{"id":198096,"date":"2005-11-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T17:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?p=198096"},"modified":"2019-03-12T17:32:07","modified_gmt":"2019-03-12T17:32:07","slug":"auto-insert-198096","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/auto-insert-198096\/","title":{"rendered":"Text of EU draft report on East Jerusalem\/ Non-±¬ÁÏÍø document"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n SUMMARY<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n <\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n 1. East Jerusalem is of central importance to the Palestinians in political, economic, social and religious terms. Several inter-linked Israeli policies are reducing the possibility of reaching a final status agreement on Jerusalem, and demonstrate a clear Israeli intention to turn the annexation of East Jerusalem into a concrete fact:<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n 2. The plan to expand the settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim into the so-called “E1” area, east of Jerusalem, threatens to complete the encircling of the city by Jewish settlements, dividing the West Bank into two separate geographical areas. The proposed extension of the barrier from East Jerusalem to form a bubble around the settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim would have the same effect. 2004 saw a near tripling of the number of Palestinian buildings demolished in East Jerusalem. We expect a similar number of demolitions in 2005. 88 homes in the Silwan neighbourhood with demolition orders outstanding against them attracted much attention in June.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n 3. When the barrier<\/u> has been completed, Israel will control access to and from East Jerusalem, cutting off its Palestinian satellite cities of Bethlehem and Ramallah, and the rest of the West Bank beyond. This will have serious economic, social and humanitarian consequences for the Palestinians. By vigorously applying policies on residency and ID status, Israel will be able finally to complete the isolation of East Jerusalem – the political, social, commercial and infrastructural centre of Palestinian life.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n 4. Israel’s activities in Jerusalem are in violation of both its Roadmap obligations and international law. We and others in the international community have made our concerns clear on numerous occasions, to varying effect.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n <\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n Palestinians are, without exception, deeply alarmed about East Jerusalem. They fear that Israel will “get away with it”, under the cover of disengagement. Israeli actions also risk radicalising the hitherto relatively quiescent Palestinian population in East Jerusalem. Clear statements by the European Union and the Quartet that Jerusalem remains an issue for negotiation by the two sides, and that Israel should desist from all measures designed to pre-empt such negotiations, would be timely. We should also support Palestinian cultural, political and economic activities in East Jerusalem.<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n RECOMMENDATIONS<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n <\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n On the political level<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n <\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n On an operational level<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n <\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n – support legal projects designed to support Palestinians threatened by house demolitions and those who have been victims thereof<\/p><\/div>\n – promote initiatives to legalise “illegal” houses (e.g. through introducing retroactively alternative town planning schemes)<\/p><\/div>\n – facilitate a solution for obtaining building permits<\/p><\/div>\n – EU projects with a Palestinian NGO on legal counselling concerning building permits and house demolitions<\/p><\/div>\n – EU project on the development of a master plan for urban planning and legal housing for Palestinian neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n § <\/span>Facilitate a solution of the access issue. This would comprise a range of political and operational measures, both short and long term<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n § <\/span>Support local and international organisations in their information efforts on East Jerusalem.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n § <\/span>Enhance EU assistance to Palestinian institutions in East Jerusalem, including cultural activities and community empowerment.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n JERUSALEM AND RAMALLAH HEADS OF MISSION<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n <\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n REPORT ON EAST JERUSALEM<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n <\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n DETAIL<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n 1. Jerusalem is already one of the trickiest issues on the road to reaching a final status agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. But several inter-linked Israeli policies are reducing the possibility of reaching a final status agreement on Jerusalem that any Palestinian could accept. We judge that this is a deliberate Israeli policy – the completion of the annexation of East Jerusalem. Israeli measures also risk radicalising the hitherto relatively quiescent Palestinian population of East Jerusalem.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n EU POLICY ON EAST JERUSALEM<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n 2. The EU policy on Jerusalem is based on the principles set out in ±¬ÁÏÍø Security Council Resolution 242, notably the impossibility of acquisition of territory by force. In consequence the EU has never recognised the annexation of East Jerusalem under the Israeli 1980 Basic Law (Basic Law Jerusalem Capital of Israel) which made Jerusalem the “complete and united” capital of Israel. EU Member States have therefore placed their accredited missions in Tel Aviv. The EU opposes measures that would prejudge the outcome of Permanent Status Negotiations, consigned to the third phase of the Road Map, such as actions aimed at changing the status of East Jerusalem.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n 3. In conferences held in 1999 and 2001, the High Contracting Parties reaffirmed the applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and reiterated the need for full respect for the provisions of the said Convention in that territory.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n 4. In July 2004 the EU acknowledged the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice on the “legal consequences of the construction of a Wall in the occupied Palestinian territories including in and around East Jerusalem” and voted in favour of the General Assembly Resolution that recognised it. While the EU recognises Israel’s security concerns and its right to act in self-defence, the EU position on the legality of the separation barrier largely coincides with the ICJ Advisory Opinion.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n SETTLEMENTS<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n 5. Israel is increasing settlement<\/u> activity in three east-facing horseshoe shaped bands in and around East Jerusalem, linked by new roads:<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n § <\/span>first through new settlements in the old city itself and in the Palestinian neighbourhoods immediately surrounding the old city (Silwan, Ras al Amud, At Tur, Wadi al Joz, Sheikh Jarrah); <\/span><\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n § <\/span>then in the existing major East Jerusalem settlement blocs (running clockwise from Ramot, Rekhes Shu’afat, French Hill, through the new settlements in the first band, above, to East Talpiot, Har Homa and Gilo);<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n § <\/span>and finally in “Greater Jerusalem” – linking the city of Jerusalem to the settlement blocs of Givat Ze’ev to the north, Ma’aleh Adumim to the east (including the E1 area, see below), and the Etzion bloc to the south.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n Settlement activity and construction is ongoing<\/u> in each of these three bands, contrary to Israel’s obligations under international law and the Roadmap.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n “E1” and Ma’aleh Adumim<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n 6. E1 (derived from ‘East 1’) is the term applied by the Israeli Ministry of Housing to a planned new neighbourhood within the municipal borders of the large Israeli settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim (30,000+ residents), linking it to the municipal boundary of Jerusalem (a unilateral Israeli line well east of the Green Line). E1, along with a maximalist barrier around Ma’ale Adumim, would complete the encircling of East Jerusalem and cut the West Bank into two parts, and further restrict access into and out of Jerusalem. The economic prospects of the Wset Bank (where GDP is under $1000 a year) are highly dependent on access to East Jerusalem (where GDP is around $3500 a year). Estimates of the contribution made by East Jerusalem to the Palestinian economy as a whole vary between a quarter and a third. From an economic perspective, the viability of a Palestinian state depends to a great extent on the preservation of organic links between East Jerusalem, Ramallah and Bethlehem.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n 7. E1 is an old plan which was drawn up by Rabin’s government in 1994 but never implemented. The plan was revived by the housing Ministry in 2003, and preliminary construction in the E1 area began in 2004. Since his resignation from the Cabinet Netanyahu has tried to make E1 a campaign issue.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n The development plans for E1 include:<\/p><\/div>\n § <\/span>the erection of at least 3,500 housing units (for approx. 15,000 residents);<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n § <\/span>an economic development zone;<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n § <\/span>construction of the police headquarters for the West Bank that shall be relocated from Raz el-Amud;<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n § <\/span>commercial areas, hotels and “special housing”, universities and “special projects”, a cemetery and a waste disposal site.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n § <\/span>About 75% of the plan’s total area is earmarked for a park that will surround all these components.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n § <\/span>So far only the plans for the economic development zone have received the necessary authorisations for building to commence. The plans related to residential areas and the building of the Police Headquarters have been approved by the Ma’aleh Adumim Municipality but not yet by the Civil Administration’s Planning Council.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n 8. The current<\/u> built-up area of Ma’aleh Adumim covers only 15% of the planned<\/u> area. The overall plan for Ma’aleh Adumim, including E1, covers an area of at least 53 square kilometres (larger than Tel Aviv) stretching from Jerusalem to Jericho (comment: Israel’s defence of settlement expansion “within existing settlement boundaries” therefore covers a potentially huge area). In August 2005 Israel published land requisition orders for construction of the barrier around the southern edge of the Adumim bloc, following the route approved by the Israeli cabinet on 20 February 2005 (including most of the municipal area of Ma’aleh Adumim).<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n 9. The E1 project would cut across the main central traffic route for Palestinians travelling from Bethlehem to Ramallah. This route is actually an alternative to route 60, which until 2001 was the main north-south highway connecting the major Palestinian cities (Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah, Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Hebron) on the ridge of mountains in the West Bank. And Palestinians currently have only restricted access to route 60 (either permits are required for certain segments or roads are blocked), especially from\/to the Jerusalem area.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n 10. Since 2003, some preparatory work has taken place. In the northern sector of E-1, where residential housing is planned, the top of a hill has been levelled in order to allow construction. In the southern section, where a police station and hotels are planned, an unpaved road has been constructed. But no further work has been carried out for over a year. On 25 August 2005 Israel announced plans to build the new police headquarters for the West Bank in E1, transferring it from its present location in East Jerusalem. Many previous settlements have started with a police station, and we are aware from Israeli NGOs that Israel has plans to convert the existing West Bank police headquarters, in Ras Al-Amud, into further settlement housing.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n Settlement building inside East Jerusalem<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n <\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n 11. Settlement building inside East Jerusalem continues at a rapid pace. There are currently around 190,000 Israeli settlers in East Jerusalem, the majority in large settlement blocks such as Pisgat Ze’ev. The mainstream Israeli view is that the so-called Israeli “neighbourhoods” of East Jerusalem are not settlements because they are within the borders of the Jerusalem Municipality. The EU, along with the most of the rest of the international community, does not recognise Israel’s unilateral annexation of East Jerusalem and regards the East Jerusalem “neighbourhoods” as illegal settlements like any others – but this does not deter Israel from expanding them. Some of these settlements are now expanding beyond even the Israeli-defined municipal boundary of Jerusalem, further into the West Bank. The Jerusalem municipality has also been active around Rachel’s Tomb, outside the municipal boundaries.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n 12. Smaller in number but of equal concern are settlements being implanted in the heart of existing Palestinian neighbourhoods, with covert and overt government assistance. Extremist Jewish settler groups, often with foreign funding, use a variety of means to take over Palestinian properties and land. They either prey on Palestinians suffering financial hardship or simply occupy properties by force and rely on the occasional tardiness and\/or connivance of the Israeli courts. Such groups have told us that they also press the Israeli authorities to demolish Palestinian homes built without permits. Israel has previously used the “Absentee Property Law”<\/span>[1]<\/a> (generally applied only inside Green Line Israel) to seize property and land. The Attorney General declared that this was “legally indefensible” in the Bethlehem area earlier this year and the practise has stopped, but the law remains applicable to East Jerusalem and can be resurrected any time the Israeli Government sees fit.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n <\/p><\/div>\n 13. Some of the Jewish settlements lack building permits, but not one has been demolished – in marked contrast to the situation for Palestinians. There are also plans to build a large new Jewish settlement within the Muslim Quarter of the Old City, a step that would be particularly inflammatory and could lead to the further “Hebronisation” of Jerusalem. The aim of these settlers, and settlements, is to extent the Jewish Israeli presence into new areas. As a result, President Clinton’s formula for Jerusalem (“what’s Jewish becomes Israel and what’s Palestinian becomes Palestine”) either cannot be applied – or Israel gets more.<\/p><\/div>\n\n
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