Small Bites: History, Settlements, BDS & Pal Christians

A bit of history according to Sergio, our guide from the Alternative Tourism Group: "Jerusalem was a city of pilgrimage for three religions and thus a mixed city until 1948, when the new State of Israel divided it into West and East and expelled all the Arabs from West Jerusalem. Then in 1967, before the Six Day War was over, Israel took advantage of the chaos of war to expel 6,000 Arabs from the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, and tore down 600 apartments to make a plaza in front of the Western Wall.

The boundaries of Jerusalem were redrawn in 1967 to encompass the lands of 27 surrounding villages, but to exclude the village centers where most of the Palestinian population lived. By 1973 Israel had gerrymandered the boundaries to ensure a 72% majority of Jews in Jerusalem, and has striven to maintain these percentages. However, so many Jews have left West Jerusalem and the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, that their percentage has shrunk to 60%. In part, the exodus is due to the 42% rate of poverty in West Jerusalem. Settlements in Jerusalem, even huge ones like Pisgat Ze'ev have failed to correct the balance.

With 80,000 residents Pisgat Ze'ev is a stone's throw across a small valley from the Shu’fat Refugee Camp, the only such camp inside Jerusalem’s borders. The living conditions in these two cities are radically different, the settlement homes being tree lined and well watered, while the camp is dry and dirty. Forty thousand Palestinians are crowded inside the Wall that surrounds the camp, 12,000 of them refugees. Thanks to the Wall, Israel can ignore what happens inside the camp, even the presence of West Bankers living illegally with their Jerusalem spouses. However, this lack of attention also means that there is absolutely no police protection against theft or the thriving drug trade. Residents pay taxes to the Jerusalem Municipality -- at a higher rate than in Pisgat Ze’ev -- but services are not provided - no garbage collection, no road maintenance, no water connections. Only a medical clinic. You may wonder why they bother to pay taxes. Well, if they want to go out of Su’fat, they must go through a checkpoint where their ID will be scanned to see if they have paid their taxes. If not, they cannot just run home, pay the bill and come back. They will be arrested and held til they pay the bill.

Now here’s a curious twist to the generally segregated settlements: 4,000 Palestinians live in Pisgat Ze’ev,(!) not entirely comfortably, due to hostile gangs of radical Zionist youth, but helping to fill vacant units in a capitalistic system.

You won’t find a McDonalds in a settlement because of the strength of the Boycott Divestment and Sancions (BDS) movement. McDonalds doesn’t want anyone picketing a segregated burger. BDS has also succeeded in causing Soda Stream’s revenues to plunge because this company IS located in a settlement. As a result of our boycott pressure, Soda Stream decided to leave the settlement but now they cannot afford to!

Palestinian Christians, 1.5% of the population of Palestine (30,000 people), hang on by a thread. According to one of my Christian friends in Beit Sahour, many left Palestine after the war on Gaza, and many more had already left due to the lack of opportunities for their children. However, there is a determined core who refuse to leave. Unifying under shared Christian values, they issued a call (2009) to all Christians everywhere to pray and to act to defend Palestine against the occupation and on-going Zionist expansion, and to refute the theology and politics of Christian Zionists. Through this "Kairos Palestine" document they are saying to the world, especially the Christian world "We are here. Do not forget us." Their appeal can be summed up in one sentence, "Occupation is a sin against God and humanity."