Aug. 8: Israeli authorities approve the construction of 300 housing units in Neve Ya’akov settlement.
Aug. 12: Israeli police intercept a group of settlers, trying to put the cornerstone for a new settlement - dubbed Sha’ar
Mizrahi - on a hill near Shu’fat RC. Ten settlers are detained for questioning.
Aug. 13: Israeli forces destroy two houses, belonging to the Ajlouni and Abu Sbeih families, in Beit Hanina’s Ashqariya
area, without allowing the owners to rescue their belongings.
- In Issawiyya, the house of Mohammed Durbas, still under construction, is demolished for being built unlicensed.
Aug. 18: In Beit Safafa, Palestinians prevent settlers from taking over the house of Bah Eddin Darwish.
Aug. 19: Israeli authorities install cameras at Lion’s Gate in a bid to further control the entry of worshippers to Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Aug. 20: In Ath-Thori, settlers tried to build iron fences around some four dunums of land they intend to seize near Dar Al-
Aytam School.
Aug. 21: In response to a petition by Palestinian landowners, PM Olmert and DM Barak decide to reroute the path of the
separation barrier near Ma’ale Adumim so as to restore Palestinian access to some 4,000 dunums of land which the original
plan would have placed on the Israeli side of the wall.
Aug. 26: Israeli forces raid Wadi Al-Joz and Anata neighborhoods, causing damage to Palestinian property.

SEPTEMBER
Sept. 3: Israeli DM Barak tells Al-Jazeera that Israel's "basic position is that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel but that we
can find a formula under which certain neighborhoods, heavily populated Arab neighborhoods, could become in a peace
agreement part of the Palestinian capital, and it will of course include all of the neighboring villages around Jerusalem."
- Vice PM Haim Ramon tells Ma’arivNRG that "Anyone who thinks that the problem of Jerusalem and terrorism is pinpointed
and that the demolition of one or another house will help hides his head in the sand. The central question is whether the
government wants Jabal Mukabber and Sur Baher as part of Israel or not."
Sept. 4: Yehiam Weitz, Professor at Haifa University's Land of Israel Studies Dept., writes in a Ma'ariv op-ed that Israelis
are more prepared for a substantive discussion over the city's future, saying that in the past decade "a great deal of water
has flowed in all the rivers and seas, and today [the future of Jerusalem] can be addressed without the emotionally charged
attitude of a decade ago. We do not have to see every attempt to deal with Jerusalem's future as the violation of a sacred
taboo. It can be examined rationally."

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- Israeli Police arrest seven Jewish settlers and evicted 30 others trying to place a mobile home on a new outpost (“Sha’ar
Mizrahi”) on a hill near Shufat RC.
Sept. 5: DM Ehud Barak tells Al-Jazeera TV that some Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem could become the capital of a
future Palestinian state as part of a final peace agreement, saying: "We can find a formula under which certain
neighborhoods, heavily-populated Arab neighborhoods, could become, in a peace agreement, part of the Palestinian capital
that, of course, will include also the neighboring villages around Jerusalem".
Sept. 9: Ha’aretz reports that Israeli police restricts the entry to Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan, banning
men under 45 years and requesting married men aged 45-55 and women aged 30-45 to obtain a permit.
Sept. 10: Israeli police raids the houses of Abu Ahmad Atwan and his son in Sur Baher.
Sept. 13: At the northern entrance to Shufat RC, Israeli bulldozers raze without prior warning 1,5 dunums of land, incl. 7
olive trees, belonging to Fawzi Issa to make way for a planned crossing.
Sept. 18: In a letter to WJM Council member Nir Barkat (Kadima), Dep. PM Ramon outlines his official political agenda,
saying he believes Israel should cede control of the Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem to the Palestinians and establish joint
sovereignty over the city's holy sites.
Sept. 18: Israeli Transportation Min. Shaul Mofaz disparaged Dep. PM Haim Ramon over his call on the government to cede
control of Arab East Jerusalem to the Palestinians and establish joint sovereignty over the city's holy sites, telling a Kadima
party convention that "Jerusalem is not a piece of real estate, and no one has the authority to redivide it." Internal Security
Min. Avi Dichter remarks that Israel should unilaterally demarcate its final borders with the West Bank, saying: "It is a
mistake to speak of a final agreement … We need to demand the demarcation of the borders as mentioned in Kadima's
election program, which includes a united Jerusalem." - Israeli forces raid houses in Al-Izzariyya.
- El Ad begins building a parking lot in Silwan’s Wadi Al-Hilweh area..
Sept. 21: The Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage reveals Israeli plans to open a synagogue on Wad Street near
Hamam Al-Ein, close to Al-Aqsa Mosque, and connect it to a tunnel underneath it.
Sept. 22: A Palestinian teenager, Qassem Mughrabi, 19, from Jabal Mukabber, drives a BMW into a group of off-duty
soldiers standing on a Jerusalem street at Tzahal Square, injuring 19, before being killed by a soldier. While widely
portrayed as an apparent copycat attack to the bulldozer and tractor attacks earlier in the year, the driver’s family denies
that it was a terror attack, saying he did not have a driving license and lost control of the car.
Sept. 27: Al-Quds reports that WJM police has designated a special lane for settlers at Az-Za’im checkpoint to facilitate
their movement to and from Jerusalem.
Sept. 29: In an interview with the Yedioth Aharonoth, outgoing PM Olmert says that Israel would have to withdraw from
East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights if it was serious about making peace with the Palestinians and Syria.

OCTOBER
Oct. 5: MKs Uri Ariel and Eli Gabai from the National Union/National Religious Party and a WJM councilman, David Hadari,
lead a tour for reporters to some Arab areas of Jerusalem demanding that the homes of local “terrorists” be demolished and
their families restricted from doing business in the city, as well as that more be done to combat illegal construction and tax
evasion in the Arab neighborhoods.
Oct. 12: The "Ohel Yitzhak" synagogue is opened in the Old City’s Muslim Quarter, located between the Cotton Merchants
Gate and the Heavy Chain Gate, only 80 m from the Haram Ash-Sharif, creating outrage among Muslim, Christian and Greek
Orthodox residents and religious officials, who set up an emergency meeting to condemn the move.
Oct. 17: WJM mayoral candidate Nir Barkat tours the area near Shufat RC where settlers attempt to establish a new
settlement (“Sha’ar Mizrahi”) and expresses support for the 2,000-housing unit project in the area.
Oct. 19: Six Palestinians are injured in a brawl with a group of Jewish youths . In a separate incident, police arrested three
young Jews after scuffles broke out with Palestinian when a garbage truck driven by an Arab was stoned on Bar-Ilan Street.
Oct. 22: Ultra-Orthodox youths riot in Mea Shearim overnight, throwing stones at passing cars and beating Palestinian taxi
drivers after stopping them to find out whether they were Arab.
Oct. 23: Near Gilo, a Palestinian – Mohammed Al-Badan, from Tekoa near Bethlehem - stabs two Israelis, killing an elderly
man and wounding a policeman, before being killed himself. Hamas say such attacks were a "natural response" to Israel's
continued aggression.
Oct. 27: WJM mayoral candidate Arcadi Gaydamak makes a five-hour election tour of East Jerusalem, incl. encounters with
Palestinian residents, a businessmen meeting in the Golden Walls Hotel, a visit of Silwan, Shu’fat and Beit Hanina.

NOVEMBER
Nov. 2: Ali Bahar, Chairperson of the Palestinian Student Union at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is detained for three
hours by university and presidential security officials and has his student card confiscated after refusing to shake the hand
of visiting Pres. Shimon Peres, calling him "responsible for the murderer of children."
Nov. 5: WJM forces partially demolish - without prior notification - a wedding hall owned by Samir Qirresh in Beit Hanina.
- In Shu’fat, Israeli bulldozers demolish the house of Abdullah Bisharat for lacking a building permit.
- Clashes between residents and Israeli forces erupt in Silwan’s Bustan neighborhood, when the latter try to demolish five
houses, two of which – belonging to Mohammed Siam and Said Abu Sanad - are eventually destroyed and 22 protestors are
arrested.
Nov. 9: Israeli police storms the house of Kamel Al-Kurd in Sheikh Jarrah and forcibly evict the owner of the house, 62-
year-old and sick Mohammad Al-Kurd and his wife from their home.
Nov. 11: Mayoral elections for the WJM are held;
Nov. 14: In response to a Peace Now petition submitted together with Arab residents of Silwan, the Supreme Court ordered
a stop to all unauthorized construction and earthworks that is taking place in the Givati Parking Lot in the Old City (except
support work on the northern wall is allowed to continue for safety purposes).

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