Everybody to his cage, quietly
By Amal Nashashibi

This Week in Palestine

Issue No. 87, July 2005

http://www.thisweekinpalestine.com/details.php?id=1373&ed=104

Nothing is gripping about the cheerless stories I am about to tell regarding the stratagems of the Jerusalem municipality except for a brief exchange that took place in Beit Sahour in the early days of the second Intifada between a Beit Sahouri woman and an Israeli soldier. The Israeli soldier was announcing the curfew in the late afternoon hours on his loudspeaker: "Everybody to his house quickly." The lady from Beit Sahour asked, "Are we chicken, to go to our cages so early?" The Israeli soldier repeated, "Everybody to his cage immediately." The clairvoyant lady from Beit Sahour predicted our present state of affairs like the oracle on the mountain.

Indeed, milady, every one of us is driven every afternoon to his cage by one Israeli soldier or another. Your cage and my cage extend all over Palestine. Outside our cages we are trespassing on the "land of Israel." My dear lady, nothing could have been more succinct than your brief exchange with that Israeli soldier. Nothing could have been more prophetic.

Last year the Jerusalem municipality disclosed a town planning scheme for occupied East Jerusalem that would legalize the outright confiscation of 38.8% of East Jerusalem’s lands in order to use them for "public purposes," for the sole benefit of the Jewish people. These lands had been frozen by municipal planners previously, either as green zones or open spaces, to prevent Palestinians from building their houses on them, refusing to issue building licenses in these areas and demolishing houses that Palestinians built on them with a free hand. The freezing of these lands created circumscribed Palestinian enclaves, which are separated from each other by huge swatches of lands that were kept purposely vacant until now. But through the town planning scheme it would soon become a reserve for Jewish settlements and publicly purposed Jewish institutions. It is worthwhile to point out that 35% of the land within municipal borders in East Jerusalem had been confiscated by the government for undisclosed public purposes since 1967 and was turned swiftly into Jewish settlements thereafter. Fourteen percent of the land has been used for huge roads that connect the settlements together. From a 100% Palestinian ownership of the land in 1967, presently less than 12% is allocated for the Palestinians, of which 4.7% is blocked for public purposes (its use is determined by the municipality) and only 7.3% is left for the Palestinians to live on.

Milady, this area will be turned by the town planning scheme into cages. But, it grants us so many cages. My memory fails to recall how many. I can count some: Jabal El-Muqabber, Silwan, Issawiyyeh, Shu'fat, …19 in all. But, you know, a man with a round hat in the municipality decided that the cages are too big for us; the municipality has a quota for how many should be kept in one cage. So, he ordained that some of the space should be deleted. He is starting in the Silwan area. He is a clever man and is surrounded by wise guys who know Arabic. For 'Silwan' means 'reconciliation' in Arabic. So he wants the people there to be reconciled with an alternative cage. He is so generous; he wants the Silwanis to move to the Shu'fat Refugee Camp where he will lavish on them a bigger, multi-storey cage. But, unfortunately, the Shu'fat Camp will be cut off by a big fence he and his brilliant colleagues at 'Animal Farm' are building for us.

The big man in the municipality thinks that Shu'fat, the beautiful suburb we built after we lost our homes in West Jerusalem, is in the way of a "light train" that has to transport his friends from Pisgat Zeev to West Jerusalem lightly and swiftly. So he is cutting the cage in two by train tracks. We will have East Shu'fat and West Shu'fat. In his great magnanimity, he even offered the Mosque keepers in Shu'fat a permit to enlarge its area so we could pray there instead of at Al-Aqsa Mosque. But, unfortunately, the Mosque now is on the West Side and will be presumably cut off from the East Side by the train which will be encaged in a tall, wired fence so his friends will travel safely.

I am sure you have heard of Jabal El-Muqabber. It is close to Beit Sahour. By a miracle, the Israeli mayor decided to keep it within municipal borders, although it is filled with 'us.' But, you know, he and his brilliant urban planners have kept the people from building on their own land in this area since 1967. The town planners made a plan for the area and lavishly painted the map green around Jabal El-Muqabber so our people will enjoy the greenness of our land. But I do not understand how these planners see, because the land is yellow and arid in that area. But, you know, with the new Town Plan, the planners’ vision was rectified and because of this sudden clarity of vision they are going to build two Jewish settlements in the "green zones." I am so glad that these planners regained their vision, because previously they saw a forested area in Jabal Abu Ghneim as barren land and built a huge settlement on it. They call it Har Homa. I am sure you can see it from your window. The head engineer at the municipality visited the people of Jabal El-Muqabber many times and told them to rejoice because they will now have permits to build four stories. They are still wondering where they will build them.

But, you know, our people are clever. They have heard the story of the Beit Hanina "popular committee" people who, after the government expropriated 4,400 dunams [1,100 acres] of their land to build the Pisgat Zeev Jewish colony, were promised, if they acquiesce, licenses to build 18,000 housing units. Their compliance was not rewarded, because the number was scaled down considerably. And they are granted the permits in bits every year. It will take 50 years to obtain the last license.

And, you know, the people from Jabal El-Muqabber cannot come to the Old City to shop or pray, because for two years now the municipality has been operating a huge tow truck against "foreign cars" in the vicinity of the Old City. There is no place for parking. The municipality painted all the sidewalks red and white. The Jabal El-Muqabber ladies have to go shopping in Israeli malls in West Jerusalem. And you know, a huge mosque was built in Jabal El-Muqabber in an area where building houses was strictly forbidden. And it was not demolished!

There is so much to tell you about this great Town Planning scheme in Jerusalem. It is bigger and better than anybody can fathom. You know, these genius planners want to modernize the Old City. But they have a problem. They have to confiscate land to do so and to demolish old buildings. So they ingenuously came up with a formula. They saw that the Old City is layer upon layer of property and no one can determine in which layer and at which time he owned property in the Old City. They also saw that the same formula does not apply to the Jewish Quarter. I am so glad it did not, because my family owns a lot of property there.

Do not falter, milady, or let your heart fall to the ground from hearing about our Jerusalem, for Dame [Condoleezza] Rice came to the coop in Ramallah recently, then went to the coop keeper and asked him nicely to let us trespass a little so we will not lose our waistlines from being fed in confinement. She even asked the keeper to improve the feed. The United Nations may be instructed by her to add additives to our food. Some chemicals will not harm us in the short run, you know.
Amal Nashashibi is a resident of Jerusalem.