Summary
1947 UN Partition
Plan 1967
Occupation Changing
Demographics
UN Position on East Jerusalem
U.S. Position on East Jerusalem
E.U. Position on East Jerusalem
The Palestinian Position on Jerusalem
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Summary
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For centuries, Jerusalem has been the geographical, political,
administrative and spiritual canter of Palestine. The city is
central to Islam, Christianity and Judaism and is known in Arabic
as"Al-Quds" (The Holy City). [ Interactive Map on Jerusalem
]
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1947 UN Partition Plan
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When the United Nations voted to partition Palestine in 1947
against the wishes of the majority of Palestine's inhabitants,
Jerusalem and its environs (including the city of Bethlehem
to the south) were not allocated to either the Palestinian or
Jewish state, but were instead to be administered internationally
as a separate entity. The borders of the UN Partition Plan,
which allotted approximately 55% of Palestine to a Jewish State,
remain the only internationally recognized borders of Israel.
During the 1948 war, Israel ignored the Partition Plan and invaded
and occupied 84% of Jerusalem. Jordanian forces prevented Israel
from occupying the remainder of Jerusalem, including the Old
City (11.5% of Jerusalem's 1948 border). A remaining 4.5% of
Jerusalem's 1948 border became "no-man's land".
The bulk of Jerusalem which Israel occupied in 1948 came to
be known as "West Jerusalem" and the remainder of Jerusalem
occupied by Jordan in 1948 came to be known as "East Jerusalem".
Approximately 20, 000 Muslim and Christian residents of West
Jerusalem fled or were expelled from their homes and have never
been permitted to return.
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1967 Occupation
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In 1967, Israel militarily occupied East Jerusalem, the rest
of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Four days after the occupation
began, Israeli forces destroyed the Arab "Mughrabi" Quarter
of the Old City giving the residents only 3 hours notice and
making approximately 6, 000 Palestinians homeless. The Western
Wall plaza is created in its place.
Despite Israel's claim that it never intended to occupy Palestinian
lands, Israel unilaterally expanded the borders of Jerusalem
only weeks after the war's conclusion. The expansion incorporated
1.3% of the Occupied Palestinian Territories into a newly expanded
"Jerusalem municipality" and enlarged East Jerusalem to more
than ten times its pre-occupation size. The new borders were
drawn in such a way as to incorporate undeveloped Palestinian
land while leaving Palestinian population centers outside the
new borders. The undeveloped land was used to build illegal
Israeli colonies in an effort to change East Jerusalem's demographic
make-up.
In 1980, the Israeli government passed the "Basic Law" by which
it extended Israeli jurisdiction to occupied East Jerusalem.
The
attempt at annexation violated the international legal prohibition
against acquiring territory by force and was declared of "no
legal validity" by the United Nations Security Council.
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Changing Demographics
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Since the 1967 occupation, the Israeli government has systematically
pursued three interrelated policies aimed at increasing the
number of Israeli Jews in Occupied East Jerusalem while minimizing
the number of Christians and Muslim Palestinians: (i) creation
of Israeli colonies in East Jerusalem; (ii) discriminatory practices
against the Christian and Muslim Palestinian residents of East
Jerusalem; and (iii) the closing of Jerusalem to the Palestinian
population of the rest of the Occupied West Bank and the Gaza
Strip.
Colonies
(Settlements). Soon after the start of Israel's 1967
military occupation, Israel began constructing Israeli colonies
in Occupied East Jerusalem in violation of the Fourth Geneva
Convention's prohibition against transferring civilian populations
into Occupied Territory. Colony construction continues to this
day. The Israeli government incentives Israelis to settle Occupied
East Jerusalem through housing subsidies and other benefits.
As a result, the settler population of East Jerusalem accounts
for nearly 80% of the total increase in Jerusalem's Jewish population
since 1967.The illegal colonies now form a ring around the entire
occupied portion of the city, sealing off East Jerusalem from
the remainder of the West Bank. [ Maps:Israeli Colonization
of Jerusalem ] Today, approximately half of the nearly 400,
000 illegal settlers in the Occupied Palestinian Territories
live in Occupied East Jerusalem.
Discrimination.
Since the 1967 occupation, the Israeli government and the Jerusalem
municipality have adopted a discriminatory policy of "separate
and unequal."
*Residency
Rights: East Jerusalem Palestinians must have residency
cards to live in their own city. In order to minimize the number
of Muslim and Christian Palestinians in Occupied East Jerusalem,
Israel has implemented an active policy of stripping East
Jerusalem Palestinians of their residency cards.Israel requires
Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem to regularly prove
that Jerusalem is their "center of life". Consequently Palestinian
residents risk losing their residency rights if they study
or work outside Jerusalem. To date, nearly 7, 000 Palestinians
have lost their residency rights, and thousands of others
have been forced to bring legal claims to protect their
residency. Israeli
Jewish residents living illegally in Occupied East Jerusalem
are full Israeli citizens and cannot be stripped of their
Jerusalem residency rights.
*Building
Restrictions: Discriminatory zoning policies make it
extremely difficult for Palestinian owners to build on their
own land or to add additional rooms to existing structures.As
a result, Palestinian lands in East Jerusalem remain empty
until they are expropriated for the construction of Israeli
colonies. Since 1967, Israel has expropriated approximately
34% of East Jerusalem's land area for "public use". [1]
Another 53% of East Jerusalem's land has been set aside for
colonies or designated as "green areas."[2]
Palestinians in East Jerusalem can therefore live and build
on only 13% of their land. Palestinians who, lacking any other
alternative, build without permits have been subject to forced
evictions and home demolitions. Over 2, 000 Palestinian homes
in Occupied East Jerusalem have been destroyed by Israeli
occupation forces since 1967. [3]
*Taxes:
Palestinian Jerusalemites, who constitute more than 30% of
the Jerusalem (East and West) population, receive only 5-10%
of Jerusalem's social services expenditures. In 2002, East
Jerusalem's Christian and Muslim residents received only 16.6%
of Jerusalem's education budget and 6.2% of Jerusalem's health
budget. [4]
*Isolation.
Since the 1994 start of the Oslo process, Israel has prevented
Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip from entering
any portion of Jerusalem. Non-Jerusalemite Palestinians wishing
to enter Jerusalem must use a temporary permit that Israeli
authorities rarely grant. This closure policy has resulted
in more than 3 million Christian and Muslim Palestinians being
denied access to their holy sites in Jerusalem, even during
religious holidays. It has also isolated Jerusalem, an important
economic, transportation and cultural center, from the rest
of the West Bank, in effect prohibiting the non-Jerusalemite
Palestinian population from studying in East Jerusalem or
receiving certain medical treatments that are only available
in East Jerusalem hospitals.
*The
Jerusalem Wall. In 2003, Israel began constructing
a wall around Occupied East Jerusalem. If the wall were truly
about Israel's security as Israel claims, the wall would have
been built on the border between Israel and Occupied East
Jerusalem. Instead, Israel is building the wall well within
Occupied Palestinian Territory in order to unilaterally impose
its own expanded borders on Jerusalem and consolidate the
isolation of East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank.
The wall is expected to de facto annex 320 square kilometres
in and around East Jerusalem (or approximately 5.6% of the
entire West Bank's land mass). [ [ [ Map:Israel's "Security"
Wall in Occupied East Jerusalem, Autumn 2003 ]
International
Law and East Jerusalem:" Inadmissibility of Acquisition of Territory
by Force"
Customary international law, as reflected in the United Nations
charter (Article 2, paragraph 4), rejects the admissibility
of acquisition of territory by force and consequently, Israel's
annexation and authority over East Jerusalem is illegal under
international law.
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UN Position on East Jerusalem
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The United Nations recognizes East Jerusalem as occupied territory
(subject to the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention)
and consequently rejects Israeli claims of sovereignty over
East Jerusalem:
*In response to Israel's occupation of foreign territory,
United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 242 of
1967 calls for the "withdrawal of Israel armed forces from
territories occupied in the recent conflict."
*In response to Israel's expansion of Jerusalem's borders,
UNSCR 252 of 1968 states that the Security Council "Considers
that all. . .actions taken by Israel. . .which tend to change
the legal status of Jerusalem are invalid and cannot change
that status."
*In response to Israel's attempt to annex Occupied East Jerusalem,
UNSCR 476 of 1980 states that the Security Council "Reconfirms
that all. . .actions taken by Israel, the occupying Power,
which purport to alter the character and status of. . .Jerusalem
have no legal validity and constitute a flagrant violation
of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian
Persons in Time of War and also constitute a serious obstruction
to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the
Middle East."
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U.S. Position on East Jerusalem
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Official U.S. policy does not recognize Israel's attempted
annexation of East Jerusalem. The official U.S. position is
embodied in the U.S. Letter of Assurances to the Palestinians
of October 1991, part of the official record of the Madrid Peace
Conference. In part, it reads:
Official U.S. policy does not recognize Israel's attempted annexation
of East Jerusalem. The official U.S. position is embodied in
the U.S. Letter of Assurances to the Palestinians of October
1991, part of the official record of the Madrid Peace Conference.
In part, it reads:
We do not recognize Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem or
the extension of its municipal boundaries, and we encourage
all sides to avoid unilateral acts that would exacerbate local
tensions or make negotiations more difficult or preempt their
final outcome.
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E.U. Position on East Jerusalem
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Official European Union policy regards East Jerusalem as Occupied
Territory and rejects Israeli claims of sovereignty over East
Jerusalem. In a Declaration by the E.U. Council of Ministers on
October 1, 1996, the E.U. declared that:
East Jerusalem is subject to the principles set out in UN Security
Council Resolution 242, notably the inadmissibility of the acquisition
of territory by force and is therefore not under Israeli sovereignty.
The Union asserts that the Fourth Geneva Convention is fully
applicable to East Jerusalem, as it is to other territories
under occupation.
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The Palestinian Position on Jerusalem
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As part of the territory occupied in 1967, Israel has no right
to any part of East Jerusalem. It is part of the territory over
which the indigenous Palestinian population shall exercise sovereignty
upon Israeli withdrawal.
In conformity with international law and as stated in the Declaration
of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements, all of
Jerusalem (and not merely East Jerusalem) is the subject of
permanent status negotiations.
Jerusalem should be an open city. Within Jerusalem, irrespective
of the resolution of the question of sovereignty, there should
be no physical partition that would prevent the free circulation
of persons within it.
Palestine and Israel shall be committed to guaranteeing freedom
of worship at and access to religious sites within Jerusalem.
Both states will take all possible measures to protect such
sites and preserve their dignity.
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