Throughout the Autumn of 1996, Palestinian and Israeli NGOs and human rights activists continued joint efforts for tabling Israel’s demographic policies in Jerusalem on the agenda of local and international policy makers. On October 18, the Lobby for Palestinian Women’s Rights in Jerusalem conducted a public hearing on ID card confiscations and Israel’s denial of family reunification to Palestinians in East Jerusalem (see below). This event was followed by two demonstrations in front of the Israeli Interior Ministry in East Jerusalem, one organized by the Lobby on 31 October, the second by the Orient House one week later, after an Israeli had shot at Palestinians lining up outside the Ministry’s door. NGOs held briefings for local and international journalists, launched a “family adoption program”, and invited the foreign missions in Jerusalem to emphasize the urgency of international intervention (see below). 

Two major obstacles to more successful advocacy work were identified: the absence of official PLO and PA protests against Israel’s demographic policies in Jerusalem, a fact which has limited the impact of international and local criticism on the one hand, and the almost total lack of relevant statistical data on the other. (See ARTICLE 74/16 on the question of data). Thus, monitoring and documentation of the results of Israeli residency policies will remain a central NGO task. Moreover, NGOs will continue their lobbying efforts aimed at the re-affirmation of international law in the City. 
Palestinian and Israeli NGOs organized in the Lobby for Palestinian Women’s Rights in Jerusalem, the Palestine Housing Rights Movement, and the Israeli-Palestinian Coalition for Family Reunification call upon the PLO, the Palestinian Authority, foreign governments, the international human rights community and UN institutions to raise with Israel the following: 

- The legal separation of East Jerusalem from the West Bank is based on a one-sided policy undertaken by the Israeli government and is illegal according to UN Security Council Resolutions 242, 252, 267 and UN General Assembly Resolutions, including Resolutions 2253, 2254. 

- International law and human rights conventions, especially the Fourth Geneva Convention, provide for the protection of people under occupation. Israel is thus obliged to protect the right of Palestinians of East Jerusalem to live in their hometown and must abstain from legislation and unilateral policies which lead to the forceful eviction of the city’s indigenous population. 

- The International Convention on the Rights of the Child is applicable to Palestinian children of East Jerusalem; Israel is obliged to guarantee their right to live with their parents in a secure environment, as well as their right to health services and public education.