Palestinians
Also Sleep In The Day
By Amira Hass
31 March, 2005
Haaretz.com
"The
Israelis don't sleep at night, and we, the Palestinians also sleep in
the day time." So said an East Jerusalemite Palestinian recently.
He was referring to the submission with which the Palestinian public
in general and its leadership in particular accepts the progress of
the Israeli plan to cut off East Jerusalem and its residents from the
rest of the West Bank. The saying is more than just an expression of
sorrow mixed with anger, and it goes beyond the issue of the Israeli-Palestinian
situation. It contains within it the viewpoint that an oppressed public
that doesn't merely passively collect victims has the ability to act
and make a change to improve its situation; and that not every plan
to dispossess them is a guaranteed success. If you want, it's an optimistic-humanistic
view. But it needs supporters.
About two months
ago, Israelis and Palestinians were shocked to read the news item that
said that starting in July, when the separation wall is completed in
the area of Qalandiya, East Jerusalemites will have to ask for permits
to go to Ramallah. After the initial shock, there were Israelis who
began to doubt the veracity of the report. Palestinians, scared of course,
were heard to say that "meanwhile, those are only rumors."
The facts: Two months
ago, soldiers indeed prevented East Jerusalemites in their cars from
entering Ramallah through the Qalandiya checkpoint, based on an order
signed by the major general of the Central Command that prohibits Israelis
from entering Palestinian Authority areas. But that phenomenon has ceased.
But now some worrisome
signals are coming from the checkpoint on the southern side of Jerusalem,
between Abu Dis and Wadi Nar - the only road that Palestinians are allowed
to use to travel from the northern part of the West Bank to the southern
part. East Jerusalemites are "trapped" when they leave the
Bethlehem area through that checkpoint, and receive a summons to report
to the police so they can be questioned about their violation of the
order prohibiting their travel.
It's still a trickle.
There is a huge gap between the fact that Border Police troops at the
checkpoint detained East Jerusalemites, and a formal statement by the
spokesman for the Judea and Samaria police that the major general's
orders do not apply to the East Jerusalemites but only to Israeli citizens.
Most of the East Jerusalemites meanwhile make their way to Bethlehem
other ways, and without permits.
The shock is understandable
but infuriating. Understandable because anyone who knows just how much
East Jerusalemites are connected to Ramallah and Bethlehem can imagine
the intensity of the blow that landed on those communities. Infuriating,
because it shows ignorance of the steps Israel has been taking for years,
paving the way for this highest level of disengagement of East Jerusalem
and its residents from the rest of the territories occupied in 1967.
After all, the unceasing expansion of Ma'aleh Adumim, with or without
the 3,000 new apartments planned for area E1, is an inseparable part
of the plan.
The Israeli skepticism
is outrageous because it exposes the blindness of the Israelis to all
the facts that have accumulated over recent years: According to all
the army statements, the major general's order also covers Jerusalemite
Palestinians, who carry blue ID cards. Leaving Nablus, for example,
they are asked for their "permit." Soon, the separation wall
will be completed. Then, when the crossing from Jerusalem to the rest
of the West Bank, including next door neighborhoods, is only possible
through special gates and terminals that are dressed up to look like
international border crossings, the occupation bureaucracy will find
it easier to enforce the administrative prohibitions.
Palestinian doubts
are saddening and frustrating, because it is an escape from taking action.
The East Jerusalem experience shows that patient, coordinated action
can stop dispossession plans. Two campaigns conducted at the end of
the 1990s won relative success: against lifting of residency from East
Jerusalemites, and against house demolitions. The campaigns were an
example of joint Palestinian-Israeli-international efforts, a combination
of grassroots, legal, political, diplomatic and media efforts.
Indeed, with the
outbreak of the intifada, Jerusalem city hall resumed its policy of
demolishing houses that were built without permits, because Jerusalem
municipalities have always severely limited house construction for East
Jerusalemites.
After the Interior
Ministry was forced to reinstate the residency of many East Jerusalemites,
the harm done to their rights as residents continued in various ways.
Nonetheless, there is much to learn from the relative successes of those
campaigns as opposed to campaigns that failed - against the Judaization
of lands and homes in Palestinian neighborhoods, against ceaseless discrimination
between Palestinians and Jews in East Jerusalem. There is no doubt that
one of the factors in the success was the Palestinian-Israeli cooperation,
and the way the campaign departed from merely making statements and
issuing condemnations.
After the first
reports, there began to be heard semi-official Israeli statements about
how the matter of the permits to travel to Ramallah was not a settled
matter. That's a signal. There is a chance to block the move if the
occupation bureaucracy encounters real resistance. And for that, much
more than for the playing of songs on the Voice of Palestine and Army
Radio, real Israeli-Palestinian cooperation is required.
© Copyright 2005 Haaretz.