Aletho News

Issawiya: a Palestinian village, boxed in by the occupation

By Mikaela Levin for the Alternative Information Center | December 19, 2011

The struggles of the East Jerusalem neighborhoods of Sheik Jarrah and Silwan have garnered a lot of media attention in recent years, but the plight of the 16,000 Palestinian inhabitants of Issawiya has gone, for the most part, ignored. Although they pay taxes to the Israeli government, they receive next to nothing in return. Residents find themselves separated from other Palestinian communities and hemmed in by settlements and a military base.

Israeli forces demolishing a home in Issawiya (photo: flickr/iicahd)

In Issawiya, narrow streets of broken concrete serve as playgrounds and barbed wired fences separate the community from their lands. Issawiya looks like the typical impoverished village in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. But it’s not– its residents pay taxes like Israeli citizens and live only a 15-minute drive from downtown Jerusalem.

Like the rest of East Jerusalem, Issawiya was occupied by the Israelis in the wake of 1967 war. But even before that, residents experienced life under occupation. During the almost 20 years of Jordanian control, Mount Scopus was considered by both Jordan and Israel as a demilitarized zone, a neutral space under the United Nations control. During this time, the Israeli government managed to convince the UN, on more than one occasion, to [block] the village entrance for hours on end. Nobody was allowed to exit or enter during those periods.

Today, that entrance is an alley which borders the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus, separating the imposing building from the humble Palestinian houses. Over the years, the state of Israel has built new entrances to Issawiya, but it has also dictated its borders, setting boundaries which exclude more than 50 percent of the villagers’ lands.

The state has effectively boxed Issawiya in with the Hadassah hospital, Hebrew University, the settlement known as French Hill, and the separation wall which rises behind the village and separates the Palestinians from Issawiya from the Palestinians from Anata and from the Shoafat refugee camp. And, finally, at the other end of Mount Scopus, the military base built by the Israelis five years ago.

The residents of Issawiya are not harassed by settlers and do not suffer the systematic confiscation of houses by the Israeli government as is the case in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan. But they, too, struggle to go about their lives. For example, a permit for a three-storey house can cost up to 150 thousand dollars. For those unable to raise the whole amount, the only option is to build something illegally and then face eternal suits, fines, and, sometimes, demolition.

The difficulty in building is also reflected in the meager number of educational institutions and absolute lack of medical facilities. According to Fatah’s local leader, Mohammed Abu Humus, about 70 per cent of the local children must look for an opening in the primary schools at neighboring villages.

Issawiya has no secondary school and so all children must be enrolled elsewhere. The average daily cost, including public transportation and food is around 15 shekels per child. Monthly, the cost per child rises to 330 shekels.

These costs should be added to the basic expenses each family has in taxes. As Jerusalem residents, the inhabitants of Issawiya pay their taxes like Israeli citizens, although garbage collection is inadequate and despite the fact that the village’s sewage system doesn’t work properly. Additional sewage from Hadassah hospital and Hebrew University flows through the village’s cracked alleys, adding to the stench of garbage piles.

The Israeli government has recently ordered the confiscation of 732 dunams on the slope of Mount Scopus, which stands on one side of the village. While Israeli officials say that it will be a national park, the Palestinian inhabitants who have already lost more than 50 per cent of their lands since the Israeli occupation began in 1967, suspect that the state has different plans for the area.

“We will probably have a settlement there in the near future,” Abu Humus says.

December 19, 2011 - Posted by aletho | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism