Jerusalem 2011 Day 2

erusalem blog Day 2
In the course of our adventurous journey to Jerusalem yesterday we saw the number of activists blocked in the airport in Brussels and refused access to the planes to take them to Palestine.
We also saw the huge step up in security at the airports where they scanned what were clearly a banning list of names sent by the Israelis of people who should not be allowed to board planes bound for Tel Aviv.
In Tel Aviv airport there were police and soldiers everywhere, ready to intercept any activists who made it through.
This morning we met with PLC members and the former Minister of Jerusalem Affairs who have taken refuge in the Red Cross tent in Jerusalem. They tell us that the 2006 elections were fair and free but the international community didn't respect the results.
On 29 June 2006, the Israelis arrested the PLC members and the main charge against them was they were members of PLC. They were elected for the Change + Reform platform.
PLC Member Muhammad I Totah tells us that after he was released, in June 2010 he, like the others in the Red Cross tent were served with the deportation orders that had been made years previously when they were arrested.
The Israelis told them that if they resigned from the parliament they would not be deported. On 30 June 2010 the Israelis arrested and deported. PLC member Muhammed M Abu Tier. So from 1 July last year the others went Into the tent at the Red Cross, so the Israelis could not use them to begin deportations from Jerusalem on the grounds of 'disloyalty to Israeli'
They stress that the formal deportation letter makes clear that they are to be deported because they are 'disloyal to Israel'. "It is because we are members of Parliament, not because are members of Hamas.", they say.
The decision for deportation dates from 5 years ago but was not implemented at that time because they were arrested.
The PLC members ask Europeans to tell the Israelis to respect. Article 2 regarding human rights of the Association Agreement . The also say that Europeans could protest to the embassies of Israel. "A feeling of solidarity is not enough. Actions would be better" they say
After this the MEPs visit Sheikh Jarah quarter where 28 families are under threat. Now 4 have been evicted, and another 7 have received eviction orders from the court. Next month Rfqha Al Kurd (Im Nabil), the elderly lady sitting beside us will be in court, and then others after that..
Most of Palestiniansl in these 28 houses, are refugees from the 1948 war + came as refugees to this neighbourhood, from Haifa etc Some refugees came here to this part of Jerusalem, some to the West Bank, some to Jordan, others still further away. Families were split up from each other

After the 1948 war, when they came here as refugees, the area was being ruled by Jordan. The Jordanian government proposed to them that they give up their UN cards and their refugee status to set up house and live here. They accepted that, construction started on what was empty land and in 1956 they moved in.
In the 1967 war, when Israel occupied this area, they changed all the names from Arabic name to Israeli names. Rfqha Al Kurd (Im Nabil) tells us she and her family moved here and gave up their refugee status. There was no one here before them This land was empty. They moved in in 1956 and encountered no problems until 1972, when settlers came to claim this property was theirs.
This house beside her own house she built for her son some years ago. Settlers came a year ago. The settlers are not ordinary families, they say. There is a group of young thugs who gather and try to drive them out from their property also.
The family tells us that settlers spit on the elderly women whenever they pass, they give them the fingers, call them names and the child tells us "They stole my toys". They also have a dog that has bitten one of the family already.
The settlers are suing Rfqha Al Kurd for her own house that she has lived in since 1956 and she will be in court on 12th July.
Jafar, who later tells me he has had many Irish friends in New York, tells us was born and bred two doors down from the Rfqha Al Kurd family. He went away to work in the United States. Now that he wants to come back they will not give him the right to stay. They will only give him a 90 days visa. He had an Israeli ID, but the Israelis say if you go away from more than 3 years you lose your ID.
Moving on from this area we pass Palestinian houses which will all be demolished to construct a national park. This area has already been designated a national park as a major revenue earner for the Israelis, but also as way of exerting control over more and more of East Jerusalem.
At Shayah we also see a hotel which is owned by a Palestinian who lives on the other side of the separation wall. Although the owner just lives down the street from his hotel, the Israelis say he is an 'absentee' because he is on the other side of their wall. They have used the Absentees' Properties Law to take over his hotel and use it as a military base.
Although the world has become more attuned in recent years to the story of what is happening in Gaza, the relentless and myriad attacks on Palestinians in Jerusalem and West bank really threaten any future two state solution with West Jerusalem as the capital of an Israeli state and East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state.
Unless the international community comes to grips with what is happening here, the is no chance of a peaceful solution to the present conflict.
This is reinforced again when we visit the Silwan tent where members of the Bustan Committee defend the homes of Sulwan from the bulldozers.
People we speak to in the Al-Bustan area of Silwan (1,500 population) stress that their families have been here on this land for generations.
They face demolition of their homes and district to make way for a 'national garden' based on the City of David. They say they will chain themselves to the bulldozers if needs be and stay in their homes. They will not go anywhere.. On the wall behind us in the Silwan tent is a banner that reads "what is more important, our lives and us humans or public parks?"
Another tells us of their wish to have proper education for their children, yet the children are afraid to go to school, or to the playground or even to the shop for fear of harassment by the Israeli soldiers. Here the Israelis come in great numbers in the middle of the night even to arrest a 10 year old boy they say was throwing stones.
They thanks us for their visit, but in a familiar pattern, they say they are losing faith in the international community.
They want the EU to take action to defend their neighbourhood which is under attack day by day.
Later today we are due to meet with NGOs active on the protection of Palestinian rights in Jerusalem and to go with them to see the historical landmarks of the old town and to understand the changes affected.