Call for Restitution and Protection of Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem

The following statement was disseminated by nine Palestinian NGOs, members of the Lobby for Human Rights in Jerusalem. It was presented at a press conference held in Jerusalem on 17 December 1998, in conjunction with Palestinian victims of Israeli human rights violations who have organized initiatives for community based resistance.

Issued by the Lobby for Human Rights in Jerusalem on the Occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, UN Resolution 194, and the Universal Declarationof Human Rights.

Our Jerusalem is a Jerusalem of eviction, displacement and disownership caused by the establishment and expansion of the Zionist Israeli state in our region. Between 1948 and 1998, Israeli occupation policies have resulted in:

Eviction
  • 80,000 Palestinians from western Jerusalem (1948);1
  • 35,000 Palestinian from East Jersualem (1967);2
  • 60-70,000 Palestinians Jerusalemites forced into exile or migration (1968-1998);3
  • 1000’s of Palestinian children of Jerusalem denied registration as residents of the city (1982 -1998);4
  • More than 4,000 Palestinian Jerusalemites turned homeless refugees as a result of the Israeli policy of ID card confiscation (1996 - 1998);5

Expropriation
  • Some 35,000 dunums (35 sqkm) of Palestinian lands and over urban 10,000 homes, in addition to commercial enterprises (1948);6
  • 67,700 dunums (92.7%) of Palestinian lands confiscated, declared as "green land", or otherwise inaccessible for Palestinian housing construction in occupied and annexed East Jerusalem (1967 - 1998);7
  • 50 Palestinian homes designated annually for demolition, 95 homes demolished since the signing of the Oslo Accords (1993 - 1998);8
  • Extraction of illegal taxation serving the Israeli occupation (1967 - 1998);9
  • Denial of Palestinian access to work and vital services in their capital (military closure, 1993 - 1998);
  • Interruption of Palestinian public services by outlawing Palestinian institutions (1994 - 1998).10

The correction of 50 years of cumulative injustice and damage is a basic requirement for peaceful coexistance in our multi-cultural and multi-ethnic city. What is at stake is not commemoration, but implementation of all international declarations and resolutions which confirm and protect Palestinian rights in Jerusalem, especially UN Resolution 194 (Right of Return and Compensation), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Fourth Geneva Convention.

We, members of the Lobby for Human Rights in Jerusalem, as part of our Palestinian community in Jerusalem, demand:

From the Palestinian leadership,
• to develop a comprehensive strategy for the defense of Palestinian Jerusalem which includes support and  protection to Palestinian Jerusalemites threatened by eviction, as well as an active role for community based initiatives of resistance and steadfastness against the Israeli occupation;
• to raise the Palestinian right to restitution in all state and international forums established to arrange for the restitution of victims of the Nazi crimes. (Palestinians were exiled and disowned as a result of the Nazi crimes in Europe and their right to restitution must be raised in this context.);
• to guarantee that any agreement negotiated and signed with Israel in the future will address the problems listed above and provide for the reinstatement of the rights of those evicted and disowned in the past.

From the international community,
• to respect international resolutions and standards which can protect Palestinian rights in Jerusalem and  provide for their restitution (illegality of occupation, repatriation, return of property and compensation);
• to pressure Israel to abide by the standards set by these resolutions, especially UN Resolution 181 and 194, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Fourth Geneva Convention.

From Israel,
• to stop all violations of Palestinian human rights in Jerusalem committed on the basis of the illegal occupation and annexation of East Jerusalem in 1967, especially land confiscation, house demolition, denial of residency rights, and discriminatory planning policies;
• to abstain from all double standards in regards to lost Jewish and lost Palestinian property, i.e. to freeze  all questionable refugee assets held by the Custodian for Absentee Property or other state institutions; to abstain from the transfer of refugee property to private Jewish ownership; to open government and private institutional records related to lost refugee properties;
• to provide for the restitution of Palestinian rights in Jerusalem based on international resolutions, conventions, and standards -  including repatriation, return of property and compensation.

Jerusalem, 10 December 1998

Lobby for Human Rights in Jerusalem
(Addameer, al-Haq, BADIL Resource Center, Citizen's Rights Center-Arab Thought Forum, Freedom's Defense Center, Jerusalem Center for Women, Palestine Human Rights Information Center, Women's Center for Legal Aid & Counseling, Women's Affairs Technical Committee)


1Salman Abu-Sitta, Register of Depopulated Localities in Palestine, 1948 (London: Palestine Return Center, 1998). He lists 79,298 refugees from urban Jerusalem and the villages of Ain Karim, al Malha, Deir Yassin, and Lifta in 1948, and 486,971 in 1998. See also: Janet Abu Lughod in Nasser Aruri (ed.), Occupation: Israel Over Palestine (London: Zed Books, 1984).
2 This includes 6,500 Palestinians evicted from the Old City (see, for example, Ibrahim Mattar in: Jerusalem (Washington, DC: Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine, 1993, 10); and Meron Benvenisti, Jerusalem: The Torn City (University of Minessota Press, 1976), as well as persons excluded by selected annexation and Israeli census policy in 1967. The number of Palestinians living in Arab Jerusalem prior to the 1967 war was 80,000 while only 44,000 of them were registered in the 1967 Israeli census.  See Abu Lughod; Michael Romann, Living Together Separately: Arabs and Jews in Contemporary Jerusalem  (Princeton University Press, 1991, 19).
3 Exact data on Palestinian Jerusalemites living in other West Bank areas or abroad are not available. For expert estimates see: ARTICLE 74/ No. 8-9 (May 1994), Alternative Information Center/BADIL Resource Center.
4 Resulting from a 1982 policy decision by the Israeli Interior Ministry to not register children born to a Jerusalemite mother and a non-Jerusalemite father.
5 According to official Israeli statistics, 1,641 Jerusalem ID cards have been confiscated between January 1996 to August 1998. This figure must be multiplied by four in order to take into account the average number of person/family directly effected.
6 Abu-Sitta (including the four western villages, see footnote 1). Also see Sami Hadawi, Palestinian Rights and Losses in 1948 (London: Saqi Books, 1988).
7 Ir Shalem, 1998 Report.
8 Statistics on Israeli Housing Demolition and Planning Policy in East Jerusalem, PHRIC, 1994; LAW press release, 30 November 1998;
9 Palestinians pay 26% of the cost of municipal services but receive only 5% of these services. See Nathan Krystall, Urgent Issues of Palestinian Residency in Jerusalem, Alternative Information Center, 1994, and: Anita Vitullo in: Jerusalem File (Quarterly), No. 2/1998, Institute for Jerusalem Studies.
10 Gaza-Jericho Agreement Implentation Law (Limiting of Activities), 26 December 1994.  Under the law, any Palestinian institution that has any connection with the Palestinian Authority or PLO much obtain Israeli permission to set up an office in Jerusalem.
 
 
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issue no. 26