october 2004
By
Akiva Eldar
The aroma of the coffee drew us to the Peace Minimarket,
in D'hiyat el Salaam, the Peace neighborhood in the
southwest corner of Anata. It's a small town in East
Jerusalem that was annexed in 1967, making everyone who
lived there residents of "united Jerusalem,"
with blue ID cards that allow them to vote in municipal
elections and travel freely throughout the country.
Behind the stand, Marwan Hilwe was pouring coffee beans
into the electric grinder. Yes, of course he had heard
about what happened in the neighborhood on the night
between Monday and Tuesday, August 30-31. Marwan and his
old father were among the men of the neighborhood, aged
16-80 who were called out of their beds at two in the
morning.
Before they were taken to the Border Police base not far
from the neighborhood, the policemen, armed with search
warrants, conducted searches of the bedrooms and closets.
To not leave the bewildered children at home alone, the
Border Police left the women alone, but they promised
that when they returned - and it would be soon - anyone
without a blue ID card, men or women, would be arrested
and interrogated.
Yasser Salame, 32, is also a resident of D'hiyat al
Salaam, the peace neighborhood. He makes his living as a
clerk in a Palestinian Authority office in Ramallah. He
spent the night at the Border Police base together with
Marwan, and another 80 men and teens from the
neighborhood.
In the morning, to be allowed to go home, he signed a
document affirming he knows that he lives in his home
illegally, and that he knows he is forbidden to sleep
there without getting an overnight pass from the Israeli
authorities, a pass that is practically impossible to get
under the current circumstances.
The Hilwe and Salame families, and the rest of the people
in their beds illegally, cannot present blue ID cards.
Many have tried for years to get their cards from the
Interior Ministry, to no avail. Israeli authorities, as
is well known, do not encourage Palestinian
"immigration" to the capital.
Who cares?
Another document, for example,
authorization of ownership of land, as in the case of the
Hilwe's, does not pass muster for the authorities. Nobody
cares they bought the land on which their home and
grocery is located, in 1964. The only date that matters
for the Israeli government is June 1967 and then, the
Hilwe family was living on the eastern side of the
municipal boundary that Israel arbitrarily drew, about
300 meters away from their current home.
Nor does a collection of paid city tax (arnona) bills
help, as in the case of the Salame family, whose
forefathers settled in the neighborhood hundreds of years
ago. When the IDF entered the neighborhood in 1967,
Nahala Salame's husband was in Amman. The frightened
woman took her children and hurried away from the
isolated house on the edge of the neighborhood to
relatives who lived closer to the center of the
neighborhood.
The Jerusalem city hall spokesman:
"It is known that winning a Jerusalem residency
status is highly desirable among residents of the
territories. In recent years we've found that many pay
city taxes to try to get Israeli residency. Illegals in
the city, who claim to be legal residents, can work to
prove their claims and rights, through all avenues,
including the legal avenue, and certainly if they have
been in the city for generations."
Amir Cheshin, who for years was the advisor on Arab
affairs to the mayor of Jerusalem, knows a thing or two
about the chances of an Anata resident getting Israeli
residency papers. He has been struggling for years to
legalize the status of two families from the area, who
found themselves in the middle of Pisgat Ze'ev. Whenever
they go to the grocery store they end up getting fined
for being in Israel illegally.
Attorney Jawad Bulos, who represented some Anata
residents who wanted Jerusalem residency status, says he
has come across cases of houses in which one room is
registered as being inside Jerusalem's municipal
boundaries and another room, or the stairwell, is inside
the West Bank.
Illegals at home
Ibrahim Salame, son of Nahala, who lives in the
Palestinian side of Anata, says that he knows a family in
which the three children have blue ID cards, so their
parents can get National Insurance Institute allotments,
but three others have the orange ID cards of the
territories, and are considered illegals in their own
home.
Salame, just back from a conference in Jordan of Israelis
and Arabs discussing peace and security issues, adds that
since the establishment of the PA, and more so since the
intifada, Palestinians who want a Hebrew identity card
and identity are not looked on favorably. He said many
have given up the struggle. All he wants is for the
authorities to leave his mother and brothers Yasser and
Anwar alone.
The Border Police, which recently was given security
responsibility for the neighborhood by the army, says
that according to the instructions they received, those
who do not have blue ID cards or permits to be in Israel,
are to be considered criminals. Anything else is not in
their purview. The commander of the Jerusalem regiment
says they will be returning to Anata soon.
The effort to shove the residents of Anata's D'hiyat al
Salaam out of their neighborhood could give the wrong
impression that it is a luxury neighborhood. If Jeremiah
the prophet were to suddenly drop into his birthplace,
biblical Anata, he would have more than one reason to
rage with anger at the authorities.
Like Afghanistan
Architect Simon Kube says that not long ago he invited
four senior city hall officials to tour the village.
"I swear to you that they did not believe we were in
Jerusalem," he said. "And no wonder. It is more
reminiscent of Afghanistan than of a neighborhood in a
modern state."
In their defense, the Israeli authorities could claim
they don't distinguish between the neighborhoods in
Israel and those in the eastern part of the neighborhood,
which is under PA jurisdiction. There's the same
crumbling roads that were once paved with asphalt, the
same garbage piled up by the sides of the roads, and the
same remnants of sidewalks lacking any shade or
landscaping.
Thirty-seven years of "unification" were
apparently not enough for the authorities to prepare a
zoning plan for what remains of Israeli Anata. Kube says
he was promised a zoning plan would be brought in the
coming weeks to the District Planning Commission.
Barely a little more than 500 dunam remains for the
10,000 residents of the neighborhood.
The 33,000 dunam from Kfar Adumim in the southeast to
Pisgat Ze'ev in the northwest, belonged to Anata before
Israel cut the neighborhood in half and annexed what was
left over. Some 20,000 dunam, mostly "state
land" was expropriated for Maale Adumim, Kfar
Adumim, and other little settlements in the area as well
as roads and a military base.
The residents, as opposed to the land, were left outside
Jerusalem, but caught in an enclave surrounded by Israeli
settlements. Their farmland gone, they were forced to
look for work inside Israel. The closure policies turned
most of them into unemployed people. Border Police are
stationed at the checkpoint at the western entrance to
D'hiyat el Salaam, meaning inside Israeli East Jerusalem.
Only holders of blue ID cards and a lucky few who have
work permits, are entitled to cross that checkpoint.
Since Israel put limits on how long
Jerusalemite-Palestinians have to fulfill their right to
return to the city, hundreds of families from villages in
the area have taken up residents in D'hiyat el Salaam.
Without land zoned for residential construction, new
buildings have cropped up in every alley, including six
and seven story buildings. With no zoning plan, all are
illegal construction.
The enormous population growth, particularly of young
people, has worsed the crowding in the classrooms. In the
mornings, hundreds of children trying to get to school
congregate at the checkpoints. Officially, all those
children are Jerusalemites. They are sent to schools in
Shuafat and other neighborhoods. Hundreds of children
crowd into the girls' school in Anata, where there are 50
and more girls per class.
According to the proposed separation fence route, the
fence will strangle both parts of Anata. From the west, a
checkpoint on the way into Israel, from the east, a wall
on the way to the West Bank. If the residents don't try
their luck with the High Court of Justice, the wall will
eat up the last of the land they have left for any
growth. On the other hand, if the fence is moved toward
the West Bank, it will be at the expense of the
Palestinian state that might yet be established one day.
Ibrahim Salame says the residents have a split
personality, "between the daily interests and the
national interest."
Palestine
In her soil I wish to bury myself
so I could feel the energy
of the souls whose blood
was shed while fighting for
my freedom and justice
I want to walk her lands that were demolished
and as I feel the wind passing by
all I hear are the sounds of cries and screams
of those who were massacred
but you still feel their sense of pride and hope
Al Quds
The heart of Palestine
I wish to take small steps
in this holy land
so as each step I would take
I would feel the presence of
hope and peace
Jenin
A refugee camp
where many innocent men, women and children
were burned and some buried alive underneath
their own homes
where many stood proud
and fought the tanks and missiles
until the very end
Nablus
An occupied city
where everyday a curfew is set
occupation has risen
yet the only thing that stood high
was the Palestinian flag and the
spirit of the people
Biet Jala
As its neighboring cities sit and watch
Israeli soldiers, without hesitation
Shooting randomly at anyone and anything that
stood in their way
where our Fourth of July
has become their early death
Gaza
Where children still continue to smile and laugh
Even under times of casualty,
And even though they live under fear and hate
it is freedom and justice they wish to see
Dier Yassin
A history of a stolen land
And when I begin to reminisce about it
My heart begins to cry
For its return
Ramallah
We know it for its famous song, "Wein a
Ramallah"
Which reminds us of our Palestinian heritage and pride
Al Khalil
Where bullets of settlers may kill the souls of our true
soldiers,
But will not kill the spirits of the Palestinian people
Who will continue on their footsteps
Beit La7em
Where the church of nativity was once under seize,
Where many cried out to the world that they will
Never forsake their holy church
Qalkeelya
Where many refuse to be victims in their own land
And they are terrorists only because they refuse
To put their hands up and surrender to Israeli soldiers
Palestine
A state with people who have hopes and dreams
Who breathe justice and dream freedom
Where children are born without a homeland
but the homeland is born within that child
An occupied state, where the Palestinians will
continue fighting until Palestine becomes a state
Where soldiers are born
And heroes die
Where beautiful olive trees are planted. A famous
Palestinian poet once said, "If the olive tree knew
the hands that planted them, their oil would have
Become tears."
"Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past
has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought
us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won."
Freedom, peace and justice in Palestine
Poem by Amany Hajyassin© - FaLasteenArabiya@aol.com
Don't Forget
by Yahya Abdul
Rahman
Don't forget Qibya
Don't forget Jenin
Don't forget Sabra / Shatila
Or the murder of Shiekh Yassin
It's been said by some he's a man of peace
But in fact the "Bulldozer" is a destructive beast
He killed our people
He robbed our lands
And history testifies he has blood on his hands
We will not forget
In our memories these facts will burn
And soon we will exercise our right of return
by Yahya Abdul Rahman© - Sept 17, 2004
Song of Jenin
Not enough tears
on earth
to wash away the blood
Not enough blood on earth
to wash away the pain
Not enough faith on earth
to take away my shame
Pain in my heart
too hard to bear
Shame in my heart
for when I looked..
my brother was not there
I held up my head in pride
When the soldiers came
They never broke the man inside
Never flinched in pain,
never gave up my pride
I fought In Allah's name
For brotherhood I would have died
Couldn't you hear the cries
Couldn't you feel the pain
Didn't you realize
The butcher was back again
Fought a tank with a stone
But never thought I'd fight alone
Pain in my heart
to hard to bear
Shame in my heart
for when I looked..
my brother was not there
Did you hear me call your name
I tried to hold my ground
But my brother never came
No enemy cuts so deep
As when brother watches brother
be slaughtered like a sheep
what no gun could ever do
You have done to me
I have lost much faith in you
and my heart will never be
whole or happy or healed
Until Palestine is free
Until Islam
sees unity
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Submitted April 11, 2002 by Indira Rai-Choudhury©, Esq, Attorney at Law: Profsnoop@aol.com